Caleb Ewan sadly stepped off his bike on stage 13 of the 2023 Tour de France. After struggling for a few days and being out the back of the race on his own he decided to call it a day.
This decision led to some scathing criticism from the CEO of Lotto Dstny, Stéphane Heulot in the direction of his team's star sprinter. "You have absolutely no respect for your teammates," the CEO said to Het Nieuwsblad. He just hung his head. In a way, I can't say a good word about it. A real champion lifts his team, he doesn't do this."
Now the camp of Caleb Ewan has hit back. “The fact that you dare to say something like that publicly says more about the person who says it than about the person it's about," says the Australian's agent, Jason Bakker to Cycling Weekly. "Among other things, Heulot talked about Caleb's mindset: questioning someone's mental health like that is a very bad thing. He should apologize for that.”
“The path of a pro career is never a straight line, there are always peaks and valleys," Bakker continues. "This is a difficult time for Caleb, but he also brought a lot of great things to the team. They apparently have a short memory.”
“How can you blame Caleb for a lack of motivation, when at the beginning of this year he himself paid for his trip to the Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race to ride with the Australian team, while Lotto Dstny did not want a team to steer. In addition, he wanted to ride the Dauphiné in preparation for the Tour, but that was not granted to him either.”
“He came in better form than in previous years, but if you see that the team doesn't believe in you, it certainly doesn't make it any easier," Bakker concludes. "Caleb was the only one who could make it difficult for Philipsen, despite the injuries of his lead outs Jacopo Guarnieri and Jasper De Buyst.”
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