"I was in a pretty sh*tty situation with my team" - Caleb Ewan explains departure from Jayco and joining INEOS
Cycling
The 2025 winter saw only a few top transfers from riders who were at the end of their contract, but plenty who broke their contract. Tom Pidcock, Maxim van Gils... And Caleb Ewan, who explains a part of why he left Team Jayco AlULa, joined INEOS Grenadiers and what it means for his career.
"There was a while where I didn’t really know what I wanted to do to be honest," Ewan admitted in the Geraint Thomas Cycling Club podcast. "That was just because I was in a pretty shitty situation with my team. So that was all going on and I honestly did not know what my future was going to hold, it was a very stressful time for me".
Ewan had a contract until the end of 2025, but there was an agreement to end it in 2024. The exact reason why has never been made public. Behind the scenes, it has been rumoured that a World Tour team had been interesting in buying out his contract, but then the agreement fell through. Ewan, who wasn't on best terms with the team, then saw his contract fall apart with no team for 2025.
“I didn’t know what was going on for I would say the past three months, four months. So it was pretty hard to know what I was training for. And I would say I’m a very goal focused person, so when I had no goal or nothing to train for it was pretty hard to get out on the bike. But It’s quite easy now that I’ve got a bit of a clearer focus.”
"Because of all that I didn’t really know what I wanted. To be honest they put me in a bad situation and it wasn’t ideal. Now I’ve kind of moved on a bit and I’m happy now that I’ve joined Ineos," he says. However for several months, the 'Pocket Rocket' barely trained. The British team is in no rush to put him back in the peloton, because of Ewan's preparation delay he will only start his season in a month's time at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali. He signed with INEOS on the 23rd January.
Ewan has since had a month with his teammate, has trained with several of them, and is quite happy with the change of environment into a team that he says is above all others he's been in before. “It’s one of the biggest teams in the world for sure. I would say I’ve never really experienced a team of this scale before," he admits.
"There've been a few times in my career where I’ve kind of asked the question of joining, but it never really worked out, so I’m glad this time that it did".
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A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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