Caleb Ewan has claimed a long-sought first victory this season as the Australian sprinter racked up the Van Merksteijn Fences Classic in Belgium on Saturday, after what he called “probably the worst start of my career.”
The Lotto-Dstny rider outpowered Belgian sprinters Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) and Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) for his 60th career win and first UCI-classified race victory since the GP de Fourmies last September.
“This was probably the worst start of my career,” Ewan, 28, said afterwards in a team press release, “so I really needed this win.”
Ewan has had two painfully narrow near-misses this season, one at the UAE Tour behind Merlier, and another, even closer, behind Thijssen, at the GP Jean – Pierre Monseré. The latter was so close the team even later approached the UCI for questions about the quality of the photo finish.
The 199 kilometre Van Merksteijn Fences Classic, ranked, 1.1 and formerly known as the GP Marcel Kint, took place in western Belgium, finishing in the town of Zwevegem. Last year it was won by Ewan’s teammate and fellow sprinter Arnaud de Lie, who is currently recovering from a broken collarbone.
Last year, Ewan’s first victory of the season came on the first day of his racing, at the Saudi Tour’s stage one. His previous longest wait for a win was way back in 2015, when as a young professional he took until April 5th to raise his arms, at – as it happened – another 1.1 Classic, the Vuelta a la Rioja in Spain.
“I didn’t want to go to the Tour de France without a win to my name,” Ewan added,. Hopefully this will give me the confidence I needed and the ball will start rolling now.”
“I was a bit worried about the sprint in advance, [because] with a sprint in a descending line the speed increases enormously, so accidents can happen quickly. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.”
”After the last corner I wasn’t in the ideal position, but I waited for the right moment and was eventually able to jump into Merlier’s wheel.”
