When the Mitchelton-Scott team decided to leave Caleb Ewan out of their Tour de France team, they devastated the cyclist to the point that he considered missing the rest of the season. After putting in so much hard work to get ready for the pinnacle event in the cycling calendar, to be left out was a very painful blow for Ewan. What made it even worse is that Mitchelton-Scott had publicly announced that Ewan would be in the Tour de France team only to go back on that.
Ewan finishes second in Stage 1 of Tour of Britain
Now as his contract with them draws to a close, he finished second in Stage 1 of the Tour of Britain. He has now reflected on the Tour de France disappointment: “The Tour was my motivation for the year and then to miss that, it put me off a little bit. I had two options – I either could try and go for more results this year or take the rest of the year, not off but not as seriously. I think it would have been bad for my development, and my career, to really take off the rest of the year, so I still trained hard.”
It looks like Ewan has been able to channel his disappointment and come out with a big point to prove to those responsible for his omission. Adam Yates had been chosen as the rider that they wanted to concentrate their resources on for the Tour de France and it was apparent that the relationship had reached the end of the road. Caleb Ewan has now agreed to join the Lotto-Soudal team, which is reported to have been in the plans for some time and was cited as the main reason he was left out by Mitchelton-Scott.
Stage 2 starts today
Ewan was narrowly beaten by Andre Greipel, who had chased him to finish the race on 4 hrs 0 mins 54 secs. Today’s Stage 2 sees the riders make the journey from Cranbrook to Barnstaple.
