Ethan Hayter won five time trials in 2025 and went close to overall victory in the Tour of Belgium. From the outside, his first season at Soudal-QuickStep seemed like a success, and the likeable, quiet-speaking British rider seemed on the way back to the great form he showed early in his career at Ineos Grenadiers.
However, results and social media reveal little of the complexities and pain of WorldTour racing.
"Maybe there's a lot more going on in bike races than people realize," Hayter told Cyclingnews and Cycling Weekly at the recent Soudal-QuickStep training camp in Spain.
"I just struggled a bit in 2025 to be honest, with a few things," Hayter explained, gradually revealing more.
"The team was great, but I had a tricky start, and it took me a little while to settle in, getting used to being on another team. I've never had a real job, but if you change jobs, it probably takes a bit of time to settle in with new people. I guess I really wanted to prove myself a bit to the team, but I overdid it and got sick a couple of times.
"Then I got COVID-19 at the Tour de Pologne. I finished the season quite well, but I just had the feeling that I wasn't super satisfied; it was an up-and-down season."
Hayter is a hugely talented rider but has struggled to consistently compete at his best over the years. After skirting around the cause of his 2025 problems for ten minutes of our interview, he revealed a specific nutritional problem that affected him significantly.
"I wasn't really performing physically anywhere near where I could be, to be honest. There were a few things going on," he said, slowly opening up about his problem.
"I struggled with changing nutrition brands. Nutrition is quite personal, isn't it? For 90% of the guys, changing is fine, but then there's always one or two who have problems."
Soudal-QuickStep works with Belgian brand 6d Sports Nutrition, with the team's success indicating most riders perform well using their drinks, gels and bars. Hayter sees it as his problem and is working with 6d Sports Nutrition to resolve his problems.
"Nutrition is quite individual, and it took me a while to kind of find what worked for me," he explained.
"I was just getting really bloated from certain products, and I think I just wasn't digesting it properly. I'd do a long race, and when I'd normally been quite good, I was just getting dropped.
"Maybe my weight management was a bit off because you're quite finely tuned with these things. If you're then not processing stuff properly, you get bloated, you have stomach issues. Then you try and eat more other times to compensate and it's hard to manage that well.
"We've been working on it over the winter and hopefully I'll be better this year, fingers crossed."
Hayter's problems affected him in long races but not for short efforts such as time trials. His time trial talents and dialled-in position on Soudal-QuickStep's Specialized bike helped win five different time trials during 2025, including the British national title. He was also third in the key Giro d'Italia time trial to Pisa, just nine seconds slower than winner Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek) and Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers).
"When it was less than an hour, I could go and do a good effort on the TT bike. I could go and do my thing," Hayter said.
"I was fortunate to have such good equipment, even if I was physically off pace, I'd be good in time trials."
Targeting stage races with time trial in 2026
Hayter is in the second and final year of his Soudal-QuickStep contract. He has a different race programme for 2026, aimed at taking advantage of his time trial skills and his sprinting talents in hillier races.
He will not ride the Tour de France despite the opening team time trial in Barcelona, with a ride at the Vuelta a España part of his 2026 schedule. Hayter has won the Tour de Pologne and the Tour of Norway in the past.
"I'm targeting more one-week races this year. Most of them have a TT, and hopefully some reduce sprints so I can try to be competitive there again," he said.
"I'm going to do the UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, Basque Country and then the Tour de Romandie for the first block of the season. When you look at it on paper, it doesn't seem a lot but the race days add up quite quickly. I'll do a one-week race and have two or three weeks in between. That should let me hopefully get to each race in good shape and ready to perform."
Hayter is now 27 and has faced a series of obstacles in his professional career. They have knocked him back, but he has always quietly fought back.
He has never ridden the Tour de France but hopes to do so in 2027 when the race starts in Britain. The track events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games are another goal.
Hayter was Omnium and Team Pursuit world champion in 2022 and won a silver medal with Great Britain in the team pursuit at the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the Team Pursuit final for gold against Australia, Hayter gave his all to help drag Great Britain back into contention but slipped off his saddle on the last lap. He was hugely disappointed, but it has not hit his desire to again race on the track.
"I'd like to do more, to be honest, I enjoy it," he said.
"I couldn't ride the track all the time, but it's just nice to mix it up. I enjoy a few types of bike racing, and luckily, I get to do them. The Omnium or the Madison are pure racing for me. There are no team tactics, it's just it's just racing really stripped back to the basics."
Sadly, the UCI calendars and qualification rules hamper riders from combining WorldTour road racing and track.
"I'd like to keep racing on the track, and I will probably come back to the Olympics. I'd like to do the Worlds at the end of the season too, depending on how things go," Hayter said.
"To do the World Cups, you have to score points beforehand, and then the Europeans and the World Cups are either bad timing for me or halfway across the world."
"I've hopefully got quite a few years left of my career. I wouldn't want to end my career without riding the Tour de France. I don't think it'll be this year, but next year would be quite nice."
