Caleb Ewan brings home first Lotto Soudal win after lockdown

Caleb Ewan delivers a great win for team Lotto Soudal in the opening stage of Tour de Wallonie. In Templeuve Ewan was faster than Sam Bennett and Tim Merlier. It is Ewan's fourth win of the season and the first for Lotto Soudal after lockdown. A great start for Lotto Soudal in Tour de Wallonie as Caleb also takes the lead in the general and points classification.

Caleb Ewan: 

"The whole day was quite nice until it started raining with one hour to go. The rain and cobbles on the finishing circuit made it a super nervous run-up to the final sprint. My team did a good job in keeping me close to the front. In the end I was a little bit far, but that was perfect since my competitors launched the sprint very early and I could come back in the final meters."

"Lotto Soudal did a great training camp in July in the Vosges. Everyone is on good form and this win proves all the hard work we have been doing with the team. I knew that coming here it would be a hard contest for the victory. But it is great for the confidence that I can beat the other guys that are here."

"I only had two race days since the confinement and I feel that this race is the ideal preparation heading to Tour de France. I was disappointed in my performance in Milano-Sanremo last week. It is such a hard race and the heat and the new course made it even harder for me. But I will try again in the future!"

"I want to defend the leader's jersey tomorrow and maybe even the day after tomorrow if I have good climbing legs. But the fourth stage will be too hard for me. With Philippe Gilbert we have someone in great form and he knows the local roads. So he will target the GC for team Lotto Soudal."