Caleb Ewan has already drawn comparisons to Robbie McEwen and Mark Cavendish.
His compact style and express train speed, coupled with some audacious performances against hardened and experienced pros, has certainly whet the cycling world’s appetite for what might come.
Of course it is yet to be seen if the pint-sized youngster can follow in the wheel tracks of the sprinting greats, but he has already achieved something that McEwen and Cavendish were never able to do.
He has proved his worth on climbs.
While Mt. Buninyong is no Ventoux, Ewan’s ability to match former national champion Darren Lapthorne’s multiple attacks on its slopes at the roadnats earlier this month shows that he is more than a flat-track bully.
Four times Lapthorne surged on the final ascent of the extinct volcano, and each time Ewan responded. The effort was made all the more noteworthy because midway through the last climb Ewan lost his only remaining team mate, Michael Hepburn.
Orica-GreenEDGE’s rising star was completely isolated within a group determined to shake him.
But it wasn’t to be. Having warded off the attacks, including one by fellow young gun Campbell Flakemore, the confident youngster launched an attack of his own over the steepest part of the climb. It was a move that neither McEwen nor Cavendish would ever have been able to make and it caught the rest of the break by surprise.
Only one thing went wrong though. The attack didn’t stick and precious sprint-winning energy was lost.
History shows that a group of six rejoined Ewan on the downhill run to Buninyong township and that Heinrich Haussler out pointed him in the sprint to claim the national road jersey, but much of the talk post-race centred around the boy who had come second.
For that is exactly what Ewan is – a boy. A boy among men. At just 20 years of age and full of youthful enthusiasm, he still has a lot to learn – and achieve – before he can be spoken of in the same breath as McEwen or Cavendish.
But you can’t mistake his ambition.
His attack across the top of Mt. Buninyong might not have been the wisest of moves but at least he lost the race while trying to win it!
And while his two second places during the roadnats (he was also runner up to Steele Von Hoff in the criterium five days earlier) could be put down to mistimed sprints (an Orica-GreenEDGEspeciality), that is okay too!
He is at the beginning of his career and there is no need to be hyper-critical of anything he does just yet. His appetite for success will ensure that he works out exactly how to make the most of each opportunity that is presented to him and how to deal with being a marked rider.
Along the way he’ll make mistakes. He’ll lose races that he should win. All the pros do. But he’ll also sniff out his share of victories as his race craft develops. It is a big step up from junior ranks to the elite, but if anyone can do it, it is Ewan.
We just need to give him the time he needs to develop. But if what we saw on display at Buninyong is any indication, we won’t have to wait very long.
And while he may never find the top end speed that rocketed McEwen and Cavendish to their multitude of victories, he may turn out to be a more complete rider than both of them.
While having to cool his cleats during the Tour Down Under, Ewan has been included in Orica-GreenEDGE’s squad for both the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and the Herald Sun Tour.
“I have been training pretty hard since the national championships and I think I’ll be in even better form for Cadel’s race and for the Sun Tour,” he says.
We have been warned!
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