IAS Graduate Caleb Ewan’s second UCI WorldTour win has sounded an ominous early season warning to the established sprint superstars of cycling. Ewan, 21, dismissed the talk claiming world class established sprinters missing from this edition of the Santos Tour Down Under had made his second stage victory, after claiming his maiden win during last year’s Vuelta a Espana, less significant. “It’s still a real quality field,” Ewan said at Lyndoch. “You know the guys that are here have all beaten (sprinters Andre) Greipel, Marcel Kittel and Cav (Mark Cavendish) so you know just because the big names aren’t here doesn’t mean it’s not superfast. “I’m happy with the fields here and I’m proud to beat these guys as well. But it’s easy to see why Ewan has been touted as being a true rival to the best sprinter in the world Mark Cavendish who competed at last weekend’s UCI track world cup in Hong Kong. Ewan, 21, claimed stage 1 of the 19th edition of the Santos Tour Down Under with his power too much on Lyndoch’s Barossa Valley Way finish line for his competitors to bear. After winning the warm up race, the People’s Choice Classic at Adelaide’s East End on Sunday Ewan burst through the pack before raising his arms in triumph. After his Orica-GreenEDGE team set him up with a near perfect lead out train before the diminutive sprinter upstaged Data Dimension’s Australian Mark Renshaw and AG2R La Mondiale’s Alexis Gougeard from France, Ewan came home with a huge head of steam in 40C heat. “It’s only my second WorldTour win so far,” he said. “They’re really different (the wins). At the time (last year in Spain) it was my first win, the grand tour my first WorldTour win and the guys that I beat are the guys that I have looked up to in the past. “That was super exciting but to be here with the home crowd was special. “It’s probably the easiest day on paper of all the (six) stages bar the last one, but they’re never really easy they were superfast and super hard.” “It’s a really proud moment for me,” Ewan said. “I’ve never led a WorldTour race before and to lead my first one in my home country is a real honour. “I need to thank Gerro for that, for sharing the team with me. If he says to the team that he just wants them to ride for him, they would have to do that.”
