Australian sprint star Caleb Ewan launched to his second win of the season with a stunning dash to the line on the opening stage of the Tour of Oman.
The 29-year-old was teed up to perfection by his Team Jayco AlUla teammates with the recently crowned national criterium champion streaking away from his rivals with an imperious display of speed to take the victory in style and take the race lead.
The stage looks to be the only real opportunity for the sprinters at this year’s race, and the teams with fast men in their ranks made no mistake in bringing back the early breakaway for a bunch kick finale. Team Jayco AlUla were never far from the front of the pack in the closing kilometres as they battled for road position while guiding Ewan into the finish.
As his teammates peeled off the front one by one, Ewan bided his time before launching his devastating kick for the line. Once he made his move, there was no catching the diminutive sprinter as he raced clear to take a memorable victory.
Caleb Ewan:
“I’ve had a few opportunities so far this year and never managed to win, so the pressure was building, but now I’m finally happy to get another win for the year.
There was a breakaway at the start and then one of my teammates, he really controlled it well with DSM and then it came back pretty easy in the end. There was quite a lot of wind so we thought maybe there was going to be some crosswinds, but in the end it was just a headwind most of the day.
In general, the race was pretty easy, but the hard part of it was probably judging the finish line that was slightly uphill, so you just needed to time the sprint right.
This was the only sprint of the race, so no more stage opportunities for me, but we have Davide [De Pretto] here who can do a good GC so we’ll be working for him from now on.”
Mat Hayman (Sport Director):
“We only had one chance here in Oman with Caleb, the rest of the race is pretty hilly, so the boys really wanted to get it right today. They worked really hard on communication today and it was really good to see Max [Walscheid] coming into the team and helping us get a win like that.
This is great for Caleb’s confidence, we knew he’d done all the training over the winter, he just got a bit of bad luck and got sick at Tour Down Under, but it’s great for him to come back here and get a win.”
2024 Tour Of Oman – Stage 1:
1. Caleb Ewan (Team Jayco AlUla) 4:23:28
2. Bryan Coquard ST
3. Alexander Kristoff ST
Photos: Sprint Cycling
