The Australian sensation, who has been in good form early in the season and won four of the six stages as well as the sprint classification at the Tour Down Under in his homeland last month, raised his arms in triumph thinking he’d crossed the line first in the UAE capital – only for replays to confirm Germany’s Marcel Kittel had beaten him by less than half a wheel.
The 22-year-old Sydney native took over the white jersey for the Best Young Rider from Niccolo Bonifazio but the Orica Scott rider admitted that was scant consolation.
“For sure, it could have been much more. I’m super annoyed with myself to be honest,” said Ewan.
“My team did a great job and even though I was feeling a bit sore this morning, they always supported me throughout the whole stage and really backed me. For me to stuff it up like I did, I feel bad for them more than anything.”
Asked to explain what went wrong, the youngster added: “Sprinting to the line would’ve helped me. To be honest, I thought I was already at the line and then it was kind of one of those things where that last 30 centimetres went really slowly and he (Kittel) got me.
“I haven’t watched the finish yet but I don’t think I went to salute super early, I thought I was already at the line when I did.”
Despite his obvious disappointment, Ewan said the error is something he will learn from.
“It was one of the biggest rookie mistakes a sprinter could make. That’s the good thing to come out of it is that I’m probably never going to do that again,” he said.
“I’m obviously super disappointed to do something so silly like that but if I can take a positive out of it, it is that I pushed the best sprinters to the line today, especially after my crash yesterday.
“It gives me plenty of confidence and hope going forward and hopefully I can get the stage on Sunday.”
And, having been caught up in a crash that saw him finish well down in 139th on Thursday’s Stage 1, Ewan was annoyed at himself for ruining what would have been a perfect riposte.
“For sure it could’ve been one of the best turnarounds I could’ve hoped for but, like I said before, I’m just super disappointed for my teammates,” he said.
“They worked so hard for me to do that and I did something so silly in the end.”
