It has been some week for Caleb Ewan. A week ago he completed his second of two Australian national titles, adding the U23 road race to his criterium win.

Now he has finished third in the People’s Choice Classic behind two of the best sprinters in the world, Greipel and Kittel, and ahead of many other good sprinters such as Viviani and Sutton.

"It was really tough today, I really had to fight for position," said Ewan, who finished fourth in the 2013 UCI U23 Road Worlds. "A lot of these Europeans don't know who I am and just think I'm a little punter coming into the race. It's natural they don't give me much respect, but now hopefully I've showed myself to them."

This was Ewan’s WorldTour debut, and he will do the Santos Tour Down Under before heading back to U23 racing before going to Orica-GreenEDGE in October, having signed a pre-contract agreement with them this winter.

"I'm actually a little bit frightened now – they're amazing, those guys," said Ewan on his WorldTour showdown with eventual winner Marcel Kittel and runner-up Andre Greipel, himself a 14-time Tour Down Under stage winner. "I tried to kick and he (Kittel) was just riding away from me. Wow – it's crazy."