At the end of last year, the UCI came up with a new rule of eligibility for the Under-23 World Championships, allowing WorldTour riders of that age to enter the event. It was already the case for Pro Continental riders, such as current world champion Kevin Ledanois, who showed up at the Fortuneo-Vital Concept team presentation last week in the rainbow jersey last week, though he won't be able to wear it at races.
The new UCI rule opens the Under-23 Worlds to the likes of Caleb Ewan of Orica-GreenEdge, who would surely be a favourite for the event on the flat roads of Qatar this year after winning eleven races on his professional debut in 2015, including a stage at the Vuelta a España. Ewan finished fourth in his first Under-23 world championship behind Matej Mohoric, Louis Meintjes and Sondre Holst Enger in Florence in 2013, and was the runner-up behind Sven Erik Bystrøm in Ponferrada in 2014. Born in 1994, he theoretically could go back to the young category in Doha – and never wear jersey like Ledanois.
But this potential easy medal for Australia is very unlikely to be targeted as Cyclingnews found out on the start line of the national championship in Buninyong. Orica-GreenEdge team manager Shayne Bannan's first reaction was: "He's a World Tour rider!" But Australia loves gold…
ADVERTISEMENT
"We'd leave that to Caleb to decide," Bannan continued. "Would he be allowed to wear that jersey? If he wanted to do it there's no way we'd oppose to this fantastic possibility for him to be the [U23] world champion. But the world championship is flat this year. For him it's a really good opportunity to have exposure in his first professional world championship. If it was for myself I'd rather get the experience and the exposure in the Elite rather than in the under 23."
Ewan's new teammate Alex Edmondson, who is just six months older than him, doesn't see the Australian going back to the under-23 ranks. "My birthday is on December 22, so I miss being under-23 this year again by about a week," Edmondson said. "It's a question you have to ask him [Ewan] but look what he does at World Tour level. I mean, he's winning stages of Grand Tours. I can't make that call for him but it's pretty unbelievable to be able to do what he does at that young age, it's impressive."
"If I'm wearing my Australian Elite national coach hat, I'd like to explore all potential possibilities to running Caleb with me in the elite," acknowledged sports director Bradley McGee, who also nurtured Ewan at the New South Wales Sports Institute before he turned pro. "But at the same time we're going to have that conversation with Kevin Tabotta and James Victor with regards to the under-23 goals but definitely my thoughts would be going towards the pro race with Caleb.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/22V7Mvt
No comments:
Post a Comment