21 Aug 2021
Gritty Hayter stays on top in Norway
Related riders
Filippo Ganna
Ethan Hayter
Tour of Norway stage three: Jørpeland › Jørpeland, 159.9km.
Ethan Hayter maintained his overall lead at the Tour of Norway following a gripping third stage in Jørpeland.
Hayter and his Grenadiers teammates put in a tremendous display of committed teamwork as they endured over 90km of attacks from a small peloton determined to move up in the general classification.
The team prevented any time gaps, with the stage coming down to a reduced bunch kick won by Mads Pedersen as Hayter finished fifth to maintain his overall lead.
Earlier, the attacks had started after the summit of the first categorised climb, and continued right up until the final sprint.
Hayter and his Grenadiers teammates put in a tremendous display of committed teamwork as they endured over 90km of attacks from a small peloton determined to move up in the general classification.
The team prevented any time gaps, with the stage coming down to a reduced bunch kick won by Mads Pedersen as Hayter finished fifth to maintain his overall lead.
Earlier, the attacks had started after the summit of the first categorised climb, and continued right up until the final sprint.
The young Londoner was aided by strong performances from Ben Swift and Leonardo Basso who chased down a number of moves, before Filippo Ganna and Jonathan Castroviejo took over to stop the attacks after Luke Rowe had worked to maintain a high pace to deter attacks earlier in the day.
On an undulating stage punctuated by a series of short, sharp climbs saw waves of accelerations from Jumbo Visma, Uno-X Pro Cycling, Trek Segafedo and Team DSM but the Grenadiers stayed calm and rotated riders to pull the escapees back into contention.
Hayter himself was key in bringing some attacks to heel, with one impressive effort to stop Jumbo-Visma's George Bennett and Jonas Vingegaard gaining time with 55km to go a particular highlight.
In the final 20 kilometres Pedersen was able to escape, but as he was no GC threat to Hayter, it was left down to the other teams to react - eventually reeling in the former world champion. In the final kilometres, Ganna increased the pace to deter any counter attacks which set up a bunch kick to decide a tumultuous stage.
On an undulating stage punctuated by a series of short, sharp climbs saw waves of accelerations from Jumbo Visma, Uno-X Pro Cycling, Trek Segafedo and Team DSM but the Grenadiers stayed calm and rotated riders to pull the escapees back into contention.
Hayter himself was key in bringing some attacks to heel, with one impressive effort to stop Jumbo-Visma's George Bennett and Jonas Vingegaard gaining time with 55km to go a particular highlight.
In the final 20 kilometres Pedersen was able to escape, but as he was no GC threat to Hayter, it was left down to the other teams to react - eventually reeling in the former world champion. In the final kilometres, Ganna increased the pace to deter any counter attacks which set up a bunch kick to decide a tumultuous stage.
