Big Surprise in the Baloise Belgium Tour Time Trial, where a dominant Hayter is faster than top favorite Ganna

On day one, it was Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) who took control of the Tour of Belgium by winning the first sprint finish. That same day, Jasper Philipsen barely managed to stay upright in a chaotic finale, but bounced back the next day to claim his first victory in 109 days for Alpecin-Deceuninck.

Friday was time trial day, the stage where the first real gaps in the general classification were expected to appear. The big question was: who could come close to Ganna? The course wasn’t particularly technical, which made it seem like a perfect day for the time trial specialist, especially under the sunny Belgian skies.

Josef Černý (Soudal Quick-Step) was the first serious contender to start, just before 3 PM. The Czech rider posted a time of 10:54. Not long after, Hayter knocked his teammate off the hot seat with a blazing 10:29, an excellent ride from the Brit!

Then, with Yves Lampaert (Soudal Quick-Step), Connor Swift (INEOS Grenadiers), Filippo Baroncini (UAE Emirates-XRG) and Alec Segaert (Lotto), the fast brigade once again appeared at the start, but they too fell short of Hayter's time. Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) delivered an impressive ride but ultimately fell 24 seconds short of the Soudal Quick-Step Brit’s benchmark.

That left it up to the next wave of time trial specialists, starting just before 4:30 p.m. with Florian Vermeersch. But the Belgian rider from UAE Emirates-XRG also failed to match Hayter’s time, followed by Ganna, who, to everyone’s surprise, also came up short. The top favorite for the stage win missed out by four seconds, which meant we were going to get a very big surprise after all.

None of the final starters were able to unseat Hayter, meaning the Soudal Quick-Step rider landed a very big fish indeed. He also took over the leader’s jersey from Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Emirates-XRG), who suffered a mechanical issue during his time trial. Ganna finished second on the stage, with UAE’s Belgian rider Vermeersch rounding out the podium in third.