FILE PHOTO: Cycling - Giro d'Italia - Stage 7 - Notaresco to Termoli, Italy - May 14, 2021 Lotto Soudal rider Caleb Ewan of Australia wins stage 7 REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian cyclist Caleb Ewan said he was heartbroken to have missed out on his country's team for the road World Championships on home soil in Wollongong next month.
The 28-year-old posted a picture of himself winning the first stage of the Deutschland Tour in Meiningen on Thursday on social media along with confirmation that he had failed to make the cut for the team.
"This one felt really good!" he wrote. "Especially after the bad news that I won't be at my home world championships this year.
"To be honest I don't have much to say on the matter other than I'm heartbroken I won't be there to represent my country and that I believe I deserved to be there. Anyways, sob story over."
The World Championships take place from Sept. 17 to 25 around Wollongong, a coastal city 80 km south of Ewan's hometown of Sydney.
The host nation's men's team will be led by Jai Hindley, who became the first Australian to win the Giro d'Italia in May, and Michael Matthews, a former under-23 world champion who won the 14th stage of this year's Tour de France.
"This was a very difficult selection as we have such a big and talented pool of athletes to select from," said team coordinator Rory Sutherland.
"Athletes are always proud to race in the green and gold - doing so on home soil is a dream that probably comes once in a lifetime."
Amanda Spratt, who owns silver and bronze medals from previous world championship road races, will compete in the Australian women's team along with Georgia Baker, who won gold in the road race at the recent Commonwealth Games.
"It's always an honour and privilege to wear the green and gold, so I am so excited to be named in the team for my 10th World Championships," said Spratt.
"Even more special is that it is a home World Championships that covers roads I grew up training on."
Ewan has had a disappointing season by his own standards, having failed to win a stage on either the Tour de France or Giro d'Italia and missing the Commonwealth Games after failing to recover in time from a shoulder surgery.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Robert Birsel)
