Caleb Ewan has ended his contract with Lotto-Dstny a year early, with the Belgian squad confirming that after a mutual agreement was struck he will be walking away from the acrimonious situation and racing with another team in 2024.
An announcement from Jayco-AlUla quickly followed to confirm the Australian rider would return to the squad where he started his career.
Ewan achieved 31 of his 61 UCI wins during his five seasons with Lotto but 2023 has been a tough year right from the start.
There were a number of painstaking near misses, and only one win, but things went from bad to worse at the Tour de France. He was close to victory in two early sprints but then struggled through the mid-race mountain stages before abandoning on stage 13.
That drew the ire of new team manager Stephane Heulot who delivered his blunt criticisms of the rider very publicly. The Belgian team has been increasingly turning to Belgian Arnaud de Lie as a key sprint option and made it clear that they would prefer Ewan to leave before the end of 2024 when his contract expired.
After long negotiations with Lotto-Dstby and Jayco-AlUla, Ewan has made the move.
“We are happy that Caleb can continue his career elsewhere”, said Heulot in the statement on Wednesday announcing Ewan's departure.
“Caleb has won a lot for the team and we are thankful for that and just like in a relationship or marriage you have good and bad days together. 2023 was a difficult year for Caleb. We all know he has a lot of talent, but right now he is not showing that in our team and then it’s better to part ways. We don’t want to hold Caleb back in this new opportunity that he has, so we have decided to allow him to continue his career elsewhere."
Ewan returns to a Jayco-AlUla which includes plenty of his old teammates but also many new faces, with Luke Plapp also expected to join the team from Ineos Grenadiers for 2024.
Dylan Groenewegen joined the team as lead sprinter in 2022 and the Dutch rider has spearheaded the squad's Tour de France sprinting ambitions. He won a stage in 2022 and took four top-five results in 2023.
"For us to have another Australian rider which such calibre joining us, it is very special, and he will provide us with another fantastic option to challenge for sprint finishes," said Jayco-AlUla team manager Brent Copeland.
"We have been working hard to add depth to our men’s team and with the addition of another top-level sprinter into our ranks, we are certainly going to be looking for wins in all races that we see Caleb and Dylan line-up in.”
Ewan acknowledged the "five fantastic years" with Lotto-Dstny but was clear that he was ready for a change and a return to the Australian WorldTour team.
"I'm definitely coming back to the team as a more experienced rider, in the last few years I've won the biggest race of my career and I think I've developed a lot as a rider and also as a leader," said Ewan.
"When I joined the team initially, I was only 19 or 20, so I was very young. I learnt a lot from the experienced guys that were already there and used that going forward in my career.
"I have developed as a person and as a rider and I look forward to coming back in more of a leadership role. It will be great to be able to help the younger Australians riders too, to reach their potential and in that way also give back to the team.
"The main thing for me will be getting back to winning ways and I hope to bring a lot of success to the team.”
Jayco-Alula used a Crocodile Dundee inspired video to announce Ewan's return to the team.
