"When he’s good, he has the whole package" - Soudal - Quick-Step are not afraid to gamble on Ethan Hayter
Cycling
Ethan Hayter seemed set to become the next big thing when he kept winning at B-tier races left right and center in 2021 and 2022, but then the 26-year-old suddenly disappeared from the radar. However Soudal - Quick-Step showed that they believe in the Briton's talent when they offered him a two-year contract at the end of last season. And a chance of redemption.
"In some ways, I’m probably better now than I was back then [in 2021 and 2022], but in other ways maybe I could improve," Hayter tells Rouleur at the Volta a Catalunya, his first European race with his new team. "It’s about getting the balance right of the training that you do and focusing on and targeting some events. My role changed a bit last year and I was working for other guys a lot, and that changes the rider you are."
"You always like to [win consistently] but it’s not always possible, and it’s not been the easiest past 12 months or so, so it’d be nice to start winning again." After all, fighting the best is always more fun than being the best towel boy.
Versatility was one of Hayter's main strengths when younger, but now it's become a bit of burden when the legs don't go as well as they used to. "It’s a problem I have sometimes: what am I best at? I’ve been good at lots of things, but not excelled at much. But maybe I need to focus on something. It’s tricky, I need to work it out, but it’s a nice problem to have. The problem is, though, everyone else is so good."
However Soudal - Quick-Step remain confident in their new recruit: "When he’s good, with Ethan you have the whole package," says team sports director Klaas Lodewyck. "It’s just searching for the legs, but we believe once he’s in a really good condition he’ll be a good asset for our team."
Can he return to the heights he reached only a few years ago? "I wouldn’t say a level like Van Aert, but we believe when he’s in good shape he can get over a climb very easily, and he has a fast sprint which we’ve seen in the past," Lodewyck continues. "We’re not taking it race-by-race with Ethan as that’s a short-term vision, but we have an idea of where we want to have him, and we’ll see how he’s going and how he evolves."
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- And he probably wasn’t even at the limit ;-) Have to wonder how much Mads could catch up if he’d tune his physique to be as sharp as MVDPs’Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Respect for giving Van Eetvelt credit there.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- He’s already a star for me for HAVING complained about it, the recent trend having been, let them then try to take advantage by making them sign NDAs ;-)Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Agreed, but if it was a radio thing then all the riders should have the same story and it would be easy to call anyone out. Kind of surprised this isn’t cleared up half officially afterwards, just like the Alaphilippe divorce, seems like once something spreads on the net it kind of gets accepted that everyone wants to have their own truth so no-one bothers to contest anything that’s verifiable anymore, we all just move on.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- maybe. what makes that a LITTLE fishy is that they suddenly hit the gas and started hammering it. even mathieu, who i’ve never heard complain about ANYTHING (other than teenage girls waking him up and being spit on by belgians) was pretty hacked off about the race tactics after the split. i think he was upset for what his teammates had to do, not for the fact he ended up isolated as a result.OCexile31-03-2025
- It seems that in E3 it wasn’t legit to criticise teams that « took advantage » because there was no radio communication about the incident so they couldn’t know to slow down. Only one source so far but should be quite easy to verify.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- mads SMOKED it at ghent! love that guy. he’s just the best interview ever, always smart and hilarious and with a biting intolerance for stupidity. happy for him. just as a secondary thought, consider that mvdp beat THAT version of mads by a full minute at E3 two days ago. the gap between pog/mvdp and even tho other GREAT riders like mads is kinda staggering to comprehend. this is a time in cycling history that’s certainly worth paying attention to while it lasts.OCexile31-03-2025
- i watched the race. jasper and roodhooft have a legit anger about this. alpecin burned everyone to pull it back. they did the SAME THING after the split in E3, burning all their guys and thus leaving mathieu to fend for himself (which worked out ok because van der poel is van der poel, but still…). yeah, christopher and jasper should be a little pissed this time.OCexile30-03-2025
- Mads, Ganna, MvdP, Pogi were all in MSR, and will all be in both RVV and PR, the problem here is Remco because he doesn't race anything. This year because of injuries, before that, no idea why notvappaxbipmv30-03-2025
- Will it take oil money to get Mads, Remco, Tadej, Ganna and MVDP to line up for the same classic or monument or will Lady Luck help us with this one.Mistermaumau30-03-2025