There are two things that stand out on Caleb Ewan’s list of Grand Tour results – how often he walks away with at least one win and how often he has a DNF next to his name. This Tour de France, however, was different on both counts.
The Lotto Soudal rider battled through the mountains, looking for a last chance of victory on the Champs-Élysées as he clocked up his first Grand Tour finish in two years. Winning the prestigious final stage would have provided a redeeming reward for the constant battle against the time cut in the mountains and a gratifying juxtaposition to the 28-year-old sprinters last place on the general classification. Eighth,
However Ewan finished eighth in the Champs-Élysées sprint after being boxed in along the left side of the road. His final satisfaction of the 2022 Tour de France had to come from other emotions.
“The most positive thing is that I finished and I think after a few years I needed to have a full Grand Tour in the legs,” Ewan told Australian television network SBS.
“I think it will benefit me for the rest of this season and next season as well, so if I can take a positive that’s it. But obviously I came here to try to win stages, and I failed in that sense, so that’s disappointing.”
Ewan has ridden ten Grand Tours, having won five stages at both the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia as well as one at the Vuelta a España. He has own at least one stage at six of those Grand Tours and a best result of second at two more. In fact the only other time he hasn’t delivered a result that at least put him on the podium of a stage was the Tour de France last year, when he broke his collarbone on stage 3 in a high-speed sprint crash.
This time he may have made it all the way to the end – only his third Grand Tour finish ever – but his best stage result was eighth.
Despite coming into the race as one of the sprint favourites, the opportunities were thin on the ground for the sprinters and Ewan's were made even thinner by misfortune on crucial stages – from a bent derailleur on stage 2, to getting squeezed on stage 3 and a crash on stage 13.
However, with a completed Grand Tour to bolster his form, Ewan is now looking to the rest of the season.
He shifts onto the Commonwealth Games next month, then to one-day races to gather points for Lotto-Soudal, which is facing the prospect of relegation from the WorldTour, and "hopefully" a home-nation World Championships in Wollongong in September.
Though after finishing the Tour de France in 138th place, and more than five hours and 40 minutes behind the winner Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma), there is one other priority that comes first.
“I think I got a free holiday with it or something,” said Ewan of the Lanterne Rouge prize,this year sponsored by travel company lastminute.com.
“I’ll probably need it after this Tour.”
