Caleb Ewan: ‘Gallipoli puts it all in perspective’

First came the physical pain of crashing hands-first onto the tarmac with a little more than 60 kilometres remaining until the Presidential Tour of Turkey’s extremely technical uphill stage finish, which would normally suit the diminutive, yet explosive Australian sprinter, Caleb Ewan.

Then ensued the initial shock he had perhaps injured his wrist when his fingers failed to properly function.

The situation was “not ideal” for the first-year Lotto Soudal rider looking to attempt his first Grand Tour double after six years spent racing with Mitchelton-Scott.

After gingerly remounting his Ridley race bike, Ewan, with the help of team-mate Enzo Wouters (GER), painfully grinded his way toward the Stage 2 finish line adjacent to Martyr’s Memorial — once a sad reminder of war, now a shining symbol of peace.

With each pedal stroke, the pain lessened and wrist came good, and with the relief arose a heightened sense of clarity as he rode over the Gallipoli peninsula, once a fierce battleground where hundreds of thousands of casualties littered the then-Ottoman landscape.

“I was having a bad day yesterday,” a still visibly sore 24-year-old told Eurosport while standing along the Dardanelles Strait prior to the Stage 3 start in Çanakkale. “Then you think a lot of Australians came here and lost their lives, so it puts it in a bit of perspective. What we are doing — on the [grander] scale of things — is not so important.

“It’s pretty special to start here.”

Exact casualty figures vary, but an estimated 450,000 Allied forces from Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Newfoundland and France took part in the failed Gallipoli campaign, at a cost of more than 250,000 casualties, including some 26,000 Australians.

In total, the Allies lost more than 50,000 troops, nearly 9,000 of which belonged to Australia.

The Ottoman Empire also paid a heavy price for their victory, with an estimated 250,000 Turkish and Arab troops of their own either killed or wounded defending Gallipoli.

The seven-time Tour Down Under stage winner was not the only Aussie on Thursday’s start to reflect on the enormity of the sacrifices made more than a century ago and historic significance of their current surroundings.

“Yesterday we finished pretty much above Anzac Cove,” explained 23-year-old Perth native Ben O’Connor (Team Dimension Data).

“We learn about [Gallipoli] in primary school. It’s a place I didn’t actually think I’d end up visiting, so to finish there [is special].”

Last year's Tour of the Alps stage winner agrees with Ewan, and says taking a step back from the myopic side of sport allows for him to embrace the enormity of the region’s tragic past.

“It’s hard in a bike race, because [Stage 2 was] a hilltop finish and your mind is clearly elsewhere, but when you finish a stage — or start — and you can look up and think about what was done, it is kind of humbling all of it,” he said.

Australians were not the only ones affected by enormous losses during the 11-month campaign that ended on January 9, 1916. New Zealand soldiers suffered nearly 8,000 casualties, including more than 2,700 deaths — a statistic, and sacrifice, not lost on Southlander Shane Archbold (Bora-Hansgrohe).

“A lot of New Zealanders lost their lives [here] and it’s only one week out from Anzac Day (April 25),” said the 30-year-old Kiwi from Timaru. “So it’s great to be here. Obviously, it would be nice to come back here on a different occasion, but it’s great to be here [racing] as a New Zealander.”

With the race celebrating its 55th edition, it is not the first time riders from Down Under have graced the start list. Another Australian, who is making his sixth start at the race dating back to 2010, includes Giro-bound lead-out specialist Mark Renshaw (Team Dimension Data), who spoke with Eurosport in 2015 during the centenary anniversary of the catastrophic Gallipoli campaign that claimed nearly half a million casualties during World War I.

“It’s an important day for Australians and for everybody to recognise the lives that were given for the freedom of people today,” said the 36-year-old former Quick-Step rider, who had won a stage for Rabobank at the Tour of Turkey on Anzac Day three years prior.

“It does mean quite a lot and to win on that day and to be here in Turkey racing is pretty special,” he continued. “Probably later on in life when I stop cycling, I’ll be able to really study the history and appreciate that win even more.”

For full stage and race results, click here.