Instead it was Hayter’s team-mate and defending champion Ben Swift who took the plaudits, outgunning Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) up the Michaelgate cobbles, with Hayter finishing a further two seconds back in third.
“I might have got the Strava segment if I’m lucky,” rued Hayter, whose younger brother Leo also scooped a bronze medal in the concurrently run U23 race, adding to the U23 time trial win he took earlier in the week.
For a jubilant Swift, the fact he had been able to wear the jersey for two years because of the race being cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19, was not lost on him.
“I had to earn it for the last year,” he said at the finish. “It was a tough race, but I’m really happy to keep the jersey.”
His form, he said, had been improving following a mid-season lull, during which his second child was born.
“Then I really started to pick up, stuck a couple of good races together, but you’ve got to pull it off on the day,” he said. “Together with Ethan we had two strong cards so I knew I could use his name out there.”
He added: “The Nationals, you have to race from the front, be aggressive. You just put yourself in the front… I don’t really know how the final group of four happened. There were a few attacks, it was right place, right time. I turned around and we had a gap.”
This story is from the October 21, 2021 edition of CYCLING WEEKLY.
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This story is from the October 21, 2021 edition of CYCLING WEEKLY.
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