Caleb Ewan let loose a roar when he crossed the end line to assert not solely his first UCI win of the season however the first victory in virtually one yr. The Australian sprinter was the quickest within the hectic bunch dash end on stage 1 of the Tour of Oman.
Ewan’s final two presences on prime of a UCI podium have been on the Van Merksteijn Fences Basic in Might 2023, and GP de Fourmies in September 2022.
“I felt good. It has been perhaps seven or eight months since my final victory, after which earlier than that, most likely one other seven or eight months. So just one win within the final most likely yr or a yr and a half, ” Ewan informed flobikes and different media on the end in Muscat.
“I wanted the arrogance and I believe it is good that my new workforce has the arrogance as properly. So nice feeling to start out like this.”
The stress to ship was constructing the 11-time Grand Tour stage winner who re-joined Crew Jayco-AlUla after a troublesome 2023. The yr seemed promising when the 29-year-old gained the Australian Criterium Championship final month however then he was struck by an sickness within the lead-up to the WorldTour opener, the Tour Down Underneath, the place his greatest inserting was fourth on stage 1.
Including to the stress is the truth that the primary Oman stage, a flat 181.5km affair, was the one likelihood for the sprinters to shine within the race.
“I’ve felt good all yr to be trustworthy and within the sprinting now, clearly, everybody’s so good that you just actually need to get it proper each time. And right now, we received it proper and pulled it off.”
The Tour of Oman can also be the primary time that Ewan raced together with his leadout man Max Walsheid who was introduced in from Cofidis to bolster the workforce’s dash prepare. The identical squad shall be taking up seven-day WorldTour race, Tirreno-Adriatico, in early March. Ewan gained a stage on the Italian stage race in 2022.
With a win beneath his belt, he’ll give attention to the remainder of the season, beginning with utilizing the hilly phases in Oman to his benefit.
“I mentioned to one among my teammates, I hope I will win right now as a result of having the burden off my shoulders within the climbs will make it loads simpler. And I believe whenever you trip round with only a bit extra confidence and simply having that stress off it is gonna make it loads simpler. And now the remainder of the race I can actually give attention to going fairly deep in a number of the phases and simply type of construct my kind.”
“This yr I actually need to come again to my greatest and hopefully that is the beginning of it.”
