Caleb Ewan will head to the Tour de France looking to add to his tally of five stage wins at the biggest race in the world with his Belgian WorldTour squad Lotto Soudal.
The Australian sprinter has been given the leadership of the Lotto Soudal team, but the composition of the squad, and the words of the team director, show that it’s not going to be a race where they are ‘all-in’ for the Caleb Ewan.
The ‘pocket rocket’ from New South Wales is looking to build on his five victories for the season so far and will be joined for the Denmark Grand Depart by Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Frederik Frison, Florian Vermeersch, Brent Van Moer, Philippe Gilbert, Andreas Kron and Tim Wellens.
“With these 8 we can play our part on almost every terrain in this Tour de France”, says CEO John Lelangue about the line-up. “With Caleb Ewan, we have one of the fastest riders of the peloton.
“He is our biggest chance of a stage win and therefore we have made sure he is well surrounded with Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Frederik Frison, Florian Vermeersch and Brent Van Moer. Those last two will also definitely have highlighted the cobbled stage to Arenberg.
“Furthermore, Philippe Gilbert, Andreas Kron and Tim Wellens have proven the last weeks to be in a very good shape. They will definitely be active in the more difficult stages and be present in breakaways.”
The versatile squad selection shakes up Ewan’s usual leadout train. Jasper de Buyst, Rudiger Selig and Roger Kluge are normally the men that make up the final few for Ewan on the flat finishes, but none will be present for the Tour de France.
Instead, it appears that the role of Ewan’s final man will fall to the experienced Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, who has only competed in a single raceday with Ewan this season. The rest of the riders named in Ewan’s train are big engines, but don’t have much of a turn of speed evidenced in their past performances.
Perhaps the biggest omission from Ewan’s perspective is Jasper de Buyst, the Belgian rider who has established himself as Ewan’s lieutenant in the sprint finishes.
Unfortunately, De Buyst crashed out on a treacherous final stage of the Tour of Turkey, fracturing his collarbone. De Buyst returned to competition at Elfstedenronde and Baloise Belgium Tour, but never finished a stage in the top 100 and didn’t connect with Ewan in the finale of the Elfstedenronde.
Ewan himself has been in mixed form this season, looking the fastest man in the world at times and then with others being better at others.
His most recent significant racing was at the Giro d'Italia, where he crashed on the first stage when in a potentially race-winning position. Given that he wasn't certain to start the next stage, he rebounded well and looked to have good condition and a strong final sprint.
He wasn't best positioned by his leadout train to display that form and on his best chance for a victory, he was pipped on the line by Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ). Ewan is Lotto Soudal's main star and he'll have to perform if the squad wants to be saved from potential relegation from the WorldTour by season's end.
Philippe Gilbert will compete in his 12th and final Tour de France, with the Belgian legend set to retire at the conclusion of the 2022 season. He, Wellens and Kron will likely be given free roles to attack on likely stages for the breakaway.
Wellens has also been competitive in the battle for the King of the Mountains, finishing third in the mountains classification at the 2019 Tour de France. He was in sparkling form at the recent Baloise Belgium Tour where he finished second overall, with a blocking move from Yves Lampaert (QuickStep Alpha Vinyl) leaving Wellens with a bitter taste as he felt that he would otherwise have won the race overall.
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