Australia’s cycling sprint star Caleb Ewan has had to abandon the Tour de France, fatigued and beaten up by the brutal race once again.
And to compound his misery, the marquee Lotto-Dstny rider has found himself being criticised by his team director and embroiled in a row after he pulled out during Friday’s 13th stage.
Ewan had battled courageously on Thursday to just beat the time cut on what he felt had been one of the hardest stages of his career, declaring after being helped home by teammate Jasper de Buyst: “Today sucked but we made it.”
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Yet his relief was short-lived, as he was quickly out the back on unlucky stage 13 on Friday, and forced to withdraw in obvious discomfort, clutching his abdomen, before the peloton up ahead had even started the climb of the feared Grand Colombier.
“Leaving the Tour is a real shame. I want to express my gratitude to the team for their big support and I hope they can still show some nice things in the stages to come,” said the 29-year-old on the team website after his latest disappointment of a miserable season by his stellar standards.
But Ewan’s withdrawal prompted an extraordinary reaction from Lotto Dstny’s team director Stephane Heulot, who criticised his star rider’s attitude in an interview with Belgian broadcasters Sporza.
“A rider has duties and not only rights. We are entitled to ask for another commitment from him,” Heulot said.
“This Tour de France is a reflection of what he showed this season and last year.”
The rebuke prompted Ewan’s agent, Jason Bakker, to then react furiously, telling Cycling Weekly on Saturday: “To throw what he said out there publicly and humiliate a rider who has given so much to Lotto over a period of time of four to five years is quite disgusting to be frank.
“I’ve spoken with Caleb twice and he’s pretty devastated. It’s extremely disappointing.
“He (Heulot) talked about Caleb’s mindset. To question someone’s mental health publicly in such a way is a very dangerous thing to do and he owes Caleb an apology.”
The fallout prompted retired British professional cyclist Alex Dowsett to speak out.
“I have a huge dislike for team bosses decimating their riders publicly, keep it behind closed doors, it says more about you than it does them,” he wrote.
“And if a team of good bike riders isn’t performing across the board, the problem usually isn’t the riders.”
Last year, Ewan, who has annexed five Tour de France stage wins down the years, won the ‘Lanterne Rouge’ as the 134th and last finisher in Paris at the end of a Tour in which he had suffered two crashes, injuries, bad luck and missed opportunities.
In 2021, it was much worse as he crashed out of the race with a broken collarbone at the finish of the third stage.
This year, he had earned two podium places – third on stage three and runner-up the following day – but it only continued the trend of near-misses in what he felt had been one of the worst seasons of his distinguished career.
Belgian team Lotto-Dstny said in a statement: “After struggling with fatigue for several days, he (Ewan) fought hard but it just wasn’t possible to continue.”
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