Why Caleb Ewan to Ineos Makes Sense

Plus, Jack Burke on taking Strava KOMs, the struggle for a pro contract & his future plans

New Beyond the Peloton Podcast: For this week’s episode of the Beyond the Peloton Podcast, Andrew Vontz and I sit down with Jack Burke, a Canadian cyclist, podcaster, and author who made headlines earlier this year when he took the Strava KOMs (aka fastest recorded times) on some of the hardest climbs in professional cycling (Alpe d'Huez, Stelvio & Mortirolo) a year after stepping away from a career in the lower ranks of professional cycling. They discuss Jack's racing background, his journey through the brutal world of third-division European racing, how he came to record some of the fastest times up the most famous climbs in the world, why he is struggling to get a contract with a pro team, and his plans for 2025.

Listen on Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else you get your podcasts

What struck me most about talking to Jack, outside of his incredible drive and work ethic, is just how hard the road is for North American cyclists trying to make the jump to the European ranks, especially if they age out of or miss entirely on the U-19 and U-23 wave of recruitment. Once a rider is over 23, they essentially have to deliver an undeniable result at a major European-based race on a third-division team (all while making little to no money) or have team management at a first or second-division team to take a massive chance on them. And, with any viable road scene in North America quickly disappearing, it makes the window of opportunity for even the most talented North Americans incredibly small.

Why Caleb Ewan to Ineos Makes Sense

A few weeks after it was reported that Caleb Ewan was missing from all Jayco-AlUla team activities (the team he was contracted with for the 2025 season), including their web/social media presence and upcoming race calendar, the mystery about who Ewan would race for this season was solved when the Ineos Grenadiers announced they were signing Ewan to a one-year deal for 2025.

While it may seem jarring to casual observers that one of the sport’s top sprinters was essentially kicked off his hometown team, Jayco-AlUla, and given a one-year deal by a team that hasn’t traditionally focused on sprints, when we look deeper, this move makes some sense for all parties involved.

• Firstly, there has been a wave of discontent behind the scenes from Jayco management around Ewan’s behavior since he made the jump from Lotto-Dsty (who became so disenchanted by Ewan that they offered to cover more than half of Ewan’s substantial €2 million annual salary if Jayco would take him on) prior to the 2024 season.

  • After Astana-XDS explored the idea of, but eventually passed on, signing Ewan away from Jayco during this past off-season, the relationship between Ewan and Jayco deteriorated to the point that there was no path for either party to move forward together. Jayco was ready to get off Ewan’s massive contract and willing to make life as miserable as possible for their sprint star (by refusing to race him and contesting compensation) that Ewan was looking to leave the situation as soon as possible.

• Meanwhile, Ineos lost one of their biggest stars in Tom Pidcock, the closest thing they had to a knock-down stage/small group winner in Jhonatan Narváez, over the off-season, were preparing to enter the season with no obvious contenders to win a Grand Tour in 2025 and no true sprinter to allow them to contest stage wins while they chase overall podiums and top fives.

  • Assuming Ineos were able to leverage the fact that Ewan didn’t have a viable option with Jayco and was facing the possibility of watching 2025 from the sidelines enough to get him to bend on his compensation and sign him to a bonus-heavy, low-salary deal, this signing potentially solves one of their biggest issues; failing to win big races consistently.

    • While a 30-year-old pure sprinter who hasn’t won a WorldTour race since 2022 isn’t exactly the type of rider a numbers-driven top-tier team would normally want to throw their weight behind when we consider Ineos’ other option of entering the season with a strong but slightly blunted, roster, making a push to pick up a potential multi-time Grand Tour stage winner seems like the type of low-risk, high-upside move they can’t afford to pass on.

      • Ewan hasn’t shown many signs of life over the past year, but Ineos is one of the few teams in the sport that regularly executes an incredible sprint leadout while lacking a true sprinter to compete for Ewan with the last spot in the leadout train. After all, even if modern racing has made pure sprinters less effective, sometimes the best way to win races is to simply have the fastest guy from the bunch at the end of the stage.

        • Also, it is likely no coincidence that this deal went through just a few days after Geraint Thomas publicly pressured Ineos management to get it done.

• However, even if this specific transfer makes the best of a bad situation for Ewan, Jayco, and Ineos, in a larger sense, it does appear to show us that we have officially entered correction territory for pure sprinters that offer limited versatility and ability to help their team outside of winning races and are looking for big seven-figure deals.

  • After all, with the peloton now littered with riders like Jasper Philipsen, Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, Biniam Girmay, Mads Pedersen, and Jonathan Milan, who can consistently contest major one-day Classics and perform critical teamwork on the front, all while winning Grand Tour sprints, it makes less and less sense to invest a substantial amount of money in a more traditional sprinter with a one-dimensional skillset.

Tour Down Under

With Stage 5 of the Tour Down Under currently underway and the GC likely to drastically change after the summit finishes atop Willunga Hill, I am going to hold my Tour Down Under check-in until after the dust settles on this evening’s stage.

Stage Winners Stages 1-4:
Stage 1 Winner Sam Welsford (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)
Stage 2 Winner: Sam Welsford (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)
Stage 3 Winner: Javier Romo (Movistar Team)
Stage 4 Winner: Bryan Coquard (Cofidis)

Overall Top Five After Stage 4:
1) Javier Romo (Movistar Team) +0
2) Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) +4
3) Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek) +10
4) Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +10
5) Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +12