‘Probably can’t wait to leave’ – What has gone wrong with Caleb Ewan at the Giro d’Italia?

ByBen Snowball

Published 18/05/2022 at 18:17 GMT

Robbie McEwen, Adam Blythe and Dan Lloyd dissected Caleb Ewan’s disappointing Giro d’Italia on The Breakaway. The Australian is without a win at this year’s race and finished on the podium just once – and even that was a heartbreaking defeat to Arnaud Demare in a photo finish. Ewan is expected to leave the race with few opportunities for out-and-out sprinters still left.

Caleb Ewan “probably can’t wait to leave” the Giro d’Italia after failing to secure a sprint victory.

The Australian (Lotto Soudal) is expected to depart the race after Stage 11 with no more guaranteed bunch sprints left on the programme.

The pre-race focus was pinned on his duel with Mark Cavendish (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), but they have just one win between them after the Manx Missile’s victory on Stage 3 in Hungary.

Cycling

'It means a lot to me' - Ewan rejoins Jayco AIUla to seal homecoming, Groenewegen extends deal

12/10/2023 at 08:33

Ewan has cut an isolated figure throughout the race, with his Lotto team-mates opting to leave him behind as he fell back on the climbs.

“I get this sense with Caleb that he’s a little demotivated. He just looks empty emotionally,” said Adam Blythe on The Breakaway.

“He’s almost worried going into the sprint – he wants to do it, but in the back of his head he’s probably thinking ‘I don’t want to mess up again, I don’t want to mess up again’. That can be hard to get yourself past once you keep failing, failing, failing.

“Everybody is watching him. It’s Caleb, we’re always going to mark him out. When you’ve got people there wanting to film you at your lowest point, it’s difficult.”

Blythe added: “It’s demoralising yesterday, to be left on his own, the No. 1 guy on that team. The whole team’s just gone ‘nah, we’re leaving you behind. That’s it, we’re done.’ It must be quite hard to take, realising your team doesn’t want to help you.

Ewan would have missed out on the sprint on Wednesday – the last pan-flat stage of this year’s race – but for the tireless efforts of team-mate Thomas De Gendt, who dragged him back into the main pack.

Even then, he was outshone in the final sprint as Alberto Dainese (DSM) took victory ahead of Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates). Ewan was fifth with Cavendish sixth.

• Prosecco corks axed from podium celebrations after Girmay’s freak eye injury
• ‘It’s not great’ – Former champion Dumoulin reveals back injury struggles

Stage 11 highlights: Emotional Dainese stuns big-hitters to take biggest win

“He’s not going to come away from this Giro d’Italia with a stage win, which he so dearly wanted,” said Dan Lloyd.

“I think there’s more than just bad legs with Caleb Ewan at the moment, judging from the fact he was on his own half an hour behind the frontrunners yesterday, without any team-mates for company.

“And then again today, it wasn’t news to anybody that there was potential for splits and crosswinds as they came out of Bologna – and yet he was just hovering at the back.

“And there was a split. He had Thomas De Gendt to bring him back but had the wind been slightly stronger, or another couple of teams really gone full gas on the front, he would have been behind for the rest of the day and not even with a chance of sprinting for the win.”

Ewan’s misery began when he crashed on the opening stage before it was compounded when he lost to Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) in the tightest of photo finishes on Stage 6.

'Three of them to the line!' - Demare takes 'messy' Stage 6 sprint ahead of Ewan and Cavendish

Such is his demise, Robbie McEwen admits it is possible Ewan could be carrying an injury from that first-day crash.

“He’s been on a downward spiral of morale from day one,” said McEwen.

“I think the thing that damaged his morale the most was losing that millimetre sprint on Stage 6 to Demare.

“From there, I think he said: ‘that’s it, I’m done, that’s as much as I’ve got’. And he’s had a couple of really tough days.

“He just didn’t have it in the legs today and I think he probably just can’t wait to get out of the Giro and refocus on the next thing.”

- - -

Stream the Giro d'Italia live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch all the action live on eurosport.co.uk.

Tour de France

McEwen’s sprinter rankings as Cavendish given 1% chance of stage win

30/06/2023 at 11:30

Cycling

Ewan 'motivated to get results in biggest races' after 'really stressful' 2022

16/01/2023 at 16:51

Tour de France

Tour on a knife edge for Vingegaard and Pogacar ahead of final week - Blazin' Saddles

18/07/2022 at 12:36