[ad_1]
Sprint stages are few and far between in this year’s Tour de France, but Caleb Ewan seemed to comprehensively confirm that he is the fastest man in this year’s race with victory on stage 3 at Sisteron. He zigzagged around his competitors before passing Sam Bennett (Deceuninck Quick-Step) in the final 50 meters, without much support in the final stages in what was a technical and chaotic sprint straight into the headwind.
The Australian now has four stage wins on the Tour, but it was his dominant speed in this sprint that will cement his position as number one. Ewan said after the victory that he wanted to show that last year’s results were no fluke, and this victory certainly does, if there was any doubt.
It was a tough sprint, and both Sunweb and NTT couldn’t take advantage of their superior numbers before the final kilometer. Perhaps, if you have as much speed as the Aussie clearly has, a great exit gear isn’t a necessity. This is useful considering that Lotto Soudal is already down to six men after the retirements of Philippe Gilbert and John Degenkolb. Ewan stayed with Jasper De Buyst to guide him, whom he managed to lose within the messy last mile anyway.
Today’s victory was like a work of art, as it came from far behind, dodging its competitors and closing in on the barriers before going through the middle past Bennett. Peter Sagan (Bora Hansgrohe) could have closed the door on him, but he didn’t, allowing Ewan to rush forward, leaving his competitors behind as if they weren’t there. It was like watching Messi in a labyrinthine dribble, since once he got going he never seemed to hesitate. Shorter than the Argentine footballer, Ewan finished in a way that would have made Messi proud, overtaking the other sprinters as if they were slowing down. It was the kind of route to the line that a normal rider couldn’t do at 20km / h, let alone more than triple that speed and under pressure from a Tour de France group finish.
The result was both Ewan’s positioning and speed. Ewan bet by sitting far back, he said that after 1km to go he leaned back to save his legs as much as possible, which was risky in a sprint, but also crucial in a headwind. Anyone who got to the front too early (see Sagan) would likely run out of speed. Ewan wasn’t even in the TV shot with 200m to go, he was so far behind, but he seemed to explode out of nowhere, through the tiniest gaps, around the barrier, then in front of Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) and Sagan. If he had left it a second later to leave, that gap between the barriers would have closed and Bennett would have won.
Ewan has been tipped for success on the Tour since before his professional career actually began. He had to wait for his debut though, and when he finally got off to a long-awaited start last year, it looked like Ewan would be almost a man, with four top-three in the first week but no wins. He eventually sealed his authority in the race with a victory on stage 11 in Toulouse and once the genie was out of the bottle, it could not be stopped. He won the last two sprint stages of the race, including the big one on the Champs Elysees.
Ewan is often compared to Mark Cavendish for his height and position on the bike, and the 26-year-old has the confidence and power to live up to that comparison. At just 1.65 meters, his diminutive stature also means that, like Cavendish, he should be less affected by a headwind, like Sisteron’s, which would have had a bit more of an impact on a sprinter with a larger frame like Bennett. .
That does not deny that there is no great power in Ewan’s small body. There’s something animal about his run, the way he ducks his head and steps on the pedals. Watching Ewan move around his competitors, leaving Sagan as if he had stopped in his tracks, it’s hard to argue against Ewan having the speed to outrun the rest, something to keep in mind in the few remaining sprint days. on this year’s Tour.
As part of our summer sale A subscription to Procycling magazine currently costs £ 5 for the first five issues (UK offer only), that is, just £ 1 per issue. After the first five numbers, you’ll pay £ 17.52 each quarter.
