23-year-old race leader Ethan Hayter rode through a tumultuous and fast race on the final day of the Tour de Pollogne without incident to claim his first overall World Tour stage race victory.

Led by teammate Honatan Narvaez, Hayter rode trouble-free to claim his sixth win of 2022 and the biggest victory of his career.

Also on Thursday, Hayter finished third in the crucial stage 6 time trial, becoming the first ever British leader in the Tour de Pollogne's 92-year, 79-race history. Twenty-four hours later, he celebrated his first complete British victory.

His victory continued the remarkable success of Ineos Grenadier in Pollogne, where Michal Kwiatkowski won in 2018 and Pavel Sivakov won overall in 2019, and also highlighted the race's role in discovering new talent.

This year, while young riders such as 22-year-old Timen Arensmann (Team DSM) won the time trial and 20-year-old Olaf Kooij won the opening stage of Jumbo Visma, three Ineos Grenadiers riders in their early 20s were in the top six in the time trial entered (Hayter, Magnus Sheffield, and Ben Tallet). Other first professional wins in the Tour de Pollogne time trial came from 22-year-old Sivakov in 2019, 20-year-old Evenpoel in 2020, a young Peter Sagan in 2011, Dan Martin in 2010, and as far back as 2003, when Alberto Contador won the Tour de Pollogne time trial for the first time in his professional career.

"Yesterday, I won the Tour de Pollogne time trial.

"Yesterday they told me I was the first Englishman to lead the race. [The team has won this race many times with Kwiat and Pavel. It's just unfortunate that Kwiat was injured in a crash during practice.

For Hayter, who has won 15 races before Friday in just over two years as a pro, winning his first stage race at the World Tour level is "a big deal."

"Winning a WorldTour stage race is a huge accomplishment and I'm happy to have it in my possession.

"I finished 11th in the lead group on the only summit finish of stage 3, which put me in a great position to try for the overall win in the time trial.

"I felt good on that stage. I knew I had to go into the time trial at my own pace because I had to sprint down the climbs. I was a little too slow to sprint, but I was able to bring it into the time trial."

Hayter thanked Narvaez for his solid ride on stage 7.

"It was pretty confusing and we were doing our best to stay together as a team, but Johnny was super strong every day," Hayter said. He rode like a bike and made it the whole three kilometers without any trouble."

Although he was only 11 seconds behind Allenman, the Dutch rider said after the race that he did not intend to pull off any last-minute surprises.

"For sure it was impossible. The whole Ineos team would have been on my wheel," Allenman said.

"As a team we're happy with second place, and if it had been two or three seconds, the race would have been a lot more open.

"A lot of sprinters were looking for a group sprint, and we have sprinters on our team. 0]

Allenman would not say where he will be racing next season, but Hayter said he will not be with Team DSM as he was earlier this year.

"It's really exciting. He's grown a lot this year and it's great to see," Hayter said.

In any case, his next goal is to make the Vuelta a España. Whether Hayter will compete in the Vuelta a España remains to be seen, but winning the overall at the Tour de Pollogne will not hurt him in the least.

"It will definitely help and hopefully I will get my first Grand Tour.

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