Caleb Ewan shrugged off the pressure and the fact he was racing with lead-out man Roger Kluge for the first time to boss the finish of the Tour Down Under's pre-race People's Choice Classic and get Orica-Scott's race started in winning fashion.
Speaking a few days out from the race, Ewan had suggested it could take the better part of six months to form a winning partnership with Kluge. In hindsight, it could be suggested the 22-year-old was bluffing, but his post-race comments, along with that of sports director Matt White, tell a different story.
"It was the first time I've raced with Roger obviously and he dropped me off in perfect position and it was really the first time I had to touch the wind really. It worked out perfectly," a relieved Ewan told reporters after his trip to the podium for the winner's jersey.
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"I don't think it usually happens like that. All I had to do really was to follow him. In the last couple of laps he was sitting behind me so I got a better ride up the front," he added of Kluge's importance to his stage win. "I was surprised he got through because it was so messy behind me at the end so he did super well and came around me with a lap to go and led me out perfectly."
Ewan's victory was a length and a half over Bora-Hansgrohe's Sam Bennett with world champion Peter Sagan in third. While Ewan has gotten the better of Sagan in the past, at the 2015 Vuelta, confidence is a sprinter's best friend and with winning evidence of a new lead-out partnership, Ewan is primed for Tuesday's stage 1 into Lyndoch. The site of his stage win last year.
"It is so important to get the week off to a good start and a sprint like that gives me a whole lot of confidence going into the tour next week which is probably the main thing is getting that confidence going through to the next races," he explained.
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