Caleb Ewan's struggles to return to Grand Tour winning ways at the Giro d'Italia have taken another discouraging hit, leaving former sprint great Robbie McEwen to suggest his fellow Australian sprint ace may have lost his mojo.
Sydney's Ewan, for so long Australia's 'Pocket Rocket' did not even get to blast off on Friday, again not featuring in the mass sprint shake-up on a 12th stage which was dominated once more by hat-trick winner Jonathan Milan.
Ewan couldn't negotiate his way near to his Jayco AlUla sprint train in the denouement to the entirely flat 179km route from Riccione to Cento, and eventually traipsed home 25th as Italian powerhouse Milan took his third win of a Giro where he has looked head and shoulders above his sprint rivals.
It left Eurosport analyst McEwen, the only Australian cyclist to have won more than Ewan's 11 Grand Tour stages, pondering whether his illustrious successor's latest woes were down to lack of confidence or even a physical ailment.
"The mojo is missing to a large extent. Aerobically, he's really good - when they go on a difficult stage, he gets dropped later than other sprinters - but I think that once it goes anaerobic, into that next energy system and he's required to go absolutely 100 per cent, something's switching off or just not engaging," said McEwen.
"I think there's something not quite right with him physically, as well as the other part of not fighting hard enough and taking risks.
"It's not an exact science but sometimes it's just a case the riders you're trying to work for not having the legs to make the necessary accelerations at the right moment. His team all got to the front but he couldn't follow."
For 29-year-old Ewan, it's turned into a hugely disappointing Grand Tour back with his old Australian-based team, as he hoped to turn around his fortunes following a couple of bad years with his previous team, Lotto-Dstny.
Alpecin-Deceuninck's Kaden Groves has outperformed Ewan at this Giro, but after a couple of runner's up spots, he was also out of the running on Friday, coming home 16th as up ahead, Lidl-Trek's Milan only stretched his dominant lead over the Australian in the points classification.
Milan, who also won the fourth and 11th stages, this time finished comfortably ahead of Stanislaw Aniolkowski and Phil Bauhaus once his team had helped get him back to the front after he'd fallen behind in the crosswinds.
Meanwhile, Tadej Pogacar responded to attacks through the crosswinds without much alarm to maintain his overall race lead, still two minutes 40 seconds ahead of Dani Martinez, 2:56 clear of Geraint Thomas and 3:39 ahead of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale's Australian leader Ben O'Connor.
"Every stage in the Giro something happens," Pogacar said of the attacks from Thomas's Ineos Grenadiers team.
Pogacar is expected to improve his lead on Saturday's stage 14, a 31km individual time trial from Castiglione delle Stiviere to Desenzano del Garda before the peloton hit the mountains again in three consecutive stages.
