Caleb Yuan (Lotto Soudal) was in trouble on Thursday's Tirreno-Adriatico. The Australian rider, who had a small crash in the previous stage and went on to win the race, found himself in a tough situation on the early stage 4 climb in the Apennines and opted to go for it.

The race began to climb from the 4km mark, and the hectic start made the climb almost unstoppable, with the breakaway taking more than 20km to form. Around 50km into the race, word came that Yuan had abandoned.

"He suffered a bit from yesterday's small crash and today's hard start. He and the team decided it was best not to push too hard and he abandoned the race."

The crash the team referred to was on stage 3, about 90 km from the finish, when Ewan collided with an Ineos Grenadiers staff member in the feed zone. Ewan then quickly recovered and took his first stage win in Tirreno-Adriatico in a slightly uphill sprint finish on the cobblestones of Terni.

The team announced at the time that the crash had only resulted in a bike change and had no further effects. However, after struggling in the early 1/4 of stage 4 and with an important goal of the season looming, Ewan was not taking any chances.

"Caleb will now recover and focus on final preparations for #MilanSanRemo," the team said on Twitter.

Despite the early loss, the race has already brought much.

"It's a completely different race from Milano-San Remo, but we will do everything we can to be in really good form.

"I'm really happy with the start of the season. I've won a few races, I think my climbing is going well, my sprinting is going well. I'm happy with where I'm at."

Ewan began the 2022 season with an opening stage win in the Tour of Saudi Arabia. After his return, he took a stage win at the Tour du Var and finished second at the Cune Brussel-Cuneux.

Ewan has twice finished second in Milan-San Remo. Last year, he won the sprint behind Stuyven with Julian Alaphilippe and Wout Van Aert accelerating on the Poggio climb. In Tirreno-Adriatico, he suffered a mild gastroenteritis and did not want to jeopardize his participation in the Italian one-day race, an important target on his calendar, so he abandoned during the third stage in 2021.

The 293-km Milano-San Remo, where Ewan also finished second in 2018, will start from the Vigorelli stadium on Saturday, March 19.