Ethan Hayter has claimed his sixth pro win with the opening stage of the Tour of Norway, just two weeks after taking Olympic silver in Tokyo.
The rising British star is racing his second year at WorldTour level with Ineos Grenadiers and has been on a remarkable winning run.
Hayter, 22, emerged victorious after a punchy stage one in the Tour of Norway, after a 150.8km run from Egersund to Sokndal, finishing on a 4.7km-long, 4.9 per cent gradient climb.
The race exploded into life around 40km from the peloton as Jumbo-Visma caused a split in the bunch on the Jøssingfjord climb.
With two riders from the initial four-rider breakaway remaining out front with 25km left to race, Trek-Segafredo and Jumbo continue to push the pace in the reduced peloton.
Onto the final climb and was an immediate flurry of attacks from the likes of George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) and Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Trek-Segafredo), before Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe) made the decisive move around 1.3km from the finish, as Hayter was the only rider able to follow.
Hayter and Schelling made it into the final few hundred meters together at the front of the race and it was the Dutchman who led into the final turn, Hayter glued to his wheel.
With 150 metres to race Hayter opened up his sprint and comfortably passed Schelling to secure the stage and move into the leader’s jersey with three more stages remaining.
Hayter, an accomplished track star, is back on the road just two weeks after racing in his first Olympic Games in Tokyo, where he competed in the team pursuit.
After the disappointment in the pursuit, where a crash put Team GB outside of the medal places, Hayter came back just days later to claim silver in the men’s Madison, alongside Matt Walls.
It’s been a phenomenal year for Hayter, who took his first pro win in the Giro dell’Appennino last September.
Since then he has gone from strength to strength, winning stages of the Settimana Internationale Coppi e Bartali, the Volta ao Algarve and the two days of the Vuelta a Andalucia.
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The Tour of Norway continues with another tough climbing day on stage two, over 185km starting and finishing in Sirdal.
