The Aussie sprint star put down the power as he launched his final sprint over the last 100 metres of a demanding final climb in Visegrad on Friday.
However, the final push to the line took a heartbreaking turn for the Sydney-born Lotto Soudal rider as he clipped the back wheel of Eritrean Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert-Materiaux) which sent him crashing down at speed less than 100 metres from the finish line.
The Dutch stage favourite Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) went on to pip Girmay for victory.
Ewan laid groggily on the tarmac for a brief moment with the high-speed crash leaving him winded, before he eventually rose groggily, with his jersey torn around his left shoulder, remounted and grimaced as he needed assistance to struggle across the line in 76th place, 64 seconds behind.
It was another painful grand tour stage for the 27-year-old, who crashed out of the third stage of the Tour de France last year, suffering a broken collarbone that ended his race.
Friday's crash, though, was thankfully not as serious, with his team reporting: "Apart from several abrasions, Caleb came away without any severe injuries and will take the start in the individual time trial tomorrow."
The incident was a difficult end to what had been a brilliant ride from Ewan, who kept himself in contention after a lung-busting 5.7km final ascent.
The Aussie sprint star revealed after the race that his push for the win had gone south before the crash.
"I was in third wheel so it was a perfect scenario for me. Where it all started to go wrong was when I bumped into Magnus Cort and I shifted down into the wrong gear," he said.
"Van der poel and Girimay came together and I was just too close to the back wheel, then he popped and I clipped it then it was all over from there.
Ewan said he is confident his injuries aren't serious and is determined to push on at the Giro.
"My injuries at the moment are just skin but you never truly know straight away. I definitely haven’t broken anything which is good," he said.
"I felt really good. In the final kilometre, I was able to follow all the moves and I think I can take a lot of positives from that.
"The team are really positive, everyone got to the markers they needed to get to so that was super strong and I felt really strong as well.
Ewan will likely use Saturday’s time trial as a chance to recover before turning his attention to his next bunch sprint opportunity on a flat stage three.
The Giro d'Italia continues with Stage 2 tonight, a 9.2-kilometre time trial in Budapest. Watch the full stage LIVE and FREE on SBS On Demand from 9.50pm AEST, with the SBS broadcast starting from 10.40pm AEST. WA viewers can watch via SBS VICELAND from 8.40pm AEST.
