Team Ineos has continued to prepare for life after Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas by signing another young gun, Ethan Hayter.
The 21-year-old Londoner has been sensational on both road and track and having ridden as a stagiaire with Team Ineos for a period last year it is no surprise he has now joined the fold proper.
He is one of a group of younger riders the team has taken on over the past few seasons in a bid to secure seamless progression from the Froome-Thomas era, though the two Tour de France winners are still very much part of the plans for now.
The top young rider in the team is Egan Bernal; the Colombian having won the Tour this year aged just 21 years.
Aside from Bernal, Giro champion Richard Carapaz has been signed and the team will look to him for Grand Tour success in the seasons ahead.
Advertisement
The signing of Carapaz is the exception to the new Team Ineos trend of snapping up riders in their early 20s as he is now aged 26 years.
However, aside from Ecuadorian Carapaz, youth is the order of the day with generational change now full steam ahead, and looking near complete at Team Ineos.
Related News
With Bernal a ready-made champion already, and Hayter looking very versatile, the team has also signed Eddie Dunbar (23), Ivan Sosa (22), Filippo Ganna (23), Jhonatan Narváez (22), Pavel Sivakov (21), Brandon Smith Rivera (23) and Carlos Rodriguez (18).
Hayter has won stages in the Baby Giro and Tour de l’Avenir as well as claiming overall victory at A Travers les Hauts de France.
He is an elite world and European champion on the track and is aiming for gold at the Olympics in the madison, omnium and team pursuit next summer.
After competing in the Tokyo Games he will join Team Ineos on the road and says he is looking forward to it.
“It’s the best place for me to begin my career as a professional road rider and the best place for me to be with the Olympics coming up next year too," he said.
"This team has lots of riders for me to take inspiration from and there’s so much young talent in the team as this season has shown.
“As well as Egan, Pavel and Tao receiving chances at the Grand Tours, there’s other young riders such as Chris Lawless - who was someone I was racing against at under 23 level not long ago - winning Tour de Yorkshire, so there’s plenty of different paths to follow.”
Topics
