The 21-year- old is working out how to appraoch the fight in the final kilometres that heavyweight sprinters Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) and Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) have had a stranglehold over in the opening week.
“All the guys here with a sprinter, they don’t really have the trains like maybe Greipel does, or Kittel does, so it’s always a fight for their back wheel,” Ewan observed. “It was always going to be super messy and it has been so far.”
The Australian national criterium champion won a stage during his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a Espana last season but has found the Giro to be another level. Ewan hopes for a bit of luck ahead of stage seven on Friday, which offers the fast men another opportunity as the race moves north.
“I feel way better than I did in the Vuelta last year when I was racing there so my form is definitely good, I just haven’t really had the opportunity to sprint properly yet,” he said. “It’s been pretty tough and I think it was always going to be hard to come here and win stages because of the depth of sprinters here."
“I think it’s just going to really have to come down to luck here. You’re either going to be on one of the wheels of the good sprinters, or you’re not. Hopefully in the next few days I’m in a better position and can actually go for the sprint.”
The second-year professional is racing more in Europe this year after an introductory season in 2015 that took him away from the continent to focus on smaller races where he could build confidence.
“It’s obviously a step-up for him but he’s learnt a lot and that’s what he came here for,” Orica-GreenEDGE sports director Julian Dean said. “The Giro is another step-up from the Vuelta in the intensity and difficulty of the racing, and the level of sprinters here. He’s certainly not intimidated by any of those guys, he really wants to beat them and that’s a good characteristic to have.”
