Caleb Ewan: This victory gives me a really good feeling

Caleb Ewan has had an unlucky start to the season, however upon his return to competition at the Tour of Turkey he has found success, winning the opening stage but also today's hilltop finish in Eceabat.

“Of course, it gives me a really good feeling to immediately win during my return to racing. To be honest, I didn’t feel too good at the start of this tough stage. But that seemed quite logical as I recently started training again. As the stage progressed, I started feeling better and even on the climb I still felt reasonably comfortable," Ewan said in a post-race interview.

Despite the wind blowing quite hard during the day and the uphill ramps to the line, a bunch sprint couldn't be prevented. Lotto Soudal were in the perfect position throughout the climb, and with the support of Harm Vanhoucke and Jasper de Buyst, Ewan was put into the perfect position for the sprint and confirmed his current run of form by holding off the front in the final sprint against Danny van Poppel and Jasper Philipsen. “With several crashes on the descent and plenty of attacks it was a chaotic final but the guys did an amazing job to make it a sprint in the end," he said.

He concluded: "In the really fast closing kilometres we just knew we had to be in front. Michael Schwarzmann and Jasper De Buyst just executed the plan to perfection. Jasper made a huge effort to drop me off exactly where I needed to be. Then it was a case of launching my sprint and keep it till the line. This victory gives me – after missing Milan-Sanremo and some Belgian Classics – a really good feeling. The Tour of Turkey is a race I really love and it’s important to gain confidence here towards the Giro. Today was a first success but there will be plenty of opportunities to come”,