Caleb Ewan extends Lotto-Soudal contract until 2022

Caleb Ewan has extended his contract with Lotto-Soudal until the end of the 2022 season.

The Australian sprinter enjoyed one of his most successful seasons so far during his first year with the Belgian squad, winning three stages of the Tour de France, including a coveted victory on the Champs-Élysées on stage 21.

The 25-year-old only transferred to Lotto-Soudal from Mitchelton-Scott last year, looking for a team more dedicated to helping him take stage victories, with the Australian team having to balance the ambition of the Yates twins, with both Adam and Simon targeting the overall victories of stage races.

Alongside Ewan's extension, Lotto-Soudal have also renewed the contracts of Jasper De Buyst and Roger Kluge until the end of 2022, with the German having followed Ewan across from Mitchelton-Scott.

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In an interview with Cycling Weekly, Ewan claimed that Kluge was the weirdest team-mate he had, but that the pair got on very well.

Commenting on his contract extension, the Australian said: "I already knew after probably the first few months in the team that it was a great fit for me and something that I wanted to continue on with in the future. That was before I even started doing well with the team.

"The first few months of this year were going so well. The team had so much faith in me and I just knew that if we worked together well that the wins would start coming. I just felt so comfortable in the team that straight away from the first few months I knew that, if the opportunity came and the team wanted to keep me, that I’d be happy to extend for a longer period and that we could really work together and work towards the future."

Caleb Ewan is expected to head to Australia at the start of 2020 to race the Santos Tour Down Under and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. He could then once again go on to ride both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, as he targets more Grand Tour stage victories.