Caleb Yuan of Lotto Soudal was crowned sprint world champion on Wednesday afternoon.

It was clear that they were not on the same playing field in Shorten, as the Belgian one-day race was contested while Arnaud Demaret (Groupama-FDJ) was winning the Giro d'Italia against Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe).

But Yuan and his Belgian team didn't mind, and celebrated their good win, but the celebration didn't go as smoothly as one might have hoped, as Yuan had trouble opening the champagne bottle.

"I don't know what went wrong. Usually it's so easy to open. I couldn't open it. Maybe I'm not in the condition to open champagne like I used to," Ewan said with a big smile.

Fortunately, he is still enjoying the sprint form that earned him two stage wins at last month's Tour de France. The 26-year-old Australian sprinter, who enjoyed a sprint victory and a champagne battle on the podium in Schoten next to Antwerp, was asked at a post-race press conference how he rated himself against other top sprinters compared to last year, when he was considered the best sprinter in the world.

"Last year I didn't think I was the best sprinter in the world," he said. I was happy with my results. I think I probably had the best result of all the sprinters. Last year, Sam Bennett was not in the Tour. This year, Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo Visma) didn't make the Tour, and De Mare didn't make the Tour, so it's hard to judge when you don't have everybody in one race."

At this year's Tour de France, Deceuninck-Quick-Step's Bennett showed his superior sprinting ability to take the green jersey and two stage wins.

"Arnaud is doing really well and Bennett has been in good form the last few years. "It was always difficult to judge him because we didn't race together much last year. We didn't race together much last year, so it was always difficult to judge him."

"I was very lucky in the two sprints I won at the Tour. If I had been further ahead and started the sprint better, I could have won another one. It's hard to compare the last two Tours."

No less than four stages of the Giro d'Italia ended in a group sprint, and clearly Ewan could have been a factor in those stages. He was originally scheduled to take part in the Italian Grand Tour, but when the team list was announced at the end of September, Ewan was no longer included on that list.

The Australian rider quickly made it clear that he did not regret his absence in Italy.

"The Giro is a great race on the normal cycling calendar that gives me confidence for the Tour de France. Everyone knows that the stages of the Tour are bigger than the stages of the Giro." I always want to win at the highest level. It would be nice to win a stage of the Giro, but after the Tour it's hard to beat Arnaud, who is currently in great form."

"Some of the sprints he has won have been really difficult. Sometimes when I see that, I wish I could be there. And sometimes when I see everyone else struggling on the hills, I'm glad I stayed home. And the weather doesn't look too good," he said with a smile.

"I decided not to go on the first rest day of the Tour de France. Because of the changes to the course, my chances of sprinting were not as good as I thought they would be at the beginning of the year," he continued.

"My plan was not to finish the Giro, and in the first 10 days there weren't that many sprints to justify going.

"You could see that I was struggling a lot in the Tour. I was pretty tired. I needed the rest. We had a good race here, and winning like this is probably more important than winning a stage of the Giro. The team wanted a good result in one of the classics. I'm happy to get a result for them," Ewan said.

Ewan has won seven of the team's ten victories this year, but he downplayed his role.

"My job for the team is to win. Everyone on the team has their role and everyone is important. My role is to win races, and I'm happy to have done that this year."

As Ewan says, coming back tired from the Tour de France explains the post-Tour race schedule. Three weeks after the Tour, Ewan took part in Ghent-Wevelgem, but abandoned during the race. In the past, many sprinters would have preferred this one-day race, but these days it seems too tough for pure sprinters. On Sunday, Yuan dropped out of the race on the first climb of the Kemelberg.

"I've seen races won by good sprinters in the past, but this is a long, hard race," he said. 'The weather was tough too, with rain and wind. I don't think he was in any condition to win a race like that."

"I had a good run in this race and I knew I could do well in Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne (on October 21). Ghent-Wevelgem was a bit out of my reach. It was a really hard race

"I was in the lead group, but I dropped out of it. I knew if I couldn't stay with them, I would be dropped somewhere on the climbs. Mentally, it was hard to keep going because I was dropped before one of the climbs. This was my goal, so I didn't want to go too deep. I knew if I was in good shape, I could do well here.

"But it was nice to run Ghent-Wevelgem to get back into race mode. It really helped for today," Ewan said.

Three days after Ghent-Wevelgem, the Kermes-like Scheldepreis suited Ewan perfectly. The race no longer started in Holland due to coronavirus measures, and it was a less windy version with 10 local laps.

"It was actually pretty hard," Ewan said. 'They didn't let the braking go very far. They were constantly holding around 1 minute. It was an uncomfortable pace. I don't know if it was just hard for me or if it was hard for everyone.

"There were a lot of corners on the course, so it wasn't that easy. 'Once the adrenaline starts pumping, you start to feel a little better. Eventually, when the adrenaline starts to kick in, you feel a little bit better."

"I knew from previous races that the sprint would be pretty hectic. In fact, we lost a team going down the canal. It was a bit hectic going through that corner with 3km to go," Yuan explained.

"I just stayed calm. They dropped back for me, caught me, and put me back in front. We were basically where we needed to be up front. We were out of the pack around the 10-wheelers, which is always trouble."

"The group was really orderly and I was able to stay where I wanted. If I could start sprinting when I wanted to, that would be perfect."

Perfectly positioned, Ewan timed his sprint perfectly on the approach to Schoten's Churchill Lane to pull a bike length ahead of Bora-Hansgrohe's Pascal Ackermann.

"He went off his line, but obviously he didn't do it to hurt anyone. He was moving to sprint. It was bad luck. I don't know who it was. He was on top of the wheel, as is often the case in sprints."

"He was on top of the wheel,"

"He was on top of the wheel.

"If there is a gap to the right or left, it is normal for a sprinter to try to get through that gap and start sprinting. 'Unfortunately, sometimes there are riders whose wheels overlap, and when you move, you crash.'

Next week, Ewan will close out the season with a race in Belgium. He will try to win the Driedaagse De Panne-Koksijde, which used to be a three-day race. For Belgian Lotto Soudal, this is a home race, and Ewan is eager to win this race again for his team, but is concerned about the increasing number of cases of coronavirus in Europe.

"It's an important race for the team because it's a World Tour race. Obviously we want to win and today gives us a lot of confidence going into the race. We know the situation in Belgium is not very good. We know the situation in Belgium is not so good. I'm praying that I can race to the end and that I can finish in De Panne before the season is over."

Finishing the season in Driedaagse Brugge-DePanne means that there will be no Vuelta a España as part of this shortened cycling season.

"I've always had a chance to compete in the Vuelta, but it feels like a really long year when you're not actually racing that much," Ewan said.

"Hopefully next season the cycling calendar will be normal again."

Ewan will travel to his European home of Monaco this week before returning to Belgium on Monday for his final race of the season.

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