Tour of Norway: Ethan Hayter delivers sprint win on stage 2

Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) sprinted to the victory on stage 2 of the Tour of Norway on Wednesday. 

From the flamme rouge, Jumbo-Visma battled at the front of a 25-rider lead group on a slight uphill to the finish. The Briton surged around runner-up Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma) in the final 50 metres. 

Tobias Johannessen finished third on the stage, and takes over the GC lead, with Hayter in second place overall and tied with one-second deficit with third-placed Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl).

“I knew it was a headwind and a slightly uphill finish. I got into a lead out position with Lotto, so I let them through. And I waited,” Hayter said about his late move to take his fourth win of the season.

“We did our homework. We really pushed on the one climb. And we waited, waited, waited.  It worked perfectly. It’s incredible to keep winning races.” 

At the bottom of the day's only climb that began with 84.5 km to go, the gap between the peloton and the breakaway was 5 minutes, the break containing Håkon Aalrust (Team Coop), Aaron van Poucke (Sport Vlaanderen - Baloise), Emil Vinjebo (Riwal) and Jeppe Pallesen (Team Coloquick).

However, Ineos Grenadiers took charge of the chase on the climb and the breakaway was caught by the main group. Aaron van Poucke won the sprint to the top of the climb in front of Marco Brenner (Team DSM) and Embret Svestad-Bårdseng (Team Coop) for KOM points.

The front of the peloton was down to 45 riders over the top of the lone KOM of the day at Dyranut, with snow covering the landscape and temperatures just 3 degrees Celsius at the summit, 56km to go. 

Another 25km down the road, the front group was reduced to 30 riders, with no more climbs to tackle but crosswinds to the finish in Geilo. In that group was Hayter, who took the top points in the second intermediate sprint at Haugastøl, and his focus on the stage win.

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