World Track Championship 2021 - Ethan Hayter of Great Britain wins men's omnium in Roubaix
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
Updated 23/10/2021 at 21:12 GMT
Great Britain's Hayter became the first rider from his country to win the men's omnium event in over 10 years when he took the rainbow jersey in France at this season's UCI World Track Championships, held in Roubaix. Second place went to New Zealand's Aaron Gate, and Italian Elia Viviani secured the final podium place
‘Hayter has left his rivals behind!’ – Brit makes decisive move to win omnium world title
Ethan Hayter became the first Briton to win the men’s omnium since 2010 at the UCI World Track Championships in Roubaix.
The title was decided by the final event of the discipline and of the night, the points race.
Hayter had won the first two events of the evening - the scratch and tempo races - and finished fourth in the elimination race to take a six-point lead into the points race on Saturday evening in France.
There were eight riders in contention for the win or a podium place with the remaining action yet to come. Those were Hayter, Aaron Gate (New Zealand), Iuri Leitao (Portugal), Matias Malmberg (Denmark), Donavan Grondin (France), Elia Viviani (Italy), Erik Martorell Haga (Spain) and Eiya Hashimoto (Japan).
Halfway through the points race, Hayter had extended his lead to 16 points, with the Brit on 135 and Aaron Gate in silver medal position on 119. Leitao remained in third place on 108 points with the top three looking settled.
Martorell Haga, Viviani, Fabio van den Bossche (Belgium) and Alan Banaszek (Poland) all attacked to gain a lap but leader Hayter almost immediately responded to the challenge by doing the same.
The GB rider was able to move into a 56-point lead as the end of the race closed in, and the 23-year-old was able to secure a dominant victory finishing on 180 points with New Zealand’s Gate taking silver on 124. 121 points was enough for third for Italy’s Viviani.
Speaking after the race, Hayer was delighted with victory.
"The way that last race went, it was quite tight at the start, but I knew if I scored well in the first few sprints and had a little gap it would make life a lot easier for me, and I pretty much just rolled off," said Hayter, who won madison silver at the Tokyo Olympics earlier in the year," he began,
"The race was going really hard and people were tired, but I just kept the pressure on and once I was off I committed and took the lap and then ended up taking another, so yeah, amazing.
"I'll feel it tonight. But I kind of felt better throughout the day to be honest, so I'm feeling good for tomorrow."
---
Stream the UCI World Track Championship and the Track Champions League live and on demand on discovery+
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement