"I’m quite happy to celebrate this win" - Ethan Hayter on national championships victory

At age 26 Ethan Hayter is finding himself in the peloton once again, much due to his improvement against the clock. After beating Filippo Ganna at the Baloise Belgium Tour, the Soudal - Quick-Step rider has won the British national championships and describes a meaningful triumph to him.

“It was definitely not comfortable at all. I went quite aggressive in the first lap. Maybe a bit too much. The second half of the race I managed to recover a bit and squeeze to the finish;" he said in words shared by British Cycling. "It's really nice to win this and start the week off but it's just there’s so many good young riders, it can be a bit of a lottery sometimes, the National Championships. I'll give it my best, but I’m quite happy to celebrate this win.”  

Hayter managed to beat Samuel Watson and Oliver Knight by 29 and 47 seconds, winning on another occasion the British colours when racing the time-trial.

In the women's race it was Zoe Bäckstedt who managed to take the triumph, an impressive one taking into consideration her 20years of age. She beat Anna Henderson - 7th at last year's World Championships. “I'm super happy. I think it was a little bit unexpected, I was up against Anna Henderson who’s the reigning national champion, so I think I would've just been happy with a podium finish".

"This event, it's not quite home, but it's still home - it's still Wales. It's super nice to be here. There were a lot of people cheering me on. Some marshals on the course at the start shouted my name, and I'm like, I've not even started, and they're already cheering me on, I really love that feeling.” Over the weekend we will have the road races where the duo will be amongst the main contenders to take more wins.