{"id":396989,"date":"2026-01-29T14:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/396989\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:21:09","slug":"i-wasnt-just-a-bit-off-but-a-long-way-off-ethan-hayter-aims-for-his-best-in-2026-after-year-battling-nutrition-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/396989\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I wasn\u2019t just a bit off, but a long way off’ \u2013 Ethan Hayter aims for his best in 2026 after year battling nutrition problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethan Hayter<\/a> has revealed that problems with on-the-bike nutrition severely hampered his debut season for Soudal Quick-Step<\/a> last year, claiming that at \u201cquite a few races I wasn\u2019t just a bit off, but a long way off.\u201d<\/p>\n

After five years with Ineos Grenadiers, the Londoner made the move to Quick-Step<\/a> seeking to rediscover the form and consistency he showed in 2021 and 2022 especially, when he was regularly competing with \u2013 and occasionally beating \u2013 the likes of Wout van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On paper Hayter had a successful first season for Quick-Step, winning five time trials, finishing second on GC at the Tour of Belgium and leading the Tour of Holland with just a day to go before illness forced him to abandon.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

But the 27-year-old told both Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews at his team\u2019s media day in Calpe, Spain that those results only masked his deficiencies in most other areas. \u201cI just wasn\u2019t really performing physically anywhere near where I could be and there were quite a few things going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Giro d\u2019Italia<\/a> I got told a few weeks before [that he was going], and I struggled with changing the nutrition brand. For 90% of the guys it\u2019s fine, but there\u2019s always one or two guys who have a problem with a brand. It\u2019s quite individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith eating so much, I was getting really bloated from certain products in the range, and I just wasn\u2019t digesting it properly. I was doing a lot of races where I\u2019d normally be quite good but I was getting dropped. And it wasn\u2019t a tactical problem but physical.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of that my weight management was a bit off because you\u2019re quite finely tuned with these things, so if you\u2019re then not processing stuff properly and getting bloated and having stomach issues, you try to eat more at other times to compensate, and I had to manage that well.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more going on in bike races than people realise. We\u2019ve been working over the winter on that and hopefully I\u2019ll be better this year, fingers crossed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Ethan\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Despite those problems, Hayter regularly demonstrated his speed and class in efforts against the clock. \u201cI got away with it a bit in time trials last year when it was less than an hour,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I was having trouble with nutrition I could do a good effort on the TT bike. I was fortunate to have such good equipment that even if I was physically off the pace I\u2019d be top-10.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a big gap with the road and the TT bike, and there were quite a lot of factors going on. But there were still moments like at the Tour of Belgium where I was pretty good and where I would want to be.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I set the expectations too high but I found it quite frustrating not performing the way I wanted to perform, especially starting in a new team and wanting to start on the right foot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayter is hoping that those issues are now behind him. He will start his season at the UAE Tour, and also ride Tirreno-Adriatico, Itzulia Basque Country and Tour de Romandie in a spring focused on WorldTour stage races. \u201cI am targeting more one-week races this year as we thought it\u2019d work well with the program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of them have a TT and hopefully a few reduced sprints so I can try to be competitive. There\u2019ll be a few weeks between each one so that should let me get to each race in good shape and ready to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two-time Olympic medallist on the track is also planning to race in the velodrome towards the end of the year, but expected inclusion for the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a> means a career-first Tour de France<\/a> appearance will have to wait until at least 2027 when the race starts in the UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been in a funny situation. There are probably more guys who are better at helping than I am, and in general I\u2019m better at going to small races and getting results,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the way you structure a season it doesn\u2019t make a load of sense for me to go to the Tour. But one year I obviously really want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Explore More<\/p>\n


\nSoudal Quick-Step
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ethan Hayter has revealed that problems with on-the-bike nutrition severely hampered his debut season for Soudal Quick-Step last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-396989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}