‘Pretty sh***y last year’: Caleb Ewan loving fresh start at Jayco-AlUla

Australia’s cycling sprint king Caleb Ewan touches on how he and former team Lotto-Dstny were getting frustrated with eachother, plus how he’s enjoying his fresh start with Jayco-AlUla.

Caleb Ewan is back where it all began in the pro ranks.

He is hoping it can get him back to being one of the best sprinters on two wheels in the world, after the two most challenging years of his career, starting with adding to his nine-stage wins in the upcoming Tour Down Under.

Much has changed since Ewan, now 29, left the team now known as Jayco-AlUla for Belgian outfit Lotto-Dstny.

“When I first got to the team I was a neo-pro so I was still learning a lot and I think I developed and learnt a lot in those first four years with them,” he said.

“And yeah I changed teams and kind of went on and won the biggest races of my career and established myself as a good sprinter and then now I see myself coming back to the team as a bit more of a leader and I think definitely if I can help some of the younger Aussies and some of the younger riders on the team as well.

“Kind of what it was like for me when I was first on the team.”

Away from Australia’s only WorldTour team, Ewan added five individual stage wins at the Tour de France to his record, as well as four stages at the Giro d’Italia - adding to existing wins at the Giro and Vuelta a Espana.

Caleb Ewan is back in great form. Picture: Con CHRONIS/The Advertiser

He also finished second in the prestigious Milan-San Remo race in 2021 - the same result he had in 2019 - as he further established himself as one of the fastest men in world cycling.

But for the last two years the results didn’t come for the Aussie pocket rocket.

And his relationship with Lotto-Dstny became strained and ultimately untenable.

This all spilt over at last year’s Tour de France when after earlier finishing second and third, despite having a compromised lead-out team, to eventual green jersey winner Jasper Philipsen the decision by Ewan to withdraw from the race on Stage 13 was met with scathing criticism from Lotto management.

Team manager Stephane Heulot said Ewan let them down and his “legs were in the brain”.

This prompted Ewan’s agent Jason Bakker to say he was “disgusted” at the comments and the references to his mental approach.

Unsurprisingly the two parted ways at the end of the season, and to say Ewan is excited about a fresh start would be an understatement.

“I think my time was definitely at an end with Lotto, I don’t think I could perform at my best with them any more,” he said.

“It kind of happens in sport sometimes you just come to the end of the road with a team and I think I just needed a change and I’m still only 29 so I think I’m not that old in cycling terms and I think I still have a lot to offer and I think Jayco is probably the team to get the most out of me now.

“It was pretty sh***y last year but I guess that is sport. Your career doesn’t always go upwards, it can be rocky at times and for whatever reason it wasn’t really working with Lotto and I anymore and we were probably frustrated at each other and that is not really the environment to do your best work in.

“So yeah I just think it came to the end of the road and I needed a change.”

But while Ewan conceded the last two years had created some self-doubt, he believed he could return to winning ways in the peloton.

“I think this year now I have done a really good block of training leading up to all the races here in Australia, I’m feeling good but you never know until you get to the start line and actually start racing how good you actually are,” he said.

“I’m confident now that my numbers and everything in training are good but we will see how we go when we start racing.

Ewan in Spain. Picture: Thomas Samson/AFP

“I don’t think I have lost much speed or anything, I still think I am in my prime years as a rider and at the Tour there were a few close calls.

“So it wasn’t like I was completely off the pace and I think even those close calls I was in an environment that wasn’t so good so getting back into a bit more a positive environment and a team that will really back me I think I can definitely get back to my best.”

This road to redemption begins in earnest at this year’s Tour Down Under, with Jayco-AlUla determined to come away from their home race with success.

They are sending a team that will have Ewan competing for the sprint finishes and fellow off-season Australian recruit Luke Plapp and last year’s runner-up Simon Yates of Britain going for the overall win.

Ewan said with him and Plapp - one of the most promising young cyclists in the country having won the last two national road race titles - coming to Jayco-AlUla in the off-season it was “almost seen as our national team” and had regained some of its Australian uniqueness in the peloton.

“I think it is nice, the team in the last couple of years probably since I left I have seen it become probably a bit more European and a lose a bit of its Australian touch,” he said.

“But being back it feels like the Australian touch is back and it is pretty similar to when I was there last time.”

Ewan will target success in the Australian summer before turning his attention to Milan-San Remo and then stage wins at the Giro.

But while the plan is to dominate the TDU, Jayco-AlUla won’t have it their own way.

Two-time world champion and fan favourite Julian Alaphilippe has declared he is coming to Australia to taste victory to kick off his 2024 season.

Ineos Grenadiers are sending a team featuring two-time world time trial champion and current world hour record holder Filippo Ganna and nine-time stage winner at a Grant Tour Elia Viviani.

Israel-Premier Tech could be one to watch with Australian Simon Clarke, Canadian Derek Gee and New Zealander Corbin Strong, while Team DSM’s Australian Matt Dinham was considered to be a dark horse but he will not take part.

In the women’s race it is set to be a battle between three former winners.

FDJ-SUEZ’s gun Australian Grace Brown returns to defend her crown, and will have the world’s seventh ranked rider in Denmark’s Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig supporting her.

Three-time winner Amanda Spratt will lead a strong Lidl-Trek outfit, while American Ruth Edwards (nee Winder) returns to the race with her Human Powered Health team.

Alexandra Manly and Georgia Baker will be among the chances from Liv-AlUla-Jayco who have named a strong team for the race.