Caleb Ewan wins Clasica de Almeria

Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) sprinted to victory in the Clasica de Almeria after delivering a powerful sprint to see off the challenges of Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Timothy Dupont (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) in the finishing straight.

"It's really good to hit the ground running in my first European race and it was good to have the full lead-out squad behind me today," Ewan said. "We were all a bit lost after getting caught behind a crash but once we all got back together and started the lead-out, no-one came round us and I am happy I was able to finish it off."

The Clasica de Almeria was Ewan’s first race in Europe this season, though the Australian was already off the mark for 2018 with stage victory at the Tour Down Under last month. Ewan is set to make his Tour de France debut this season, and his next competitive outing will come at the Abu Dhabi Tour from February 21.

"I haven't raced with these lead-out guys since the Tour of Britain so that's a fair chunk of time away. It is good to get the confidence back in working together and that nothing has really changed, that is what we needed going into these next big races," Ewan said.

"I felt pretty tired during the day because we did five hours training yesterday, so I didn't feel great but in the final when the adrenalin kicks in I felt alright and overall it was a good day."

The 185km Clasica de Almeria was always likely to end in a bunch finish, but that did not deter a platoon of willing escapees from trying their luck in the opening kilometres. Axel Journiaux (Direct Energie), Diego Rubio (Burgos-BH), Dries De Bondt (Vérandas Willems-Crelan), Maxim Belkov (Katusha-Alpecin), Rob Britton (Rally Cycling), Cristian Rodríguez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Marc Buades (Fundación Euskadi) forged clear shortly after the flag dropped, and they had a lead of 4 minutes by the time they hit the 20km mark.

After 50km, Mitchelton-Scott and LottoNL-Jumbo began to combine their efforts on the front of the peloton to keep the break’s advantage under control. The escapees’ buffer dropped still further on the climbs of the Collado de Lucainena, Balcón de Sierra Alhamilla and Alto de Turrillas, and they entered the final 50km with a lead of 1:30 over the peloton.

The break eventually fizzled out inside the final 30km, and though there were a few attempts at attacks on the run-in to the finish in Roquetas de Mar, the searing pace imposed by the sprinters’ teams, and LottoNL-Jumbo and Mitchelton-Scott in particular, meant that a bunch finish was inevitable.

Van Poppel was not lacking in confidence after his recent stage win at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, but there was little he could do against Ewan, who tucked into his familiar aerodynamic stance to finish off Mitchelton-Scott’s lead-out with a smart win.

Van Poppel was the best of the rest, beating Dupont to second, while Hugo Hofstetter (Cofidis) took fourth ahead of Florian Senechal (Quick-Step Floors).

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