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 strained 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 has had 31 of his 61 UCI wins in his five seasons with Lotto but 2023 has been a tough year right from the start. First there were a number of painstaking near misses, and only one win but things went from bad to worse at the Tour de France as while Ewan twice hit the podium in the first four stages the 29 year old and his team were looking for more and the pressure on the rider was mounting as he struggled through the brutal series of mountain stages and then abandoned on stage 13.
That drew the ire of new team CEO Stephane Heulot who delivered his strong criticisms of the rider very publicly. The team – which has been increasingly turning to Belgian Arnaud de Lie as there number one sprint option – also made it clear that they would prefer him to leave before the end of 2024 when his contract expires.
“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.”
More to come …..
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