RISING STAR
Signing to Ineos put the final seal on a breakthrough year for Hayter junior
Leo Hayter was born to race a bike. Brother of Ineos Grenadiers star Ethan Hayter, Leo has had quite the year, ending with him joining his brother in the professional ranks at the Dave Brailsford-managed team in 2023.
It’s tempting to see Hayter’s under-23 Giro d’Italia, or ‘Baby Giro’, victory in May in the colours of the Axel Merckxrun Hagens Berman Axeon team, as the catalyst, but he explains that the WorldTour was already coming knocking well before then.
“At the end of last year, I had a lot of interest,” he says. “Although it went quiet for a bit as I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. It wasn’t until after the Giro that I had real offers on the table.”
Hayter dominated the Baby Giro in a style that showed all the tell-tale signs of future greatness. On the way to the overall title he took two stage victories, including a ruthless win on the 6% slopes of Santa Caterina Valfurva by just under five minutes from Romain Grégoire of France.
Career highlight
Winning by that amount of time is a feat rarely seen in modern cycling. Hayter explained it’s certainly the highlight of his young career so far.
“It’s hard to forget a day like that, it was kind of crazy,” he recalls. “I can’t imagine that will happen again in my career. It certainly doesn’t happen often.”
After taking the maglia rosa on the previous day, Hayter remembers the surreal feeling of being solo up the road in the high mountains with the race almost won. Suffering from dehydration, he explained that he wasn’t sure if he could pull it off.
Surreal moment
“I couldn’t think straight that day as I was dehydrated. It was just surreal though, I didn’t expect it all, especially as I had taken pink the day before with a late attack,” he explains. “I didn’t expect to make it over the main climbs with the front riders, then suddenly I was solo in the valley and the time gap just kept going up by 30 seconds. I was just like ‘s**t’. I didn’t want to think about it but I knew I’d won the race, and it wasn’t just about the stage win anymore.”
His performance in Italy suggested a rider brimming with confidence, but Hayter says he was actually doubting himself after suffering with illness at the start of the year.
“I can sometimes let myself get knocked down a bit like that. It then takes me a little while to get back into the swing of things after a setback,” he says. “But when I’m back and I’m on it I’m soon doing all the right things.”
Hayter was certainly “on it” in Italy before returning to the UK and successfully defending his title as under-23 British national time trial champion. After suffering with illn
