Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) has taken the first big sprint victory at Saudi Tour. The Australian, who claimed six wins last season despite several crashes, was led out perfectly today by his team at the end of 198km into Winter Park.
Just behind him, Bora-hansgrohe's Estonian sprinter, Martin Laas, did very well to take 2nd place from Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates). Ewan's team mate, Jasper De Buyst, led him out perfectly after a strong team effort and the Belgian rider hung on for 4th place on the stage. Niccolò Bonifazi (TotalEnergies) was 5th.
While other sprinters such as Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Davide Cimola (Cofidis) were in the field, they did not compete for the victory today.
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Ewan said he was delighted to win and really happy the team had combined so well to give him the perfect lead-out today.
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"There's no better way to start the season than with a win, so I'm super happy with that," he said. “I’m super happy with how the team performed, I really got delivered perfectly. I think I only had to sprint for 100 metres so big thanks to them, they did a great job.
“We have the strongest team here for sure. It’s a bit of new lead-out with Rudi coming in and also Jarrad,” he said of former Bora-hansgrohe lead-out man Rudi Selig and young Australian rider Jarrad Drizners, ex-Hagens Berman Axeon and the Australian U23 road race champion two years ago.
“They did a great job to come into the team straight away
and integrate and delivered it perfectly like that."
