Wheel of fortune turns to Silver as Hayter and Walls set up a thrilling finale
In
ETHAN HAYTER thought he was sprinting for cycling bronze as
Team GB snatched a dramatic silver medal in the men’s Madison madhouse.
In a chaotic finale to 200 laps of the Izu velodrome, Hayter and Matt Walls added to Great Britain’s medal haul 24 hours after Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald had romped home in the women’s race.
While Denmark’s world champions Lasse Norman Hansen
From Mike Walters and Michael Morkov held on to win gold, Hayter and omnium gold medallist Walls finished only three points back – but didn’t realise they had pipped France to second place.
Hayter, 22, said: “We were a lot closer to winning than I thought we would be. I was looking up at the board, I was coming in with two laps to go to do the last sprint and I saw a four-point gap to the
Belgians. I thought we had to beat them to get the bronze, but sometimes it’s so hard to keep track of what’s happening.”
Although Hayter and Walls have been regular Madison allies, illness and serious injury hampered the Manchester housemates’ preparations for Tokyo.
A horror crash on the road last October kept Hayter on the sidelines, then Walls was forced to quarantine in a Belgian hotel after testing positive for Covid-19. Hayter said: “There’s been so little track racing during the pandemic, I didn’t know what to expect.
“I had a crash, broke my leg and a tendon. Then Matt had coronavirus, so we’ve been a bit unlucky.”
Hayter and Walls will be racing against each other in 11 days’ time when their professional road teams, Ineos Grenadiers and Borahansgrohe, go head-to-head among the fjords on the Tour of Norway.
But they forged a brilliant alliance in Tokyo to add to Team GB’S medal count.
Walls said: “We haven’t raced a Madison in a long time, so there was obviously going to be some mistakes, but we rode well and came away with silver.
“I’m pretty happy with that.”