The Brit spent close to 180 kilometers in the first breakaway of the season’s last Grand Tour.
Manosque played host to a Grand Tour stage finish for the first time in decades. Half a century after Jose Luis Viejo took a memorable solo victory from the breakaway at the Tour de France, the Provençal city returned, this time at the end of the longest stage of this year’s Vuelta a España.
Ethan Hayter rode admirably on the roads of southern France, attacking moments from the start and joining a three-man breakaway that at that point had one minute on the peloton. As soon as he made it there, Ethan took the front of the group and showed his massive engine by taking some long pulls that helped the quartet establish a three-minute lead over the bunch.
His goal was clear: stay at the front until the intermediate sprint that came in the closing 40 kilometers of the stage and obtain precious bonifications that could have helped him don the prestigious red jersey at the end of the day. Around 50 kilometers from the sprint, the bunch increased the tempo and erased a good chunk of the deficit, to the point that only 20 seconds were still separating them. Sensing the danger, Ethan made a bold move, attacking the other men in the breakaway and going solo on the up-and-down terrain, managing to increase his lead and score six bonus seconds that made him the virtual leader of the race.
Minutes later, the bunch caught him, but the 27-year-old remained there until the complicated uphill finish in Manosque, where he couldn’t follow when the first attacks came due to things becoming chaotic in the bunch. Hayter concluded almost half a minute down on winner Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike), but the points he took during the stage meant that on Monday he’ll wear the green jersey again.
I was very motivated to try something today.
“I was very motivated to try something today. That’s why I attacked early and put in that effort until they eventually reeled me in. The finale was very difficult. I would have loved to take the red jersey even for one day, but it was really complicated. They went full gas at the front of the peloton, while I wasn’t in an ideal position and got blocked when the others stopped. I tried and did my best there, but in the end, it is as it is”, an upbeat Ethan said at the finish, before being awarded the most combative rider of the day prize.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
