Caleb Ewan optimistic for Grand Tour double despite setback in Turkey

The importance of Wednesday's finish was not lost on Ewan (Lotto Soudal), who talked with Eurosport prior to the start of the second stage in the 55th Presidential Tour of Turkey.

“There is a lot of history here and I will definitely take it in,” said Ewan, referring to the conclusion of Stage 2 in Eceabat on the Gallipoli peninsula, the sight where more than 63,216 Allied soldiers — including 8,141 Australians and 2,721 New Zealanders — lost their lives fighting the Ottoman Empire between February 1915 to January 1916 during World War I.

Three hours later, the 24-year-old New South Wales native showed some of that famous ‘Anzac Spirit’ and toughness by courageously remounting his bike following a nasty spill with 60 kilometres remaining in the 183.3km stage. Ewan battled back to the field thanks to teammate Enzo Wouters (GER), but was unable to seriously challenge for the stage won by previous stage winner and current race leader Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe).

“To start with I thought I had hurt my wrist, because the initial shock I couldn’t really move my fingers so much,” the 2018 Milan-San Remo runner-up told Eurosport. “I was a bit worried.

“After a while of sitting there, I could feel a bit more and once I got riding it got much better,” he continued. “But it wasn’t ideal.”

With a tenacious win on the Stirling stage at the Tour Down Under last year, and most recently Hatta Dam at the UAE Tour in February, Ewan seemingly thrives on challenging uphill finishes. However, the 2017 Giro d’Italia stage winner claims today’s technical final featuring a narrow, winding route toward a rising finish might have been realistically out of his reach despite the crash.

“I think when I’m in good form, then for sure a finish like this would be good for me,” said Ewan of the final 3km kilometres Bennett called “very difficult.”

“Coming in, we didn’t know how hard that last climb was going to be,” Ewan continued. “Usually 3k uphill to the finish is going to be too tough, but I had the team backing me.

“I got a reasonably clean run, but I think I was just a bit too far back and then I had to brake too much in the end. Once you lose that momentum, especially for a guy like me, it’s hard to kind of keep accelerating after that.”

With his first Grand Tour double looming, Ewan is not discouraged by the small mid-race setback, and is confident he is still on track to contend for the sprints at both the Giro d’Italia next month and his Tour de France debut in July.

“For sure, this is my first race coming into that block,” he explained. “Obviously, I don’t want to be at my best here because then I won’t be at my best at those more important races.

“So, I’m happy where I’m at now.”