Sports Home Caleb Ewan Won a Sprint at GP Monseré—Or So He Thought
Caleb Ewan won in a tight finish at Sunday’s GP Monseré.
Or at least that’s how it appeared in the moments after Ewan and Intermarché-Circus-Wanty rider Gerben Thijssen hit the line wheel-to-wheel at the conclusion of an exciting bunch sprint.
Ewan went as far as giving the winner’s interview after the 1.1-rated Belgian one-day race. But the results were reviewed, the photo finish examined, and, after a short wait, Thijssen was declared the race’s winner.
That evening, the Australian sprinter tweeted a head-on image that appears to show his wheel crossing the line first with the caption, “I kinda think I won. Thoughts?”
Shortly after that, Ewan tweeted another image—this time a closer shot of the two riders’ wheels at the line—to his 41,100 followers. The second image was captioned, “Here’s another one. If anyone’s got a photo of big G clearly beating me, it would actually make me feel a bit better to be honest.”
The image race officials likely used to award the win to Thijssen later appeared online but, like the images Ewan posted to Twitter, it hardly appeared definitive, creating further backlash for the race organizers.
Tom Pidcock, who the day before won Strade Bianche, tweeted an eyeroll emoji in response to Ewan’s original tweet, no doubt a callback to his 2021 Amstel Gold loss-by-a-hair to Wout Van Aert. It was a decision which Pidcock spoke out against at the time, saying it “created more questions than had been answered.”
Ewan’s been on good form throughout this young season, winning the Schwalbe Classic criterium and finishing sixth in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race; both in his native Australia. Of course, this is already his second near-miss of 2023, as Ewan lost a photo finish to Soudal-QuickStep’s Tim Merlier in the opening stage of the UAE Tour two weeks ago.
Ewan’s next opportunity for a victory will come March 18 at Milan-San Remo, where the Lotto-Dstny rider has twice finished second.
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