Still shining with sweat from his effort, Ethan Hayter was in reflective mood, but didn’t appear too down after finishing fourth in the time trial, losing crucial seconds after dropping his chain midway through the 34.2 kilometre race.
The 24-year-old was ripping through the course on a fast pace, he was less than two seconds behind the fastest time of Stefan Kung (Switzerland) at the first intermediate check. With 18.5 kilometres left to race, Hayter was trying to shift up into the big ring when the chain slipped off, forcing Hayter to stop and change onto a less familiar bike
"As I was changing chainring... we have this new bike... it's that Shimano don't make chainring shifters on the new gears," Hayter said. “I was changing the chain ring, it wasn’t quite shifting and I pressed it again and it dropped off. The fastest thing to do at that stage was to change bikes, I think I limited my losses.
“You start doing your effort again and because you’re going so hard it focuses you again. It wasn’t ideal, the bike off the roof had different brakes, different handlebars.”
Hayter chances for a medal, perhaps even the gold medal slipped away with the time loss, an opportunity the British rider rued after the finish.
“I don’t know, it would have been nice to try,” said Hayter when asked if he could have finished on the podium. “40 seconds is quite a lot to win but it could have been very close.”
Magnus Sheffield, 20, was nearly inconsolable after the race, withdrawing from the media to take a few minutes to compose himself before returning to talk of his disappointment at having a very good ride in the elite men’s time trial interrupted by a crash on a fast corner.
“I came in a bit too hot,” said Sheffield, “I cut the apex too much and came out of the exit a bit too wide and I wasn’t able to right myself.”
Sheffield picked himself up and kept riding hard to finish 12th, a far cry from where he was headed after stopping the clock in fourth at the second intermediate time check, just 32 seconds behind then-fastest Kung.
Still bearing the cuts and scars from the fall, the biggest hurt was apparent in the expression of Sheffield as he explained the situation.
“It’s tough because I’ve put in a lot of work throughout the season,” said Sheffield. “As a whole, I can be super happy with it. I felt like I started really well, I just got a bit too greedy through one of the corners but I think I left it all out there.
“Ultimately, I need to use this as a learning experience for the future. I’ve got a long career ahead of myself, just don’t need to be too hard on myself.”
At the other end of the spectrum, the performance of Tobias Foss was a picture of disbelieving joy when the news of his victory was confirmed.
“It feels like I’m in some kind of dream, I don’t believe it, it’s so unreal,” Foss said. “I got the signals, my legs were really good and I was confident my shape is good, but this is more than I could ever dream of. I will try to enjoy it but first I have to realise it.”
Foss became one of the youngest riders to win the men's elite TT, only Australian Michael Rogers and Italian Filippo Ganna were younger than the Norwegian when they claimed the rainbow bands.
With Remco Evenepoel, 22, joining Foss on the podium, and the likes of Australian Luke Plapp, 21, also prominent in the results with the Aussie finishing in 12th, there's an exciting crop of youngsters that are set to contest the battle for the best time triallist in the world for years, perhaps decades to come.
