Caleb Ewan has been dropped for the Tour de France and Aqua Blue Sport owner Rick Delaney has come out to admonish Mitchelton-Scott (Photo: Karen M Edwards - Aqua Blue Sport)
Aqua Blue Sport owner Rick Delaney critical of Mitchelton-Scott
Having come out publicly and apologised to one of his riders over a “lab rat” bike last week, Rick Delaney has been making waves once more on Twitter.
The outspoken Aqua Blue Sport team owner, who has roasted a few people on Twitter of late, has now come out in defence of Caleb Ewan.
Delaney has told Mitchelton-Scott to “wise up” over its treatment of Ewan. The comments come after the WorldTour squad dropped the Australian sprinter from its Tour de France team.
“This is not how you treat professional athletes in a professional sport, wise up Mitchelton-SCOTT,” said Delaney, who is Ewan’s future father-in-law.
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this is not how you treat professional athletes in a professional sport, wise up @MitcheltonSCOTT
— Rick Delaney (@RickDelaneyABS) June 21, 2018
Ewan, a stage winner at the Giro and Vuelta, was expected to ride his first Tour this year.
Indeed, the team had itself announced earlier in the year that he would be riding.
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However, the 23-year-old looks set to move from Mitchelton-Scott, perhaps to Lotto-Soudal.
And while there is no definitive proof his anticipated departure is the reason he was dropped; cycling is no stranger to such moves.
The Mitchelton-Scott team for the Tour de France is now built around Adam Yates’ general classification hopes.
Ewan was clearly surprised and frustrated at his omission from the team.
“Devastated is an understatement of how I feel about Mitchelton SCOTT’s decision to leave me at home this July,” Ewan said.
“I was on track to being more than ready for my Tour de France debut.
“So much hard work has gone into this from my sprint team and I to be ready for our big goal this year.”
Mitchelton-Scott directeur Matt White denied, in the Australian media, Ewan had been dropped over any planned departure.
"We haven’t got a history," White told the Herald Sun when asked whether Ewan had been dropped for that reason.
"And a perfect example is two years ago when we knew Michael Matthews was leaving, we still took him to the Tour.
"Caleb had a solid start to the year with a stage win at Tour Down Under and a win in Europe in February. But he hasn’t won since February 11th.
"So the (lead-out) train hasn’t worked as he would have liked. And we would have liked a lot more wins between then and now. Caleb has had 17 sprints this year and won two."
Caleb Ewan was all set to ride his first Tour but now that's not happening.
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