Hayter Storms To Omnium Gold

Nineteen-year-old Londoner upsets the stars at European Championships

- Chris Marshall-Bell

Ethan Hayter hailed his gold medal ride in the omnium at the European Championships as the greatest victory in his young career. It capped a stellar week in which he also signed as a stagiaire with Team Sky.

The Londoner, 19, beat Olympic champion Elia Viviani by 20 points to stand on the top step of the podium in the multi-discipline race. That was despite being in fifth place before the 25km points race, the event’s finale.

“It’s nice to win golds in team events, but no one really expected me to win on Saturday,” Hayter told CW. “That made it more special. I was an underdog, for sure.

“A week ago I was quite confident I would give it a good crack, but then I saw the start list and didn’t back myself enough in the first couple of races. But I knew coming into the points that in the tempo and scratch races I’d had the best legs.