Caleb Ewan is “pretty devastated” and “deserves an apology” after his Lotto-Dstny boss accused him of having “no respect for his teammates.”
The Australian sprinter departed midway through stage 13 of the Tour de France, bringing to an end his time at the race after almost a fortnight. In that time he twice came close to victory, finishing second and third on stages three and four, respectively.
Stéphane Heulot, the general manager of Lotto-Dstny, however, was scathing of Ewan’s performances at the Tour, claiming to Sporza that “his Tour de France is a reflection of what he showed this season and last year.
“The first two sprints were satisfactory,” he said. “The other three sprints were not at all to his liking. He took umbrage at it… it’s a disappointment. The whole team, the staff, the partners, have invested a lot in him. A rider has duties and not only rights. We are entitled to ask for another commitment from him.”
He added in an interview with L’Equipe: “I sacrificed a lot of riders for him and I regret it. He asks for a lot from his team and it’s a lot for him, always for him.” In additional comments to Het Laatste Niuews, Heulot further showed his dissatisfaction saying that “I am very, very disappointed with him… a true champion pulls his team up [and] he didn’t do that.
“[Frederik] Frison and [Florian] Vermeersch] stopped for several minutes to wait for him [on an unspecified stage] but when he reached them he gave up. When you do that, you have no respect for your teammates.”
Ewan’s agent Jason Bakker has hit back strongly at the accusations, telling Cycling Weekly: “The way I am used to dealing with situations between athletes and teams is that you normally respect one another and respect is shown, as opposed to airing such comments publicly.
“To throw what he said out there publicly and humiliate a rider who has given so much to Lotto over a period of time of four to five years is quite disgusting to be frank.
“The graph of a pro athlete’s career is never a smooth incline: it’s full of bumps, peaks and troughs, and to act that way in such a difficult time for Caleb and the team is not acceptable.
“Sometimes comments such as these ones say much more about the person saying them than about the person they’re talking about. I’ve spoken with Caleb twice and he’s pretty devastated. His wife is heavily pregnant with their third child and these comments are very insensitive. It’s…