The ecstasy of a dream fulfilled: Caleb Ewan’s first Tour stage win in photos
As CyclingTips’ Iain Treloar wrote from Toulouse on Wednesday, there was a feeling of inevitability about Caleb Ewan’s maiden Tour de France stage win. He’d gone third, third, second and third in the four previous bunch sprints at this year’s race, and his second place was agonisingly close — mere centimetres separated his front tyre from Dylan Groenewegen’s in Chalon-sur-Saone. It seemed like a matter of time before everything fell into place for Ewan.
On stage 11 it did. Even after being held up by a wayward teammate with 10km to go, Ewan got his way to the front and timed his sprint wonderfully, passing and then holding off Groenewegen by a margin similar to the one that had separated the pair on stage 7.
Ewan’s win had been a long time coming. He’d been held back from the Tour by Mitchelton-Scott and had to move teams to get his opportunity on the sport’s biggest stage. His new team, Soudal-Lotto put full faith in him and, on debut, Ewan delivered. He now joins a club of 97 riders to have won a stage at all three Grand Tours. He’ll also be one of the big favourites on sprinting’s most important boulevard — the Champs-Elysees — in a little over a week.
For now, here’s Caleb Ewan’s first Tour de France stage win in photos, courtesy of the Grubers, Kristof Ramon and Cor Vos.
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