Tour de France - Caleb Ewan: We need to take every sprint opportunity we can
Sep 01 2020 02:32 am CET
Image: Lotto Soudal logo
Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) has taken the victory at the third stage of the Tour de France after his team has gone through some difficult days.
On the chaotic first stage of the French grand tour, Lotto Soudal lost two riders as John Degenkolb crossed the finish line out of the time limit after crashing and hurting both his knees, and Philippe Gilbert broke his kneecap after hitting the deck.
But the third stage of the race was a lot better for the Belgian formation as Ewan managed to outsprint the competition, taking like this his fourth victory in La Grande Boucle. "Unfortunately team Lotto Soudal is down to six riders after the crashes of Phil and John in the opening stage," said the Australian at the end of the stage. "But everyone stayed motivated. We knew that when everything went right I could win the sprint today. All my teammates gave 110% today and made up for the two guys that were missed. And yeah, it worked!
"The guys did a great job of keeping me in the front in the final. In the last kilometre I was literally too far forward, so I dropped back into the wheels. That gave me some time to rest the legs a little bit before the final lead-out. Coming from behind was a bit of a risk but I found my way through the barrier and I came with a lot of speed. In the end it worked out perfectly.
"We knew today was gonna be possibly quite hard. In the end only a little break went up the road and it was quite controlled. We need to take every sprint opportunity we can, because they are pretty rare this year. This is the Tour de France. It is the biggest race and the world, where every rider wants to win at. I am so happy to get another win here. I hope to keep coming back and keep winning. With the calibre of sprinting here it is always gonna be hard to win more stages. But we have some more chances, and we will take them as they come."
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDS