Q & A: Orica-GreenEdge fast man Caleb Ewan
Australian to have 'a good crack' against Cavendish at Tour of Turkey
As a first year professional, Caleb Ewan has plenty of eyes marking his progress that amounts to five wins this season from 19 days of racing for 2,641.9km. The 20-year-old Orica-GreenEdge rider has already won on three different continents with victory in two stages of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour in Australia, two stages at the Tour de Langkawi and the Spanish one-day race Vuelta a la Rioja.
Cort and Ewan the future of sprinting at Orica-GreenEdge
Silver medal for Ewan further confirmation of talent
Jayco Herald Sun Tour: First professional win for Ewan in Nagambie
Ewan gallops to Herald Sun Tour victory
Tour de Langkawi: Caleb Ewan takes stage and overall lead
But his year has also been a learning curve, as he told Cyclingnews before leaving his base in Monaco for the Tour of Turkey that starts on Sunday and where, for the first time, he will race the Etixx-QuickStep pair of Mark Cavendish and Tom Boonen in the bunch gallops - not to mention a bevy of other sprint stars.
RG: Each win you've had this season will have been important in its own way, but was your win in the Vuelta a la Rioja the biggest so far?
CE: Yeah … Well, I think the [two Tour de] Langkawi [stage] wins were probably bigger, but it was good to get to Europe and get a win, especially after [the Volta a ] Catalunya went so badly. It [Vuelta a la Rioja] was a relatively small race … But we went in with a really strong team … It was probably the easiest race I have won so far this year just because of how well the team rode and how strong they were.
Rupert Guinness is a sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media)
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Rupert Guinness first wrote on cycling at the 1984 Victorian road titles in Australia from the finish line on a blustery and cold hilltop with a few dozen supporters. But since 1987, he has covered 26 Tours de France, as well as numerous editions of the Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a Espana, classics, world track and road titles and other races around the world, plus four Olympic Games (1992, 2000, 2008, 2012). He lived in Belgium and France from 1987 to 1995 writing for Winning Magazine and VeloNews, but now lives in Sydney as a sports writer for The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media) and contributor to Cyclingnews and select publications.
An author of 13 books, most of them on cycling, he can be seen in a Hawaiian shirt enjoying a drop of French rosé between competing in Ironman triathlons.