Former teammate and manager of Caleb Ewan: "That wasn’t because he was an asshole or a bad person"

Caleb Ewan revealed this Tuesday that he has retired from cycling with immediate effect, following a few difficult years in the sport and an unlikely comeback with INEOS Grenadiers. After winning twice in a few weeks, the 'Pocket Rocket' decided to end a successful career, although one that was marked by plenty ups and downs as discussed by some of the biggest figures from his Lotto years.

"If he had made that decision four months ago, it would not have been a surprise to me. We also kept in touch a lot after he left Lotto and I know how difficult it was for him sometimes," former teammate Jasper de Buyst shared with Het Nieuwsblad. "But now that he has shown what he can do, his decision came as a surprise to me". Ewan raced in the Belgian team from 2019 and 2023, at the end and past the prime of his career - whilst in the latter years of the partnership, it was often not smooth sailing.

"He has had two really shitty years on a team level (he refers to 2023 and 2024, ed.). First his departure from Lotto, which he really had a hard time with. Then he moved to Jayco AlUla, but there he bumped into Dylan Groenewegen while Caleb absolutely wanted to be the first sprinter in the team," de Buyst argues. "Because the only thing that mattered to him were the big victories. Stage victories in the Tour and the Giro. He felt that that wasn't going to happen with Jayco. But that's where things went wrong and Jayco eventually terminated his contract. He was picked up by INEOS, but those two difficult years made sure that he didn't like doing it anymore".

The necessities and responsibilities of being a professional cyclist are very large and it is not easy for anyone to be able to fulfill such demands. Ewan had previously talked about how he considered retiring at the end of 2024 following his fall-out with Jayco (that was only made public when he was removed from the team's website after January 1st), and spent a few times with very few training. But after signing with INEOS Grenadiers, and winning at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali and Itzulia Basque Country, it seemed as if his career could still go further.

Marc Sergaent, former manager in the Belgian team, shares insight on the Australian: "He often gave the outside world the feeling that nothing could touch him. ‘Nobody can touch me.’ But when you were alone in the room with him, you saw that he was also just a human being with his own problems". Sergaent recalls a story from the 2021 Giro:

"Caleb was dissatisfied with his teammates. The atmosphere was completely ruined, they told me that Caleb even sat separately at dinner. When I spoke to him about it, he started spitting his bill about everything that went wrong in the race. ‘Oh, then there’s nothing else to do but change teams' I said laughing. ‘That’s right, that’s what my wife says,’ he replied. I told him that he should wait a little longer and that everything would be fine".

"You sometimes had to be strict with Caleb, but also offer a listening ear. The next morning he apologized to his teammates on the bus and expressed his confidence in them. That day he won the stage and two days later he won again. And then he was happy again. It wasn’t the only time I had to talk Caleb into it. The riders knew what time it was and would come to me straight away: ‘Did we manage to get him to turn around?"

De Buyst certainly remembers and confirms that Ewan's personality was not the easiest to handle, specially during moments of high pressure such as the Grand Tours: "Caleb has a certain self-confidence slash arrogance about him, or at least that's how he could come across, which makes people think he doesn't care about anything. But actually he's not like that at all. Caleb is an emotional person, a real family man, who is often misunderstood. He certainly has his heart in the right place. But by expressing himself in that way, it has sometimes led to conflicts". At the 2023 Tour de France, Ewan's withdrawal was also mixed with high tensions within the team as he struggled through the mountainous terrain.

"Caleb set the bar so high for himself, but he also felt so much pressure that he lashed out when something didn’t work out. And sometimes that wasn’t entirely justified. But that wasn’t because he was an asshole or a bad person," the 31-year old defends.

"He was under enormous pressure with us, because the team stood or fell with his results. That wasn’t always easy within the team and Caleb and I clashed a lot, but I still enjoyed working with him. The last six months that he was with the team were perhaps difficult. But we still get along really well and we are still good friends to this day".