Luck has not necessarily been on Ewan's side in recent months. A photo-finish had to decide between win or lose a few times, and a little too often the dice fell on the wrong side in the process. But Dame Fortuna was present on Saturday. It came to a bunch sprint in which Ewan showed his fast legs. 'However, I was a bit worried about the sprint in advance,' Ewan said afterwards, 'with a sprint in a descending line the speed increases enormously, so accidents can happen quickly. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. After the last corner I wasn't in the ideal position, but I waited for the right moment and was eventually able to jump into Merlier's wheel."

The right choice as it turned out and the Australian sprinted to his first win of the season for the team, a boost after a few difficult months. "This was probably the worst start of my career," he admitted, "so I really needed this win. I didn't want to go to the Tour de France without a win to my name. Hopefully this will give me the confidence I needed and the ball will start rolling now." The team pulled out all day for Ewan and he had nothing but praise for his teammates afterwards. "The team never gave up on me and kept believing in me," he concluded, "they rode with confidence today and pulled my card. They believed in me and did an excellent job. The race was ours today. Thanks to my teammates I was able to start the sprint fresh. I am very happy that I was able to finish it."

With this victory, Caleb Ewan takes over the leader's jersey in the Lotto Cycling Cup from teammate Milan Menten.

Images: Brecht Steenhouwer