{"id":1312531,"date":"2019-07-17T14:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T20:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/a-long-wait-but-finally-a-tour-win-for-sprint-prodigy-ewan\/"},"modified":"2019-07-17T14:52:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T20:52:00","slug":"a-long-wait-but-finally-a-tour-win-for-sprint-prodigy-ewan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/a-long-wait-but-finally-a-tour-win-for-sprint-prodigy-ewan\/","title":{"rendered":"A long wait, but finally a Tour win for sprint prodigy Ewan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Australia’s Caleb Ewan, left, and Netherlands’ Dylan Groenewegen crosses the finish line during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 167 kilometers (103,77 miles) with start in Albi and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Ewan won the stage. (AP Photo\/Christophe Ena)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

TOULOUSE, France \u2014 A bit more than a year ago, Caleb Ewan was devastated to be left out of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

The Australian sprinter had to watch cycling\u2019s biggest race on TV after finding out at the last minute that his Mitchelton-Scott team was placing all its bets on Adam Yates in the fight for the yellow jersey, and would leave Ewan at home.<\/p>\n

A year later, Ewan earned his first Tour victory by edging a close sprint on Stage 11 in Toulouse on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was ready for the Tour three of four years ago, I always wanted to go straight to the top races,\u201d said Ewan, whose daughter was born just before the race started. \u201cI\u2019ve been held back, I finally got my chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ewan switched teams to Lotto-Soudal this season to replace veteran German sprinter Andre Greipel, and the ambitious youngster was, at last, promoted to a team leader role this summer in France.<\/p>\n

But the pressure was big on Ewan, a winner of 36 professional races \u2014 including stages at the Spanish Vuelta and Giro d\u2019Italia.<\/p>\n

After coming close in previous stages with three third-place finishes and a runner-up spot, he finally delivered by edging one of the peloton\u2019s fastest men. The 25-year-old Australian beat fellow sprinter Dylan Groenewegen by a tire\u2019s width and was awarded the victory after photo finish. Elia Viviani placed third ahead of three-time world champion Peter Sagan.<\/p>\n

Ewan perfectly timed his effort after Groenewegen launched his effort on the left side of the road. Ewan took the wheel of his Dutch rival and pipped him to the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was super hectic,\u201d said Ewan, who has now completed wins at all three Grands Tours. \u201cI ended up in Groenewegen\u2019s wheel coming out of that corner. It\u2019s a hard thing being with Dylan and I knew it was not going to be easy to beat him. I felt I should let him get a bit of a gap so I could sprint in his slipstream, and I could pass him quite quick. I\u2019m happy that this time I was a few centimeters ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win also made up for having to leave Australia just after the birth of his daughter Lily. He thanked his wife for letting him go and compete in France in such circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe let me come here and leave my young baby in hospital,\u201d Ewan said. \u201cIt\u2019s the hardest thing I had to do, to come here to race and leave my daughter in hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the race heading into the Pyrenees over the next four stages, the main favorites did not take any risks Wednesday and there were no significant changes in the overall standings. Frenchman Julian Alaphillipe kept the yellow jersey, 1 minute, 12 seconds ahead of defending champion Geraint Thomas. Thomas\u2019 teammate Egan Bernal, the Ineos co-leader, remained in third place, a further four seconds behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve prepared myself for attacks to take place, whether from the favorites or other riders who want to gain time,\u201d Alaphilippe said.<\/p>\n

The coming days could be crucial in determining the next Tour champion. Following Thursday\u2019s stage and its two first-category climbs, Thomas \u2014 an excellent time-trial specialist \u2014 will have a chance to gain time on his rivals in the only individual race against the clock this year. Then it will be time for the grueling ascent of the Tourmalet \u2014the first of three finishes over 2,000 meters this year \u2014 and a final Pyrenean stage totaling more than 39 kilometers of climbing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are five big days to come, but we are up for it,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cObviously, we\u2019d love to be closer to Alaphilippe, but we are ahead the traditional GC (general classification) guys. It\u2019s hard to see how Alaphilippe will go, but Egan and I are in quite a good place. By the second rest day we will know more about who are our rivals.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia’s Caleb Ewan, left, and Netherlands’ Dylan Groenewegen crosses the finish line during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 167 kilometers (103,77 miles) with start in Albi and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Ewan won the stage. (AP Photo\/Christophe Ena)AP | AP TOULOUSE, France \u2014 A bit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 21:03:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}