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Crouched over his handlebars in a bunch finish, front-heavy, low, Caleb Ewan may be the best road sprinter in the world. It’s hard to compare, and since no two sprints are the same, nor necessarily tell us much more than who had the best run that day, there’s no objective measure. Most might agree that Ewan and Sam Bennett are a little clear of the others right now, maybe Arnaud Démare as well, and of his generation, Ewan has won the most Tour stages, with five, though Bennett beat him three to two in 2020. Then again, Bennett didn’t do the things that Ewan did. Like the miracle of Sisteron.

With 300m to go in stage 3 of the 2020 Tour, Ewan was around 13th or 14th wheel. With 150m to go, he was still a few lengths behind Bennett, among others; more pertinently, a wall of riders had fanned across the road. The bad news for Ewan was that there was no way through; the good news was that there was a stiff headwind - while the leaders had their own private losing battles with Newton’s first law, the Australian could at least save energy while he finessed his trajectory.

Ewan weaved right and squeezed into a gap between Peter Sagan and the barriers which existed for precisely the amount of time it took Ewan to gently nudge his front wheel into it and out the other side. He spent the final 50m closing the gap on Bennett, then overtaking. The headwind made that last bit look easy, but at that moment, Ewan really did look like the best sprinter in the