Filippo Ganna won the Tour de la Provence's prologue, and Ethan Hayter was sure-footed on the 7.1km course, finishing one-two with Ineos Grenadiers in Vail-Letan.

Hayter was in the hot seat by the time Ganna rolled off the start ramp. Although the eventual time trial world champion had a 12-second lead over him, Hayter had reason to be happy with his first start of the new season.

"I was pretty surprised with second place," Hayter said after the race, adding that he always expected Ganna to beat his time. [He's a great teammate. He's a great teammate. He's a great teammate. Obviously, when you have the best time triallist in the world on your team, you have a lot to learn. He's a great role model."

Hayter showed his talent on a variety of courses during the 2021 season, winning the overall at the Tour of Norway and stage victories at the Tour of Britain, Ruta del Sol, and Settimana Coppi e Bartali. He also won the British Championships time trial to round out his campaign.

The versatile 23-year-old, who is usually a favorite to win all four days of the Tour de la Provence, has only recently returned to full training after contracting COVID-19 last month.

"I was happy because I had only been training for two weeks since I contracted COVID. It wasn't my best performance, so I'm happy with second place and still improving."

Hayter, who impressed in last year's Tour of Britain sprint, suggested that new teammate Elia Viviani would be a strong option for Ineos on Friday's opening road stage of the Tour de la Provence.

"I have a good team here and it will be a good week for me to get back into racing. Tomorrow will be a flat stage, maybe some wind, but for Elia it will be a sprint. The day after tomorrow could be a lot harder, and it could be a sprint like last year. And on the final stage, there is Richard Kalapas, who is probably the favorite to win on a long climb like that. Let's see what he can do.

Calapaz finished 53rd in Thursday's time trial, 38 seconds behind Ganna. The Ecuadorian gave up 21 seconds to Julian Alaphilippe (Quick Step-Alfa Vinyl) and 7 seconds to 2020 winner Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic), but was 26 seconds ahead of defending champion Ivan Sosa (Movistar).

Karapas had missed the race after crashing in the final time trial at Etoile de Besseges.

"I recovered over the next few days and did the best I could so far," said Karapas, who admitted that he would continue to lead Ineos Grenadier at the Giro d'Italia in May.

"We are focused on getting to the Giro in good shape. After Provence, I will return to Ecuador to participate in the All-Japan Championships, and before the Giro I will participate in Tirreno Adriatico and Volta a Catalunya.