Ethan Hayter knew the Alto da Fóia better than most, having won there in last May’s pandemic-delayed Volta ao Algarve, but the circumstances were rather different on his second visit to the mountaintop on Thursday. The pool of talent on show was a little deeper as the race returned to its traditional February slot, while Hayter’s own condition was altogether less certain after COVID-19 interrupted the final part of his preparations for the new season.
As the climb drew on and the front group grew more sparse, however, Hayter’s confidence grew. Dusk had all but fallen as they reached the mountaintop, but the Briton had hopes of conjuring up the same turn of speed that carried him to victory beneath golden sunshine last year. As the finish line approached, Ineos Grenadiers’ focus switched from protecting Daniel Martinez to teeing up Hayter.
In the final reckoning, Hayter couldn’t quite live with the fierce acceleration of David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), but he still had sufficient power to emerge from the gloom and take third place on the stage, a second down on the Frenchman.
“I think the plan wasn’t originally for me to still to be there, but I ended up following on the back and the pace wasn’t too high,” Hayter told Cyclingnews in Almodovar on Friday. “It was good for my confidence and I made the call with about a kilometre and a half to go that it was going to be a sprint. I felt good at the time but when it finally came to it, I didn’t quite have the legs, so that was a shame.”
No matter, the performance was an encouraging one for Hayter, who lost a week or so of his pre-season training to illness. That interruption placed a natural cap on his ambition on the climbs at the Tour de la Provence, his first race of 2022, but he has been consistently in the mix in Portugal. After placing 14th in the bunch sprint in Faro on Friday, Hayter lies third overall, a second behind Gaudu, and on the same time as Martinez, Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates).
Time trial
While Evenepoel is favoured to lay the foundations of overall victory in Saturday’s 32.2km time trial from Vila Real de Santo António to Tavira, Hayter’s own pedigree against the watch places him firmly among the contenders to challenge the Belgian for the yellow jersey this weekend. “I don’t know if he’s in his best shape and I’m probably not in mine either, but it’s going to be interesting,” Hayter said.
Indeed, despite his truncated final approach to the season, Hayter took second place behind teammate Filippo Ganna in the prologue time trial at Étoile de Bessèges, even if he acknowledged that the short, intense effort there was not entirely equivalent to the longer test he faces on Saturday afternoon.
“They’re quite different. I think coming back from missing training I could struggle in the longer time trial but we’ll just try our best and find out,” said Hayter. “I’m national TT champion, so it’s always nice to bring out my new bike, and I was 8th in the Worlds last year as well, so I think I’ll hopefully do a nice time trial and then I’ll see. There’s also Dani [Martinez], Tom [Pidcock] and Dylan [van Baarle] so we’ll see where that leaves us for GC.”
Whether riding for himself or in the service of a teammate, Hayter should again be prominent on Sunday’s finale atop the Alto do Malhão. In 2021 alone, the Londoner won bunch sprints, time trials and mountaintop finishes, as well as an omnium world title on the track and a silver medal in the Madison at the Olympics.
Not unlike his teammate and contemporary Pidcock, Hayter’s is a versatile talent that seems to defy all conventional categorisation. Small wonder, then, that he has been assigned a varied diet of racing in the weeks ahead. Injury compromised his preparation for last season and limited his exposure to the Classics. This time out, he will be by Pidcock’s side for much of the spring, and he is also slated to make his Grand Tour debut at the Giro d’Italia.
“I’m not sure yet if I’ll do Opening Weekend or not. But then I’ll do Paris-Nice and San Remo, Flanders and the Ardennes, so that’s quite exciting,” said Hayter, whose precise role for those races has yet to be defined. “I think it depends on who’s in the best shape to win the race. But whether I’m there to help or to race for myself, I’m looking forward to it.”
