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Was Caleb Ewan robbed of a victory due to a lousy photo finish camera?

Lotty Dstny rider is questioning the result at Grote Prijs Jean-Pierre Monseré

Caleb Ewan sprinting Photo by: Caleb Ewan
March 6, 2023
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After 198.6 km, the finish of the Grote Prijs Jean-Pierre Monseré came down to a millimetre. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny) and Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) arrived at the line in a tight sprint, both throwing their bikes to try to snag the win.

At first, it seemed the win went to Ewan. In fact, a TV crew even interviewed him thinking the victory was his. A few minutes later though, officials declared Thijssen to have won the race.

The Australian sprinter later tweeted photos of the finish, wondering if the decision was wrong.

“I kinda think I won. Thoughts?” In the photo he posted, it certainly seems that he was first, not second.

Tom Pidcock, winner of Saturday’s Strade Bianche, also weighed in with a cheeky emoji reply.

Ewan posted another photo, which seems to bolster his argument even further

Sam Wesford of DSM also agreed with a post: “Wtf, you clearly got this.”

There may have been problems with the actual finish line itself.

Luc Grefte tweeted about it. ”By the way, is that finish line even straight?” he wrote. Grefte also pointed out the photo finish was not conforming with UCI guidelines, complicating the controversial finale further.

“Photo finish was not setup according to the UCI protocol. Finish is when crossing from the white to the black edge. Part just before black edge is white to provide better contrast in photo finish. Photo finish should therefore have a white background, not black.”

Even worse, the image that the photo-finish camera took was extraordinarily bad.