[He won stages at Coppi e Bartali, Volta ao Algarve, and Vuelta a Andalucia, a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in Madison, two stages each at the Tour of Norway and Tour of Britain, and the British time trial title, Two weeks later he won the world track title in the Omnium.

Hayter, who developed COVID-19 in January, had a somewhat slow start to the season. He finished second in the Tour de la Provence behind teammate and world champion Filippo Ganna, but his off-season setback was a lie.

After fighting through the first six weeks of the season and finally taking victory on the second stage of the Coppi e Bartali, he took a four-week break from racing. In his first race back, the prologue of the Tour de Romandie, Hayter won his first WorldTour race, showing off his skills in a field full of talented riders.

"I had some setbacks earlier this year, so I took some time off from racing and trained hard," Hayter said. I'm really happy to be back. This time trial suited me.

"It had been a while since I last raced, so it was a big shock. I spent a lot of time at 600 watts on the uphill drags and was pretty fast in the corners. The last corner I was reaching 70 kilometers per hour, so I was pretty consistent.

Hayter's name was on the results sheet with last year's prologue winner Rohan Dennis (now Jumbo-Visma) in second place and teammate Geraint Thomas (Bora-Hansgrohe) in third after being passed by Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe). He is now tied for the top spot on the results sheet.

Although he missed out on a stage win last year, Thomas won the 2021 Tour de Romandie, with teammate Richie Porte in second place. Porte did not participate in this race due to preparations for the Giro d'Italia, but Hayter hopes to make his Grand Tour debut later this year and expects his team to have the same advantage.

"[Gelant] had another really good TT today. I want to win as many stages as possible this week and I also want to win the GC," Hayter said.

Thomas also felt the prologue was a shock after completing Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday, missing third place by one-tenth of a second and finishing fourth in a 10-second tie.

"It could have been better. Especially after Liège on Sunday. I attacked the corners with the gas pedal at full throttle. I came up a little short at the end, but I'm happy."

Thomas said he is "feeling much better," but is cautious about defending his title.

"We'll have to see how this week goes. Of course I will try to defend and win again, but there are a lot of strong riders here. We'll see this weekend. I'm still on the upswing, but I'll give it my best shot. There are a few other riders out there who can challenge for the GC."