Beijing-bound Ewan: I think I will be a pure sprinter

Caleb Ewan went into the U23 World Championships road race as the big favourite but had to settle for second behind solo winner Sven Erik Bystrøm. The Australian now turns his attention to the Tour of Beijing where he will be the protected Orica-GreenEDGE sprinter and despite his versatile talents, he expects to become a pure sprinter in the future.

After his fourth place on the harder course in Florence, Caleb Ewan was regarded as the big favourite for the U23 Worlds. His Australian team had full confidence in their fast finisher and worked on the front all day to set Ewan up for a sprint finish.

In the end, they came up short as they had burnt their matches too early, meaning that they had no left to bring late attacker Sven Erik Bystrøm back. Ewan easily won the sprint for second but had to settle the runner-up spot.

Praising his team’s excellent performance, Ewan was proud that his team had backed him. Robert Power was saved for the final climbs and was part of the late chase group that tried to bridge the gap to Bystrøm.

Ewan had no regrets about the tactics that saw his teammate attack in the finale.

“It took the pressure off me,” he told CyclingQuotes after the race. “It wasn’t just all me. If I stuffed up, it wasn’t just race over. It was good to have one up there who could win the race if it got too hard for me.”

Ewan has been riding as a stagiaire for Orica-GreenEDGE in the second part of the season but has only done one race for the team, the RideLondon Classic. Having done the Tour Down Under with the national team earlier this year, he will get another taste of WorldTour racing when he joins the team for the Tour of Beijing before making the jump to the pro ranks in 2015.

In the Tour Down Under, Ewan started strongly by sprinting to a podium spot in the pre-race criterium but a crash in stage one meant that he was never a contender in the actual race. Nonetheless, he goes into the Chinese race with lots of confidence.

“If I can hold my form [I am confident]” he said. “It’s hard to really peak for a race like I have now and hold it. But it’s not far away. It’s just hard to hold it up there. I could go there with really good form or I might have plateaued and go down a little bit. If I am going well, I have a really good chance. We have a good team.”

Orica-GreenEDGE haven’t announced their roster yet but Ewan confirmed that he will be the protected rider for the sprint stages. Part of the reason for that confidence was the great showing in the RideLondon Classic. In that race, he made it into a very strong breakaway with the likes of Philippe Gilbert and Ben Swift before he got dropped close to the finish.

“Obviously it wasn’t a WorldTour race but there were some really good riders there,” he said about that experience. “I didn’t expect to get into that little breakaway at the end but I had to do that. I just ran out of legs with 50km to go. I was happy about it.”

Next year Ewan will become a real pro when he joins his home team. The team is famously known for its willingness to give their youngster opportunities and Ewan expect that he will be allowed to play his own cards.

“I think they will give me my own chances in some races,” he said. “They are a great team like that. They give you the opportunity that you deserve. Obviously I will have to work sometimes. They will give me plenty of opportunities.”

Ewan is not the only promising sprinter who will join the team. Dane Magnus Cort has also signed with the Australians. In fact, the team plans to build a lead-out train around the youngsters as they announced when they confirmed the signing of Adam Blythe.

“It’s great that they are going to back such young riders and that they have a lot of confidence in us,” Ewan said. “Magnus is a great rider as well. I am really happy to have him on the team. With the guys they already have there and Blythe and Magnus coming onto the team, we are going to have a really strong lead-out train. It might not be for me, it might be for Michael Matthews or Magnus or anyone really but I think that once we have the lead-out train dialed, I think we are going to be a really, really strong team.”

Today’s performance and last year’s fourth in Florence prove that Ewan is much more than a pure sprinter. In fact, he climbs pretty well which has led to comparisons with another Orica-GreenEDGE sprinter, Michael Matthews.

However, Ewan is not too confident that he has the same kind of versatility as his compatriot and expects to turn more into a pure sprinter.

“It’s hard to tell at the moment,” he said when asked about his future characteristics. “Now I can get over the climbs like last year at the Worlds and obviously this year. It wasn’t a pure sprinter’s course and I got over it even though I was struggling.

“Obviously it’s another level and I think when they really put the hammer down on the climbs, it’s going to be really hard for me. I think I will head more towards a pure sprinter than Michael Matthews or Peter Sagan.”