Sprinter Caleb Ewan has been captured in his new 2019 kit for Lotto Soudal at the team's training camp in Mallorca. With longtime fastman Andre Greipel failing to come to terms with the Belgian team and moving on to Arkea-Samsic, the 24-year-old Australian signed on after spending his first five seasons with the Orica and Mitchelton teams.
Ewan is one of nine new riders to the team this year, joining Adam Blythe, Roger Kluge, Stan DeWulf, Carl Fredrik Hagen, Brent Van Moer, Brian van Goethem, Gerben Thijssen and Rasmus Byriel Iversen on the newcomers list.
After taking Grand Tour stage wins at the Vuelta a España in 2015 and the Giro d'Italia in 2017, Mitchelton-Scott promised Ewan a Tour de France debut in 2018. But he was snubbed at the last minute. By that point, Ewan had already been heavily linked with a move to Lotto Soudal.
"The opportunity to join Lotto Soudal was for me an important and incredibly exciting one," Ewan said in a statement released with Lotto Soudal's initial signing announcement.
"They are a team that has a great history concerning sprinters and classics," he said. "I spent many hours as a youngster marveling at Robbie McEwen’s victories. More recently, I can only say I have nothing but enormous respect for Andre Greipel, what he achieved as a rider and what he stood for as a person. But now, together with Lotto Soudal, I hope to write an exciting new chapter."
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