Aussie sprinter Ewan bemoaned his final sprint for the second straight day at the Tour, after the Lotto Soudal rider was forced towards the barriers by an attack from sprinters Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies), leaving him trapped as the two veered to the right side of the road.
A frustrated Ewan crossed the line in ninth place as a result, seeing his hopes for the green jersey dashed after the Aussie lost prime position on the final sprint on Stage 2 by skipping gears the previous day.
"It was a pretty hectic final again, but I think I turned the corner in pretty good position" Ewan said.
"I was on Dylan's (Groenewegen) wheel, so it wasn't too bad. But when I tried to open my sprints up the only way to go for me was on the barrier, but it closed."
Ewan remained optimistic of an individual improvement in the Tour's upcoming stages despite seeing his chances for victory on the day taken away and slipping to seventh in the points classification.
"I think as long as you are confident with your form then it will have to go my way one day," he said.
"I feel good and the team is going good, so I'm sure one day the sprint will click for me and I'll get a clean run at the line."
The 27-year-old was similarly full of praise for the Danish crowd and his Lotto Soudal team despite his overall disappointment.
"It's been great (racing in Denmark). There's so many people out to watch us and the atmosphere has been amazing, so it's been really nice to start here but I'm ready to go to France now," he said.
"We know that we don't really have the team here to do a full lead-out, so the best thing they can do is put me in a good position in the last kilometre. Both times I've started in good positions - in the last case, I can't complain with that but it's just in the final few metres that something always happens.
"The team are riding really good and I'm really happy with them, but I just need some luck with the sprints, I think."
Ewan is hoping for tomorrow's rest day to be reset for him and Lotto Soudal before the Belgian outfit embark on a hilly stage four from Dunkirk to Calais on Tuesday (AEST).
Watch Stage 4 on Tuesday evening from 9:05pm (AEST) on the SBS ŠKODA Tour Tracker, with SBS television and SBS On Demand coverage starting at 9:30pm (AEST).
