Ewan to make Tour de France debut in 2018

After winning stages in both the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana, Australian sprint sensation Caleb Ewan will get the chance to complete the set in 2018, with ORICA-SCOTT, to be known as Mitchelton-SCOTT next season, confirming he is to make his first appearance at the biggest race of them all, the Tour de France.

Another successful season saw 23-year-old Ewan achieve 12 race victories for ORICA-SCOTT in 2017, including the Australian criterium title and a stage win on his second appearance at the Giro d’Italia with the natural progression now leading towards the ‘Grand Boucle’ in July.

“If there’s any race that you want to do when you’re growing up as an aspiring young cyclist it would be the Tour de France,” said Ewan. “I’ve been itching to get there ever since I turned professional.”

“I think that next year I will be definitely be ready for it. It will be the fourth Grand Tour that I have started and after getting stage wins at both the Giro and the Vuelta the aim is to keep that going into the Tour and try to get a stage win there.

“Obviously the Tour is a unique event and I am looking at it as another step up, but I feel that I am ready for it and with the success we have been having within the sprint train we have speed and versatility for different types of finishes.

Traditionally in cycling there is no bigger stage than the Tour de France and competition for Tour glory is fierce. Head sport director Matt White spoke of the importance of the development process undertaken to arrive at this level.

“We know that Caleb is ready for the Tour,” said White. “It is going to be a learning experience and we will be supporting him 100%. He has won at the Giro and the Vuelta and the natural progression is that now he gets a crack at the Tour de France.”

“It has been a very deliberate process with Caleb regarding getting to the Tour, he has been hungry for it the last couple of seasons and it has been a three year development to get him to this level where we feel he is ready for it.

“Caleb is 23 year’s old now, he has the experience of competing and winning in a Grand Tour and also the confidence that comes from winning WorldTour races with some consistency and his program for 2018 will be one that leads up to the Tour in July.

“As far as the route is concerned there are six potential sprint finishes within the first nine stages and that’s six different opportunities for Caleb to go for the stage win.

“It’s the Tour de France and there will be immense competition for every stage, but Caleb is ready for that and with the additions we have made to our sprint train over the last couple of seasons we have the speed and the strength in depth to get him in a position to fight for the win.”

The Tour de France will run from the 7th-29th of July 2018 and cover 3,329kilometres over 21-stages.

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