Sprinter Ewan crashed with 72 kilometres remaining in Stage 13 of the Tour de France, when the Australian was unable to react in time after a number of his teammates misjudged a corner at speed.
He crashed hard to the road and looked hurt as he regained his feet, sitting on the barriers beside the road and receiving medical attention as the rest of the race passed him by.
His team didn’t wait for him, and when Ewan remounted, he had two and a half minutes time gap back to the peloton, which was travelling at a rapid pace as they maintained their chase of the day's breakaway.
Ewan pedalled hard in the slipstream of the Alpecin-Deceuninck team car and made significant headway back to the peloton travelling rapidly with the draft provided by the vehicle. That was until a UCI commissaire on a motorbike came up to gesture to the car to move away and not allow Ewan to pace further.
The Australian sprinter made it to the back of the team car convoy, which was being held in a ‘barrage’ – held back by commissaires so dropped riders couldn’t use the slipstreams offered by the vehicles to return to the race – and managed to get back into the chase group before eventually calling off his pursuit with about 50 kilometres to go.
The UCI fined Alpecin-Deceuninck 1,000 Swiss Francs – along with a 500CHF fine for Ewan – for their car's part in assisting the rival sprinter in his chase. Ewan criticised the UCI system for dealing with injured riders and their return to the race in his situation.
“I don’t know exactly what the rules are,” said Ewan. “The UCI are always talking about our safety… I was sitting by the side of the road with a smashed helmet. The obvious thing to do was to get checked by a doctor before I got back on my bike and got going. To get back to the race from there, you’re going to need assistance.”
“I wasn’t even getting taken back to the bunch but a dropped group. I think it’s a bit disappointing, if they want us to jump straight back onto the bike with a concussion, that’s probably the worst thing we can do.”
An irate Ewan had a slighting comment for the officials that rule on the in-race infringements, stating that they weren’t in touch with the sport.
“I’d be a bit disappointed with the commissaires, but most of the time they don’t have an idea what’s going on anyway,” said Ewan. “I think everyone in the convoy knows it wasn’t because I was dropped that I was out the back and it was a rival’s team car.
“Alpecin knew if I got back to the bunch that maybe I could beat Philipsen, but they still helped me anyway because they knew the position that I was in was a disadvantage anyway. It was nice of them to do that. Shame on the commissaires for what they did.”
Commissaires normally work for a nominal fee and gain qualifications through a UCI-governed accreditation process to police events for the safe and fair conduct of cycling.
Alpecin-Deceuninck director Michel Cornelisse described his role in the situation also coming down on the side of criticising the commissaires.
"I don't know why that man was making such a fuss," Cornelisse said to Cyclingnews. "I see crashes happen all week and riders are allowed to return behind the car, so I thought 'why not?' There was no team car around [for Ewan] so I wanted to take him.
"Then the commissaire came and I tried to accelerate but there were two police motorbikes in front of me. I was already going at 80kph. I couldn't drive faster there. Ewan was almost at the cars, so I don't know why the guy was so upset."
"That man had no feelings or anything. It's not a rider from my own team, and the guy fell.”
There is a rule that riders are not allowed to ‘ride behind or take advantage of the slipstream of a vehicle’ but in reality there is a grey area that surrounds the return of riders from crashes and mechanicals as well as riders moving up the convoy when going back to their team cars throughout the stage.
The situation with Ewan is normally allowed as a racing incident that sees a rider allowed some leeway in assistance from drafting team vehicles, but there have been similar incidents in the past, like when Nils Eekhoff was disqualified from the Under 23 world championships road race when returning from a mechanical, told that he was disqualified after crossing the line first.
