Rediscovered passion for track a key factor in Caleb Ewan's successful comeback with INEOS: "It felt almost like a completely different sport"

Caleb Ewan made a big name for himself for the first time in 2011 when, then as a first-year junior, he became the world champion in Omnium. That also appears to be the Australians last major track result as his focus since then shifted fully to road. But at INEOS, he re-discovered some of the long-lost passion and, who knows, maybe he'll add another major start after more than decade.

"It’s almost like a completely different sport," he told Cycling Weekly earlier this month. "I did a lot of track when I was younger, but since I turned pro, I’ve done basically nothing. After years and years of road, especially as a sprinter, I think you wear down your sprint, doing Grand Tours and all the road kilometres that you do. That fast-twitch kind of goes, so the track’s kind of to kick that back in. That’s the idea."

The plan to re-introduce the Australian back to the indoor sport came from Mehdi Kordi, Ineos Grenadiers’ new head of performance sport and innovation. "I got my head kicked in a bit," Ewan laughed of his first time on track since 2011. "It was three days of just track, so it was quite intense."

INEOS took him to track almost as soon as he landed in UK, encountering some of the top track cyclists, Ewan couldn't resist the urge to test himself against them. "I said to Mehdi, 'Can I do a few starts with them?'" he recalled. "On the road, we do something similar, not usually standing starts like that, but a few rolling starts in a big gear. It’s a similar type of effort. To have the opportunity to go up against those guys in something like that, it can really push me along."

"I was chatting to Matty Richo [Matthew Richardson] a bit, who was an Aussie, now a Brit. But track sprinting and road sprinting are completely different. The numbers that those guys do compared to us is much bigger. Obviously they can focus just on the sprint part, whereas we have to focus on getting over the climbs and getting through three weeks of a Grand Tour, on top of the sprint as well."

Maybe thanks to this track reunion, maybe it was something else, but Ewan's first road race with the British team was immediate success at Settimana Coppi e Bartali. "I guess, in a way, I feel like I’m back at the top level," he told reporters at the finish line. Two weeks later, he already won a stage at WorldTour race Itzulia Basque Country.

It would be a leap, of course, to pin all of the success on his track riding, but the ground work won't been a waste. Does he plan to keep it up? "It’s definitely something that I’ll continue on in the future, maybe do a few races. I think it can definitely complement your road [racing]," he concludes for Cycling Weekly.