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The Caleb Ewan Thread

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Re: Re:

Scarponi said:
movingtarget said:
yaco said:
As a junior in Australia, Ewan won an ITT title and was about the best climber - Allbeit that juniors are different to seniors - Ewan has shown no capacity to ride on cobbles which is a shame - Some riders just can't do it.

Good cobbles riders tend to be much heavier than Ewan though some climbers seem to do okay on them. McEwen never had much success on the cobbles either and he was bigger than Caleb. Of course it's not just about weight.
I think in McEwens book he said he didn’t really
Learn how to surf a peloton until Caden Evans showed him how, but by that time his career was already 3/4 over
You've got it back to front. Evans struggled with riding in the peloton until McEwen showed him how to read it and move up without wasting energy.
 
Re:

The Hegelian said:
With that kind of win, thoughts on Ewan going in a more puncheur direction?

Idk. I think you have to factor in that there had been no other climbs on the stage and the last climb was only a couple of hundred meters. And he was good positioned going into the climb.

Great effort that he was able to win. But I dont think he would have much success going in a puncheur direction.
 
Re: Re:

Salvarani said:
The Hegelian said:
With that kind of win, thoughts on Ewan going in a more puncheur direction?

Idk. I think you have to factor in that there had been no other climbs on the stage and the last climb was only a couple of hundred meters. And he was good positioned going into the climb.

Great effort that he was able to win. But I dont think he would have much success going in a puncheur direction.

True as that may be, he has ridden well on hilly courses before. Florence U23 WC's - a brutal circuit by any measure; I think he got 2nd or something. Has also ridden okay at the Aust nats, which is a long way from a being a sprinters parcours.

I think that if his engine grows with age, it is certainly possible. A big if though.....
 
Personally, I just wouldn't know what to say. He's a great sprinter. The best pure sprinter in my opinion right now, now that Groenewegen is not "available". I love his powerful, swift, compact style on the bike. When I saw him live last year he knocked me down with his smile.

But then he's a sprinter. His exploits are over quite fast and rarely unexpected.

This was a good Tour for him, two stage wins. I loved his win by cruising through the crowd. But the battle for green in which he did not take part (concerning the sprinter's theme) and a lot of other stories during this Tour outshone him.
He was shown a lot hanging at the back, fighting to make it over even smaller hills. Due to the nature of a bike race that took almost more time than showing him in the sprints. Also he's not easy to spot behind Roger Kluge...
In the end he made it to Paris, but although his team gave everything for him they were in some stages not the best support he could get, and so to me it feels that based on his velocity he could have won more if he had had a stronger- and by that I mostly mean a bigger - team.

The great battle for green this year almost makes you forget that this was not a race for the sprinters. Congrats to Caleb (and the other sprinters) for making it over all of those mountain tops.
 
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it appears that @yaco was right that Lotto should have pulled him out more than a week ago to prepare for the Giro. I was sure they knew what they were doing and he’d have a couple of semi rest days before giving the Champs Elysees a good go. Instead he got dropped again on the “flat” stage 19, said in an interview that he had to put real effort in yesterday to avoid the TT cut and then could neither fight for position nor properly sprint today. The guy is just cooked.
 
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Seems to have started in good form this year

EvPdTMYXAAMncT6
 
Stage 5 and already talking as if he has one foot out the Giro. I really dislike that ***

It's not like he has kept it a secret that he would leave at some point. And if he really wants to win stages in all three GTs, it makes sense to do so. I would actually not mind it if he left now and gave Oldani more chances to shine, but it will definitely not happen before stage 7 is done.
 
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Stage 5 and already talking as if he has one foot out the Giro. I really dislike that ***
With the Giro so back loaded with mountains and not having a prestige sprinters stage at the finale there is no reason for the sprinters to complete it, it is just going to make other wins much harder to come by later in the season.
At least he is honest about it
 
With the Giro so back loaded with mountains and not having a prestige sprinters stage at the finale there is no reason for the sprinters to complete it, it is just going to make other wins much harder to come by later in the season.
At least he is honest about it
All of this.

I get that the organizers like to have the GC battle go down to the finish, but if you want sprinters to stick around for 3 weeks, you have to give them a reason to stick around for 3 weeks.

It's not as if it's impossible to have selective stages that would still give sprinters/classics riders a chance in the final week, if you really must have every day be GC-relevant. Throw some gravel in there on the Wednesday, maybe a potential crosswinds stage or whatever.
 
Caleb Ewan leave GdI... If it was for me Id put a rule to remove wins from sprinters if they dont expose a good reason (injury, etc) to leave a GT.
This is another reason for me to dislike sprinters.
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1393547381765988352

Now maybe you believe that was an injury that made continuation impossible/unwise, maybe you don't. But it is very easy for a team to posit a reason for withdrawal that would evade such a rule.
 

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