Australian sprint star Caleb Ewan is “heartbroken” to have missed selection in the Australian team for the UCI World Road Cycling Championships in Wollongong next month.
In the latest of a series of setbacks in a tough year, Ewan revealed he’d missed the cut for the Australian men’s road race squad, despite targeting it for several years and being regarded by many as having the talent to win the 266.9km event.
The Australian team was due to be named on Tuesday but was delayed due to two riders (not including Ewan) protesting their non-selection. The teams will be named on Friday afternoon by Cycling Australia.
The 28-year-old celebrated a much-needed stage one victory in the Deutschland Tour on Friday morning before posting a message on social media confirming his omission.
“This one felt really good!” Ewan wrote. “Especially after the bad news that I won’t be at my home world championships this year. To be honest, I don’t have much to say on the matter other than I’m heartbroken I won’t be there to represent my country and that I believe I deserved to be there. Anyways, sob story over.”
Ewan, who has five stage wins apiece in the Tour de France and the Giro D’Italia, spoke to the media about his omission as well.
Caleb Ewan is heartbroken to have missed the Australian team.Credit:LaPresse
“Their [AusCycling’s] decision is their decision and it’s true that I haven’t been performing over the last few months,” he said.
“I always believe when I have a really big goal like a home world championships that … I was super motivated to get ready and try to win it, but like I said, they have their reasons and I have to respect that. It’s disappointing but I’m still going to use that form to try and end the season well.”
Ewan was a member of the Australian road race team in 2021 but has had a disappointing season this year, in which he left the Giro D’Italia after stage 11, following a crash on stage one, and also struggled with bad luck, more crashes and no success on the Tour de France.
The Australia team is expected to include fellow sprint ace Michael Matthews and there’d been debate as to how both Ewan and Matthews would work together on the same team.
Ben O’Connor, Giro d’Italia winner Jai Hindley, Matthews and Heinrich Haussler are all reportedly expected to be part of the elite men’s road race squad.
Experts believe uncertainty about the road race course in Wollongong, which contains significant climbing sections and 3945m of total elevation, has led the Australian selectors to pick a balanced team, with several options to produce a winner according to how the world championships are raced.
More to come …
Stan Sport’s exclusive coverage of the 2022 UCI Road World Championships begins on Sunday 18 September 2022 with every race streaming ad-free, live and on-demand.
