Ethan Hayter within "chance of racing the Tour"

Ethan Hayter has for the past two years impressed at INEOS Grenadiers but he has however not made his Grand Tour debut yet. The 23-year old says that he's on the long list for the Tour de France, and is hoping to make that debut this year.

“I am on the long list. There is a chance of racing the Tour, but we’ll see how it goes," he told VeloNews. INEOS Grenadiers have consistently over the last decade ridden the Tour with the ambitions of winning the race, or at least finish on the podium - which was the case at the Giro d'Italia with Richard Carapaz. With Daniel Martínez, Adam Yates and Geraint Thomas onboard it's unlikely that the team will have Hayter coming in with separate ambitions, however he admits that it's a possibility. 

"A victory would definitely help my chances of making the Tour," he pointed out. Hyater finished second on the opening stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, and second in the sprint once again on stage two although the peloton was left fighting for minor positions.

“I haven’t done a lot of racing in the WorldTour, to be honest, because of how he calendar was the past year or so, and on this team it’s so hard to make into the WorldTour starting lineup,” he added. He has nevertheless impressed with world-class capacity in the time-trials, hilly terrain and sprinting - making him one of the most unique riders in the peloton. He has this year taken wins at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali, Tour de Romandie and Tour of Norway.

“I really came close [Sunday] and I will have more chances. We will try to do a good GC result and go for more stage wins," he concluded. The Critérium du Dauphiné is a race very well suited to the Briton however the presence of Wout van Aert has made it a difficult task to grab a stage win. Nevertheless he will still have three more stages in which he should be in contention for the following three days.