Caleb Ewan to only make INEOS Grenadiers debut in late March - "I think it can be beneficial"
Cycling
Caleb Ewan was one of the biggest stories of the winter. An unusual and complicated chapter has now been left behind however and with INEOS Grenadiers he is looking for a fresh start, many changes and a different program to get him back to his winning ways.
“You always want to be at your best, you always want to win more," the Australian said in a video shared by the British team on his adaptation. "The last few years haven’t been great so I hope this year that I can come back to where my best was and win the races that I was winning when I was at my best.”
His departures from Lotto was not the best, and upon returning to Team Jayco AlUla the situation didn't get any better. He won the Australian criterium national championships, the first stage of the Tour of Oman, the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon and opening day of the Vuelta a Burgos. By no means a dry season, but not what the Australian team hoped for.
However behind the scenes the feelings were likely not the best either, and his two-year contract was ultimately broken - most likely as there were teams interested in signing the sprinter. No transfer came to be, and on the 1st of January, without announcement or explanation, his name was removed from the team website. His departure was later confirmed, and his transfer to INEOS Grenadiers came to be.
It's a one-year deal, but the British team has put in trust, as they were also looking for a sprinter after a few rough years. It's a good match. But Ewan will only start his season at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in late March: "I’ve still got quite a bit of time before my first race so it kind of gives me time to really build up properly. I’m excited, it should be a good year.”
“I think the first few months will be a lot about building, probably similar to what guys were doing in December I’m probably doing now. So I’ll start the season a little bit later which is a little bit different for me, usually I start kind of early in Tour Down Under so I think it will change my season a little bit, starting later, but I think it can be beneficial as well," he explains.
Most likely, due to the lack of direction throughout the winter, there weren't specific training blocks, but the British team is not looking to put him on the road prematurely, but instead to get all the details in order. Ewan however won't just be following what he's been doing in the last few years, it seems...
Mehdi Kordi, Ewan's new coach, is looking to right away implement changes for the 'Pocket Rocket' which have an interesting potential: “What I am looking to do differently with Caleb is trying to introduce the track again. It was something he was very good at as a junior, hasn’t done since and I want to introduce that back to see if we can get that edge."
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#NewProfilePic incoming 📸
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) February 13, 2025
Looking good @CalebEwan! pic.twitter.com/zbSOhmeZMk
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- ugh. slice and dice this any way you like. if you’re one of the belgians TRYING to believe wout is going to be in the fight at de ronde and roubaix, this is an ice cold dose of reality. my opinion is that nobody — ESPECIALLY his own team — should have been fanning any expectations of wout at this point after what he’s endured.OCexile02-04-2025
- I guess when you’re high, you don’t (need to) focus on anything ;-)Mistermaumau02-04-2025
- True but things also change, Primoz will get older, Remco crashes, MJ isn’t peaking yet and people can improve their weaknesses faster than others improve their strengths, cf MVDP climbing, JV TTing.Mistermaumau02-04-2025
- Sorry, yeah doesn’t look great but it seems all the recent context gets completely ignored in order to make a big story out of this. Honestly, did anyone at this point really expect Wout to suddenly have recovered all his missing form? Respect to Powless but he’s no nobody, his 2022-2023 presaged something like this. Yes they messed up but it also nearly worked, impossible to know how good your opponent is going to be in such a situation unkess it’s an in form Pog or MVDP. I’d not see this as a disaster but a really bad call, there are positives, they distanced a very strong 2nd group (Mads might be saving himself though) and Wout was very close to a place he’s not heen in a long time. I’d call that progress. Only a few meters would have led to completely different headlines. Why make everything so boack and white? Wout obviously understands and it is in part everyone putting all that pressure on him that led to him making a bad call. That said, had he let his mates go for the win (no guarantee either) héd have received different criticism.Mistermaumau02-04-2025
- Pogi is just had 9 days of racing.
James2631802-04-2025 - I’d advise doing brain scans during max efforts, you never know, he may be having micro blackouts without realising it at the time and with a crash you tend not to remember it after either. Like when you nod off a split second while driving, or realise you can’t remember any details from the last few km.Mistermaumau02-04-2025
- I can't believe what I just saw. Reminds me of Ian Stannard beating 3 Quickstep riders in Omloop. Not sure what's going on with Wout. Maybe just needs more time, but he has not looked great since that Vuelta crash.Pedalmasher02-04-2025
- They wanted Wout to win so they chose a losing tacticsvappaxbipmv02-04-2025
- Well that sure didn't look good for Visma. After all that. Wow.RidesHills02-04-2025
- I disagree. Jorgensen has a worst TT than Remco or Roglic, on any terrain, and is worse in the mountainsvappaxbipmv02-04-2025