Caleb Ewan set free 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 high of a UCI podium have been on the Van Merksteijn Fences Traditional in Might 2023, and GP de Fourmies in September 2022.
“I felt good. It has been possibly 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 instructed flobikes and different media on the end in Muscat.
“I wanted the boldness and I feel it is good that my new group has the boldness as nicely. So nice feeling to begin like this.”
The stress to ship was constructing the 11-time Grand Tour stage winner who re-joined Staff Jayco-AlUla after a troublesome 2023. The yr regarded 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 Beneath, 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 probability for the sprinters to shine within the race.
“I’ve felt good all yr to be sincere and within the sprinting now, clearly, everybody’s so good that you simply actually need to get it proper each time. And right now, we acquired it proper and pulled it off.”
The Tour of Oman can be the primary time that Ewan raced along with his leadout man Max Walsheid who was introduced in from Cofidis to bolster the group’s dash practice. The identical squad might 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 below his belt, he’ll deal with the remainder of the season, beginning with utilizing the hilly phases in Oman to his benefit.
“I stated to certainly one of my teammates, I hope I will win right now as a result of having the load off my shoulders within the climbs will make it lots simpler. And I feel once you experience round with only a bit extra confidence and simply having that stress off it is gonna make it lots simpler. And now the remainder of the race I can actually deal with going fairly deep in loads of the phases and simply form of construct my kind.”
“This yr I actually wish to come again to my greatest and hopefully that is the beginning of it.”
