Hayter wins British national title

Ethan Hayter finished off a superb team performance from the INEOS Grenadiers to claim victory at the British National Championship road race.

Hayter put in a well-judged ride to add a first road race gold to a pair of time trial national titles. The Brit had pushed clear on the roads around Saltburn, as part of a three-man group that went away in the second half of the race.

After fending off attacks from Max Walker (Astana Development), Hayter was able to out-kick Lewis Askey (Groupama-FDJ) on the final climb to win solo.

Connor Swift was part of a chasing group, and on the final lap the Yorkshireman pushed clear in a bid to bridge across. That allowed Hayter to sit on at times, giving him the tactical upper hand, with Swift eventually finishing fourth.

Josh Tarling came home seventh to make it three Grenadiers in the top 10, while Ben Swift was also incredibly active during a hard-fought race.

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- Ethan Hayter

“It’s really special. It’s been quite a hard period – I’ve not actually won a race since I broke my collarbone for the second time last year. It’s really nice.

“There were about a hundred different groups and attacks, and that was the really hard part of the race, getting that right. As a team we rode really well. You can’t be in every move yourself but one of us was always there, and then you can use other teams. Then in the second half of the race I think I was always on the front foot and felt quite good. I just knew I had to be patient and pick and choose the times to go as everyone was looking at me a bit.

“One of the motorbikes with a chalkboard told me Connor Swift was coming across. You don’t really want to use the other guys like that sometimes but that’s bike racing and I had to do it. It worked well for us in the end. Connor trying to come across gave me that extra bit.”

Sunday also saw a number of other national championship road races taking place.

In Germany, Kim Heiduk took one of the best results of his career with third place in Bad Durrheim. In Italy, Filippo Ganna came close to a podium, finishing fourth after attacking out of the chasing group late on. Over in Spain, Oscar Rodriguez was the first Grenadier home in 12th.