Lotto Soudal: Caleb Ewan sprints to his tenth victory of the season!

In his first Brussels Cycling Classic participation, Caleb Ewan immediately hit the jackpot! The quick Australian beat the German Ackermann and the Belgian Philipsen with an ultimate jump in a nail-biting sprint in Brussels. That way, Ewan sprinted to his tenth victory in Lotto Soudal colours.

Early in the race, seven riders went on the attack but the sprint teams immediately took control. Some counter-attackers joined the front group at around 45 kilometres from the line. In a soaking-wet finale of the Brussels Cycling Classic, the peloton split to pieces on some technical sections and at ten kilometres from the line, the escapees were caught. An attentive Caleb Ewan made the cut and also teammate Nikolas Maes - who acted as the perfect guide during the finale - was part of the heavily reduced bunch. It was Pascal Ackermann who started the royal sprint early and seemed to be heading for his second consecutive win. Caleb Ewan didn’t agree with that and like a jack-in-the-box and with an ultimate jump to the line, the Lotto Soudal rider sprinted to his tenth victory of the season!”

Caleb Ewan: “I am very happy with the victory during my first participation in this race. To be honest, I didn’t feel great today and I was struggling on the climbs. But once the adrenaline kicked in, it went better. It was a pretty stressful day and also the rain and the narrow roads made it quite a difficult race. There was also a lot of stress in the bunch. So, all those things made the race that - I think, usually would be easier - a lot harder. Luckily, the team did a great job to keep me at the front during the difficult moments.”

 
“In the end, especially with the slight uphill finish and the headwind, it really was a grind to the finish line. But I think I just timed my sprint really well. I don’t know if I was the strongest sprinter today but I think I timed it the best and luckily, I still had that little extra in the legs to take the win.”