11 Sep 2021
Hayter retains race lead in Edinburgh
Related riders
Ethan Hayter
Tour of Britain stage seven: Hawick › Edinburgh, 194.8km.
The INEOS Grenadiers combined well on an undulating stage seven of the Tour of Britain to ensure Ethan Hayter begins the final stage in the race lead.
The break prevailed on the 194.5km test to Edinburgh, with Hayter leading home his general classification rivals shortly after Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck - Quick Step) had celebrated the stage win.
Earlier, a small break had escaped and quickly amassed a large advantage of close to nine minutes at its peak. While the breakaway were not an immediate GC threat, only Movistar's Matteo Jorgensen was within five minutes of Hayter, Richie Porte and Owain Doull were key in pulling on the front of the bunch to control the gap.
The duo took turns to lead the peloton before Michal Kwiatkowski and Rohan Dennis also helped maintain the gap. In the final 30 kilometres several teams tried too late to bring the break to heel, with Dennis then leading out Hayter to finish sixth on the stage and maintain his four second advantage overall heading into the final stage.
A late split in the peloton pushed Dennis up to fifth overall, with Carlos Rodriguez now seventh to make it three Grenadiers in the top 10 on GC.
The break prevailed on the 194.5km test to Edinburgh, with Hayter leading home his general classification rivals shortly after Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck - Quick Step) had celebrated the stage win.
Earlier, a small break had escaped and quickly amassed a large advantage of close to nine minutes at its peak. While the breakaway were not an immediate GC threat, only Movistar's Matteo Jorgensen was within five minutes of Hayter, Richie Porte and Owain Doull were key in pulling on the front of the bunch to control the gap.
The duo took turns to lead the peloton before Michal Kwiatkowski and Rohan Dennis also helped maintain the gap. In the final 30 kilometres several teams tried too late to bring the break to heel, with Dennis then leading out Hayter to finish sixth on the stage and maintain his four second advantage overall heading into the final stage.
A late split in the peloton pushed Dennis up to fifth overall, with Carlos Rodriguez now seventh to make it three Grenadiers in the top 10 on GC.
Reaction
Ethan Hayter
“Today was relaxed in terms of stressing about fighting for position but was still full-on with a good amount of climbing and small roads.
"A good breakaway went, we were quite happy with it - the nearest guy was five minutes down on GC and to be honest we’d have needed another team to help, so we decided just to hold them at a point where we’d keep the GC.
"Richie and Owain rode all day and were really strong. It was a really nice day with nice scenery and it’s good to keep the jersey going into tomorrow.
Ethan Hayter
“Today was relaxed in terms of stressing about fighting for position but was still full-on with a good amount of climbing and small roads.
"A good breakaway went, we were quite happy with it - the nearest guy was five minutes down on GC and to be honest we’d have needed another team to help, so we decided just to hold them at a point where we’d keep the GC.
"Richie and Owain rode all day and were really strong. It was a really nice day with nice scenery and it’s good to keep the jersey going into tomorrow.
"I''m looking forward to tomorrow and it’s more likely to be a bunch sprint, with more teams interested so it might come down to a sprint between me and Wout - It’d be nice to try and win the stage."
Overall standings:
1. Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) 27:34:32
2. Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) +4"
3. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) +32"
4. Mikkel Honore (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) +35"
5. Rohan Dennis (INEOS Grenadiers) +1:08"
10. Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +2:01"
1. Ethan Hayter (INEOS Grenadiers) 27:34:32
2. Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) +4"
3. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) +32"
4. Mikkel Honore (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) +35"
5. Rohan Dennis (INEOS Grenadiers) +1:08"
10. Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +2:01"
