Tour Down Under: Caleb Ewan takes the sprint, Richie Porte retains ochre

Caleb Ewan proved strongest in the sprint finish on Friday to win the ninth stage of his Tour Down Under career.

Lotto-Soudal rider Caleb Ewan celebrates victory in Stage 4 of the Tour Down Under on Friday. Picture: Getty Images

Anyone who has been involved in Caleb Ewan’s cycling career has their own story about where it all began — but they are all on the same page when it comes to where he is going.

The 25-year-old on Friday won his ninth stage of the Tour Down Under to continue his emergence as a force in cycling.

His Stage 4 win after 152km from Norwood to Murray Bridge on Friday was the result of several factors. The work of his Lotto-Soudal teammates to position Ewan where he needed to be, his sublime bike handling skills to navigate the technical finish, his impeccable timing of when to launch his sprint and then his brute force to win even when it looked like he wouldn’t.

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When Ewan targets a stage of a bike race he now expects, not hopes, to win it. Anything less is a disappointment: “To be honest as a sprinter if you’re not first your last. A finish like that suits me with a corner right near the finish and when it’s an acceleration to the line I knew if my legs felt good I could accelerate past them and, yeah, that’s what I did.”

The symbolism shortly after was impossible to miss as German superstar Andre Greipel — who Ewan replaced at Lotto-Soudal last year — rode past and patted him on the back in acknowledgment of his victory.

Richie Porte retained the leader’s ochre jersey with two stages remaining but had his overall lead cut by three seconds after defending champion Daryl Impey made up three seconds at the intermediate sprints on the road.

But the day belonged to Ewan who, having also won the Classic on Sunday night and Stage 2 on Wednesday, signalled the beginning of another massive season which by the end should make him one of the most recognisable athletes in Australian sport.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Ben Kersten remembers a 12-year-old Ewan riding with the Illawarra Academy of Sport — racing against guys years older. He wasn’t winning but he was toughing it out.

“He was too young to win anything but no one could shake him. He could stay with anyone, he was that tenacious,” Kersten said.

French cycling journalist Jeff Quenet hosted Ewan for three months in 2011 after Brad McGee sent the emerging star to Europe to experience the international racing scene.

Quenet took Ewan to Paris for the unveiling of the Tour de France route for the following year: “We went to the Champs-Elysees and I said ‘this is where the stage finishes’ and he said to me ‘I will win here one day’.”

That day became July 28, 2019, when Ewan raised his left index finger as a victory salute and crossed the line first on arguably the world’s biggest stage for a sprinter. The look on his face said he was shocked — but he was probably the only one.

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