One of them is the best cyclist of all time and the other is his son, and widely regarded as one of the best developers of young talent in cycling at present; and now Eddy Merckx and Axel Merckx have been speaking their minds about Caleb Ewan.
The Australian sprinter started the Giro d’Italia last Saturday week and
then went on to take two victories in bunch sprints on stages 5 and 7. He
started Saturday’s stage 8 leading the points classification but abandoned the
race during the stage.
Ewan had stated very clearly his goal was to win stages in all three Grand Tours this year. He said that meant he would not finish the Giro because he had to keep some of his energy in reserve.
While his abandoning the race was not a surprise, eyebrows were raised when he climbed off his bike during a stage on which he was wearing the ciclamino jersey of points classification leader.
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However, after he withdrew on the road to Guardia Sanframondi, Lotto-Soudal said Ewan had been suffering knee pain. But Eddy and Axel Merckx have now told Nieuwsblad he should not have abandoned and Eddy said his prizes should be taken away from him.
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“That Caleb Ewan also bothers me a lot," Eddy Merckx said. “I think his task is a total lack of professionalism and a lack of respect for the Giro and cycling. He deserves a sanction: take away all prizes. The former Tour boss Félix Lévitan would have said after such a thing: ‘You will not come in next year’.”
His son, Axel, concurred but did not believe a rider could have his prize money docked for the results achieved before he abandoned.
“Rules are rules,” he said. “It is not possible to take prizes just like
that. But just leaving without real evidence of knee pain - that is a total lack
of respect towards the organisation.”
On the issue of Remco Evenepoel’s prospects in the race, Eddy said Deceuninck-QuickStep had been unable to support the young Belgian deep into yesterday’s hard stage and so thought it was better he did not have the pink jersey.
“When they were still with twenty riders four kilometers from the finish,
he only had Almeida. If he had the pink jersey, he wouldn't have any teammates
around him,” he said.
Axel also chipped in on this issue, saying: “Overall, Ineos is a better
team than Deceuninck-QuickStep. But once in pink, a team can grow enormously.”
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