Caleb Ewan’s bad luck appears to have carried over from the Giro d’Italia and into the Tour de France as the Australian crashed on stage 13 and finished in next-to-last place in Saint-Étienne. Lotto Soudal have not confirmed the extent of Ewan’s injuries but the rider has said he has a sore knee and shoulder.
Ewan was a favourite for the stage, but he unexpectedly went down after appearing to have collided with his Lotto Soudal teammates as they led the peloton through a right-hand corner with just over 70km to go in their effort to keep the day’s breakaway at a manageable distance.
“The guys were doing a really good job – the break never got too far ahead, and then yeah, I don’t know what happened. In the corner, they just slammed on the middle of the corner and then I had nowhere to go, so I went into the back to the guy in front of me,” Ewan said of the crash after crossing the finish line 20:05 after stage winner Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo).
Race medics briefly assessed Ewan’s injuries, which appeared to be abrasions on his right arm, knee and leg, as he sat at the side of the road. He remounted his bike and chased to get back into the race, but without the assistance of Lotto Soudal teammates.
He initially rode in the slipstream of a team car as he tried desperately to make his way back to the field. As Alpecin-Deceuninck riders increased the pace at the front of the field, race officials barraged Ewan from gaining assistance from the team vehicles with 65.5km to go.
He eventually reached the back of the caravan and tried to find his way through the team cars, but he was still 45 seconds off the back of the field.
Ewan eventually caught up to a small group as the race headed toward the day’s key climb, the third-category Côte de Saint-Romain-en-Gal, which was 6.6km at 4.5%, and where the sprinters would need to dig deep for their chance at a sprint in Saint-Étienne.
However, as the road turned up, it spelled the end for Ewan, who eased off the pedals with nothing left in the tank. Dropped from the chase group with 50km to go, he winced in pain but still appeared determined to reach the finish line.
“Once you stay pretty warm, everything feels alright, but I think once I cool down a bit, I’ll start to feel it, but my knee’s pretty sore, my shoulders are pretty sore. I broke my collarbone last year, so it’s fine,” Ewan said.
“Yeah, I think once I went down, I didn’t feel as good anymore, and when I got up, I did a big chase to get back on, then…
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