This Monday, Australian Caleb Ewan finished second at the first stage of the Tour of Turkey in Alanya.  The neo-pro rider told Velonews about his childhood hero Mark Cavendish. He hopes to learn a lot while riding with the British sprinter.

“I’ve raced guys like [André] Greipel and [Marcel] Kittel before, but this is my first time to race Cav,” said Ewan, who finished third to the pair at the People’s Choice Classic prior to the Santos Tour Down Under last year. “He was like an idol for me growing up, so to be here racing against him is pretty exciting, but obviously I’m here to try to beat him.”

He explained his sprint on this stage. “Just before we turned onto the main road we were a bit back and it was really hectic with lots of close calls,” Ewan told VeloNews after the stage. “I just said to the guys we will go to the front and if we run out of guys, Adam knows what he’s doing so he can drop back and slot in somewhere, as I felt it was better to be there than lost throughout the bunch. But we ended up losing each other anyway.”

“It was just really hectic with lots of people doing silly stuff and risking it all to get Cav’s and Greipel’s wheel,” the 2014 UCI under-23 road worlds silver medalist said. “It wasn’t a great finish and it wasn’t very safe — it’s not good to race like that.”