Ewan joins De Lie at Gent-Wevelgem with the 'mindset of winning'

It always helps to have options at Gent-Wevelgem, a race where just about anything can happen, especially when wind and rain sweep in off the North Sea coast and buffet the peloton.

With those contingencies in mind, Lotto-Dstny will field both Caleb Ewan and Arnaud De Lie at Sunday's race, a repeat of the dual-pronged approach they took at Milan-San Remo last week.

On that occasion, the young De Lie was dropped from the peloton on the Cipressa, while Ewan, prominent on the lower slopes of the Poggio, ultimately had to settle for 16th on the Via Roma after the front group splintered into shards near the top of the final climb.

They try again at Gent-Wevelgem, a race that always attracts a deep field of sprinters but only occasionally rewards them with a bunch finish on Menenstraat. Only three of the past ten finishes have been contested by groups of 20 riders or more.

No matter, Ewan will set out with ambition in what is only his third appearance at Gent-Wevelgem after placing 101st in 2017 and abandoning in the pandemic-delayed edition of 2020.

"The previous times I didn't start with the mindset of winning, but this time I do," Ewan told Sporza. "I believe this is a race in which I can get a good result, although that will also depend on how the race unfolds. If the conditions aren't too tough, I can be in contention. Otherwise, it might be more for Arnaud, but we both hope to be there in the final."

De Lie made little impact on his Gent-Wevelgem debut a year ago, but the 21-year-old has impressed in both of his outings on the cobbles so far in 2023, placing second at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad last month and then seventh at Kuurne-Brusse-Kuurne the following day. His Lotto-Dstny team opted to withhold him from the E3 Saxo Classic with an eye to leading the line at Gent-Wevelgem.

"Classical sprinters have already won here in the past, so that's good for riders like Caleb and me," De Lie said when asked about their prospects on Sunday. "Caleb prefers a short sprint, I prefer a long one, but as long as one of us wins, that's the most important thing."

Ewan and De Lie's race programmes normally keep them apart, but the Australian insisted there would be no problems of co-existence between them.

"There is no rivalry between us, and we're also both honest about how we feel during the race, and we help each other like Arnaud did for me on the Cipressa at Milan-San Remo," said Ewan, who suggested Gent-Wevelgem might be better tailored to his young teammate.

"I'm more of a pure bunch sprinter, whereas Arnaud is more versatile in the sprint, and the Classics are more suited to him."

The heavy rain and plummeting temperatures anticipated on Sunday will surely have a bearing on how the race unfolds. "Hopefully there won't be too much wind," Ewan said. "We have opportunities if it is a selective and tough race, but also if it ends up being a less difficult one. So long as someone from the team wins, we'll be happy."

Lotto-Dstny are not the only team to carry two recognised sprinters on Sunday. Defending champion Wout van Aert is joined by Olav Kooij in the Jumbo-Visma squad, while Soudal-QuickStep also made the late decision to field two fast men after the team's subdued showing at the E3 Saxo Classic, with both Tim Merlier and Fabio Jakobsen in the line-up.

Gent-Wevelgem, incidentally, is a race where QuickStep have endured a lengthy drought, with their last victory coming through Tom Boonen back in 2012, though Lotto's winless streak stretches back even further.

Nico Mattan was the last member of the lottery-backed squad to win Gent-Wevelgem when he controversially beat Juan Antonio Flecha in 2005, but De Lie's abilities give Lotto-Dstny ample reason to hope on Sunday.