Caleb Ewan:
Inspiration for a generation
Part two of a two-part series of interviews
Words and Photography by Andy Thornley
It’s the job most of us would trade our granny for: getting paid to ride some of the best bikes that money can buy whilst being showered with adoration by fellow fans.
But what about the current crop of world-class riders? How did they get into the sport we love?
In the first part of a two-part series, we spoke to both Elia Viviani and Caleb Ewan whilst they were competing at the recent Six Day London, to ask them how they discovered this most graceful of sports.
Caleb Ewan
Many kids look up to their dads as their hero and want to do what they’re doing. It was no different for Mark Ewan’s son, Caleb.
“He was a rider when he was younger, like a junior, and he started up again doing club racing, that sort of thing. At that time I was 10 years old and I was just doing whatever he was doing so I end up getting a bike and racing then.”
“I’ve been racing since I was 10 years old, doing track and road, going up through the juniors and I guess I was always following the sport as best as I could from Australia.”
Growing up in Sydney certainly made it easier to get active outdoors given the warm climate, but following a sport that is predominantly on the other side of the planet is a challenge – especially given the time difference.
“It’s not really on TV that much in Australia so the only races you would see were the Tour de France basically, the only one that had good coverage, and the rest – the coverage wasn’t so good.”
“The Tour was on during school holidays so a lot of the time my friends and I would stay up and watch. It would usually finish at like two or three in the morning and then we’d just go to sleep after that. Some of the exciting stages I’d stay up for and watch; obviously I couldn’t do it all the time, but when I could I’d stay up and watch it.”
After getting in to competitive cycling so early, what effect does this have on the ability to lead a normal life?
“[Cycling] has been part of my life for so long and it’s almost like clockwork now. I’ve basically done the same thing now for so long, it’s like, you wake up, you train, and that’s just been my life almost as long as I’ve known it.
“Probably the hardest time was when you’re growing up as a teenager and you have to be really strict with yourself when all your friends are going out and having fun and that, that’s probably the hardest part. Now, in a way, it’s a lot easier because you can earn a living from it and can have a nice life. I live in Europe now with my family and I enjoy it. I never really think about doing anything else.”
Last year, Ewan swapped the colours of Australian team Mitchelton-Scott and pulled on the red and white jersey of Lotto Soudal. With that move to a different country – indeed, a different continent, is there any difference between teams based in the Southern Hemisphere and those in Belgium?
“There’s not as big a difference as you’d think; most of the [Mitchelton-Scott] staff were European anyway. Even the Australian ones, they’ve probably been living in Europe for the past 20 years, so it’s still very European feel to the team anyway with maybe and Aussie sense of humour to it. It wasn’t too much of a difference moving to Lotto, but you can tell it’s a Belgian team in how passionate they are about cycling – so that’s also really nice.”
The move to Europe has coincided with success in last year’s Grand Tours; a hattrick of stage wins in the Tour de France and two stage wins in the Giro. Ewan goes on to explain how much this defines him as a rider.
“Grand Tours to me are the most important races. The Tour de France is the most important one because that’s the one I grew up watching as I got in to cycling more, you appreciate the Vuelta and the Giro as well. If I can finish my career with a whole bunch of Grand Tour stage wins then I’ll be happy.”
“Also, it will be nice to win some Classics or a Monument, but if you spoke to a teenage version of me, then all I would be thinking about is winning a Tour de France stage.”
When we speak to him, Ewan sat in his cabin between races at Six Day London. His first ever track win was when he was 10 years old, albeit astride a mountain, rather than track bike. As we clarify this with him, his partner at Six Day, Joshua Harrison, folds in laughter and asks if this is true. Ewan confirms.
“[Track] definitely helped me growing up for sure; I still use some tactics that I learned on the track even on the road today. But I’m not making a serious track return right now, I’m doing this [Six Day London] more for fun.”
“Growing up, track was a big passion of mine and it’s a road I couldn’t really go down in the end because it’s really hard to make the Australian track team as we have such good track riders. I was doing better on the road so that’s the path I took.”
“Six Day has always been something that I wanted to do so when this opportunity came up I took it because it was in a period in my season where I didn’t really have much on and my team let me do it, so it was a great opportunity for me to come back to the track.”
At Six Day, Ewan is competing against the 2016 Olympic Omnium Gold and Silver Medal winners, Elia Viviani and Mark Cavendish. Is this a trial run for Ewan to compete for a medal in 2020?
“No, for sure not. To make the Australian track team is so difficult. The guys that are there are so good that I’d have to dedicate from Paris to Tokyo – that amount of time to make the team. For now, I’m just going to focus on the road, do some events like this every now and again, because I like it and it’s something fun to do and something to break up my road season. It’s too much of an ask to go to Tokyo or make any of the national teams. For now, I’ll just do this.”