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Team Lotto Soudal announced Ewan’s omission from their line-up for the final Grand Tour of the year on Wednesday, with the Belgian based outfit forced to reshuffle their plans for the gruelling 21 stage race which starts in Burgos on Saturday
Ewan had been on the comeback trail from the injury which he suffered in a high-speed crash with Peter Sagan during the sprint to the finish on the third stage of the Tour de France.
The 26-year-old required surgery to fix the serious collarbone fracture, with surgeons inserting a titanium plate to help his recovery.
Although returning to the road in recent weeks to prepare for the Vuelta, Ewan was forced to pull the plug on his planned rapid return to action.
Without Ewan, and Belgian rider Jasper De Buyst who was also unavailable for selection due to injury, Lotto Soudal has been forced to shake up their plans for this year’s Vuelta.
Due to the absence of Caleb Ewan and Jasper De Buyst, we needed to adjust our Vuelta line-up, which is now more focused towards the hilly and mountain stages," said Lotto Soudal sports director Nikolas Maes.
"Guys like Andreas Kron and Harm Vanhoucke have already proven that they can obtain some nice results.
“They will be supported by Steff Cras, Matthew Holmes, Sylvain Moniquet and Maxim Van Gils. With Frederik Frison and Florian Vermeersch, we have two powerhouses in our team.
Maes admitted Lotto Soudal was lining up with a youthful squad at this year’s Vuelta but was confident his team has what it takes to claim stage wins.
“Overall, our selection doesn't have a ton of Grand Tour experience yet, but they all have big potential. I am convinced that each one of them will prove himself at La Vuelta,” he said.
“With these young guys, we certainly can't expect them to be there every day, but our ambition is to win a stage, which is, in my opinion, more than justified with this team. We will mainly be aiming at the transition stages and the tough uphill finishes. On paper, there are some really nice opportunities to show ourselves."
The Vuelta a Espana gets underway on Saturday with a 7.1-kilometre individual time trial in Burgos.
