Ethan Hayter powers to British time trial title on the roads of Lincolnshire
Ethan Hayter adds the elite title to the U23 title won by his brother Leo earlier in the day
Ethan Hayter smashed the opposition to become the new British time trial champion after an exemplary performance in Lincolnshire.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider beat the Ribble-Weldtite duo of Dan Bigham and James Shaw by just under 40 seconds in an emphatic ride that saw the Londoner take the famous white jersey with the blue and red hoops.
Hayter adds yet more glory to his family today after his brother, Leo (DSM Development), won the under 23 title.
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The race featured three laps of a 14.7km circuit starting and finishing in the West Lindsey district village of Tealby in Lincolnshire.
Ribble-Weldtite looked to have been pulling off a storming ride with Shaw the first rider to nudge under an hour on the 44.7km route.
Two riders who came after Hayter, John Archibald (EOLO-Kometa) and defending champion Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation) were both unable to trouble the top three of Hayter, Bigham, and Shaw.
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The three riders on the podium have enjoyed plenty of success this season with Hayter throwing his hat into the ring to become another superb talent on all-terrain. The 23-year-old put in superb rides at the Volta ao Algarve, Tour of Britain, and Tour of Norway this year, taking wins in all three. He also took an Olympics silver medal in the Madison at Tokyo 2020 in August.
Bigham recently became the new British Hour Record holder after beating the distance record set by Sir Bradley Wiggins, while Shaw has shown to the big WorldTour teams that he is an exceptional rider with fifth overall in both the Tour of Slovenia and Tour of Norway.
In Thursday's time trial, it took quite some time to get a rider anywhere near the sub-hour point, but Michael Gill of Saint Piran Development came close to being the first with a time of 1-00-42.821.
Soon after that, Ashley Cox (Team Bottrill), Connor Swift (Arkéa-Samsic), and Shaw had stormed through to go faster, with Shaw dipping under the hour mark.
At the split, it became clear that it would be a two-horse race between Hayter and Bigham as just nine seconds separated them, but Hayter kicked on to another gear with Bigham fading, with the WorldTour rider taking the win by 37 seconds.
The women's time trial comes later in the day, taking on just the two laps of the circuit on a 29.4km route around the surrounding countryside of Tealby and Walesby.
British Road National Championships 2021: Men's individual time trial, Tealby to Tealby (44.7km)
1. Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), in 56-41
2. Dan Bigham (Ribble-Weldtite), at 37s
3. James Shaw (Ribble-Weldtite), at 50s
Tim Bonville-Ginn is a freelance writer who has worked with Cycling Weekly since 2020 and has also written for many of the biggest publications in cycling media including Cyclingnews, Rouleur, Cyclist and Velo.