Caleb Ewan has said the Tour de France offers more stage win opportunities for sprinters this year than in recent seasons and he feels he can target the green jersey in the 2021 edition.
After Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) had made his own of
the Tour points classification for the best part of a decade, Ireland’s Sam
Bennett (Deceuninck-QuickStep) ended his run last year.
The 30-year-old Carrick-on-Suir man took two stage victories and dominated Sagan in the intermediate sprints to carry the green jersey into Paris.
Ewan is more of a pure sprinter than Sagan or Bennett and,
because of that, racing during stages for the bonus points is something he is
less comfortable with.
However, because there are more chances for sprinters to win stages at the Tour this year, Ewan is counting himself into the mix for the green jersey battle as well as the all-important stage victories.
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He also confirmed he may ride all three Grand Tours this
year, though that plan is not set in stone at present.
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“Maybe I’ll think differently in the last week of the Tour, when I can no longer see the bike,” he told Net Nieuwsblad of his hopes to go to the Vuelta after the Giro and Tour.
“But that is one of my goals in 2021, just like the green jersey, by the
way. The Tour offers more options for sprinters this year and that is an
opportunity for me.
“In other years I was not involved in that green jersey battle and I only aimed for stage victories,” he said, stressing this year's Tour will be different for him.
Several months on the from the crash on stage 1 at Tour de Pologne, which almost ended the career of Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Ewan said he was against the idea of painting lanes on the road for final sprints and stipulating riders must stick to them when sprinting.
He described that proposal as “the worst possible idea” adding it would “make
a boring sprinter stage in the Tour even more boring”.
And while Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo Visma) was suspended for causing the crash in Poland, Ewan believed the Dutch rider could return to the sport.
“Maybe he'll be a bit more nervous and less dominant. But I don't expect
him to be hindered in the bunch,” he said, before adding some riders may not
accept him back “with open arms”.
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