Ethan Hayter was looking to build into his first Giro d'Italia with Soudal-Quickstep after initially not thinking he would be riding his second Grand Tour. However, that plan was halted in its tracks as stomach problems on the road from Durrës to Tirana on stage 1 saw him drop early during the opening and "struggle to breathe."
The British champion rolled across the line in 179th, 17:23 behind winner Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), with his chances for the stage 2 individual time trial in Albania's capital, in which he would have been an outsider for victory, now looking very slim.
"I wasn't feeling too good to be honest, I was getting so bloated I was struggling to breathe properly," said Hayter to Cyclingnews at the finish.
"I'll see how I go. You know, with your stomach not being right, you struggle to eat and drink properly, so we'll see."
A struggling day for the Brit was compounded by the bad news of Mikel Landa crashing and abandoning the Giro being presented to him on arrival.
"I just heard Mikel is out, and that's a big shame to be honest, for the next few weeks," said Hayter, who could then only be frank about the dire opening day Soudal-Quickstep had endured: "So yeah... Not the best start."
Hayter had already been honest in his assessment that his current level of riding for his new team, Soudal-Quickstep, was still not where he wanted it to be before the Giro, speaking before the stage, but this was only accentuated by yet another issue.
Having burst onto the scene in the early 2020s and scored big wins, including GC at the Tour of Pologne, stages of the Tour de Romandie, Itzulia Basque Country and Tour of Britain, and several national titles in the UK. Hayter looked set for stardom when racing for his home team, the Ineos Grenadiers, but, following bouts with injury, switching focus to track for the Olympics, and a general downturn in performance and confidence, Hayter fell away from his previous best. Since April 2023, when he triumphed in Romandie, wins have been extremely rare, with just one – last year's British road race title – being added to his palmarès in that time.
He joined the Soudal-Quickstep for 2025 after needing something to change, but hasn't yet rediscovered that previous best, which saw him beat the likes of Wout van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe in races, and compete for wins across a variety of terrain.
"I've not been as good as I would have liked to be, if I'm completely honest, I'd like to be competing for wins a bit more, and I've just not quite been good enough to do that yet," Hayter told Cyclingnews at the start of stage 1 in Durrës.
"I've been able to help my teammates, which has been a nice thing to do, but having had a couple of illnesses and ups and downs, I've not really found my rhythm yet."
His desire to get better as the 20 remaining stages come thick and fast starts from rock bottom, so he can only get better, but having been "looking forward" to the time trial on Saturday and now been foiled by his body, he's likely to miss out on one of his big goals.
"I've not had the ideal run in really, but I'll have a good day in the TT hopefully," had been his words four hours before the stage 1 struggle.
"I think I've come into the race quite fresh, really, as I needed to recover after Basque Country and Catalunya. I did Brabantse Pijl afterwards too, but I didn't exactly know I was coming here, so hopefully I can build through the race and be good."
Hayter is no stranger to adversity, however, admitting pre-race that the team selecting him for a Giro d'Italia debut, despite being away from his best in 2025, gave him "Good confidence", but that "a lot of the confidence comes from myself really, and I should be performing better than I am. But I think I'll keep trying my best and pushing forward."
If he can come through the stomach issues and start stages 2 and 3 to keep himself in the race before the first rest day, perhaps this added setback could set him on the path to rediscovering his previous best that the peloton witnessed back in 2023 and 2021.
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