Ineos Grenadiers won the team time trial on stage 3 of the 2021 Tour of Britain launching Ethan Hayter into the overall race lead. Hayter also leads the points classification.
“It’s amazing. I’ve ended up in a few leader’s jerseys in the last few races now and it makes the racing great. To win the team time trial is a really nice way to do it,” Hayter said. “It was quite a tough start, then everyone just did short turns and did what they could to hold the speed. We hit the last climb pretty hard and held it to the finish.”
The British-registered squad shattered the times posted earlier in the day by Deceuninck-Quick-Step and Jumbo-Visma on the 18.2km route in Carmarthenshire, the National Botanic Garden of Wales.
At the first intermediate check the Grenadiers are level with current fastest team DQT.
Dig deep guys 👊 #TourOfBritain pic.twitter.com/DOaqOzVahb
— INEOS Grenadiers (@INEOSGrenadiers) September 7, 2021
Racing through the intermediate time check, Ineos Grenadiers were even on time with the “Wolfpack” but on the back half of the route, Rohan Dennis dragged his squad faster than all other teams that raced before it.
Wout van Aert’s Jumbo-Visma squad suffered when Pascal Eenkhoorn punctured in the final kilometer. Van Aert slotted into third on the general classification after the stage.
World road champion Julian Alaphilippe also improved his overall standings and is just seven seconds behind van Aert, in fourth overall.
Robin Carpenter (Rally Cycling) had the overall race lead going in the third stage, but the orange-and-white clad squad could not match the pace set by Hayter’s squad and finished some 92 seconds in arrears.
https://twitter.com/RobinmCarpenter/status/1435001741347594243
Tour of Britain stage 3 Results
- Ineos Grenadiers, 20:22 (53.617kph)
- Deceuninck-Quick-Step, at :17
- Jumbo-Visma, at :20
- Israel Start-Up Nation, at :43
- Team DSM, at :57
- Alpecin-Fenix, at :57
- Movistar Team, at 1:08
- Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling, at 1:09
- Trinity Racing, at 1:24
- Team Arkéa Samsic, at 1:28
- Rally Cycling, at 1:32