Ineos Grenadiers' Ethan Hayter takes stage sprint and race lead

Ineos Grenadiers delivered Ethan Hayter at the front reduced peloton on stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie taking over the race lead

Hayter sprinted to the line, a clear bike length in front of  Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) in second and Romain Bardet (Team DSM) taking third.

The peloton was thinned out over a series of climbs inside the last 30 kilometers with race leader Josef Cerney as dropped earlier in the stage.

A chaotic finished transpired after several of the GC riders went on the attack as the finidh line loomed.

“Maybe the sprint wasn’t so close, but to get there was the hard part. It was a pretty hard stage and Jumbo made a good pace on all of the last climbs and there were a lot of attacks in the last part. I survived and did a good sprint,” Hayter said afterward.

“My team got to the front at the perfect time. We had to go a little bit early but I think it was best with all of the roundabouts to stay out of trouble and then I was just waiting for the guys to come from behind. I saw someone coming and then I started the wind up for the sprint.”

A small three-rider breakaway made it up the road after 25km of racing;  Gleb Brussenskiy (Astana-Qazaqstan), Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafred), and Tom Bohli (Tudor). The trio gained  five minutes at one stage, before the peloton began pulling the group back in the second half of the stage, they were eventually caught inside the final 30km.

Jumbo-Visma set a brutal pace for Tobias Foss that reduced the bunch on the penultimate climb of the Col de la Tourne with race leader Josef Cerney dropped.

On the final climb of Le Communal, Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) attacked but was reeled back in.

A series of attacks on the flat roads to the finish strung out the bunch into the final kilometer. Ineos Grenadiers train took control and launched Hayter to the win.

VIDEO: 2023 Tour de Romandie Stage 2 Highlights

2023 Tour de Romandie Stage 2 Top 10

1  HAYTER Ethan INEOS Grenadiers 3:55:20
2  AYUSO Juan UAE Team Emirates 0:00
3  BARDET Romain Team DSM 0:00
4  SOBRERO Matteo Team Jayco AlUla 0:00
5  ONLEY Oscar Team DSM 0:00
6  SWEENY Harry Lotto Dstny 0:00
7  GOOSSENS Kobe Intermarché - Circus - Wanty 0:00
8  CORT Magnus EF Education-EasyPost 0:00
9  FISHER-BLACK Finn UAE Team Emirates 0:00
10  SCHULTZ Nick Israel - Premier Tech 0:00

2023 Tour de Romandie GC after Stage 2

1  HAYTER Ethan INEOS Grenadiers 8:08:14
2  FOSS Tobias Jumbo-Visma 0:06
3  CAVAGNA Rémi Soudal - Quick Step ,,
4  AYUSO Juan UAE Team Emirates 0:11
5  SOBRERO Matteo Team Jayco AlUla 0:14
6  OLIVEIRA Nelson Movistar Team 0:15
7  BARDET Romain Team DSM 0:17
8  CASTROVIEJO Jonathan INEOS Grenadiers ,,
9  FISHER-BLACK Finn UAE Team Emirates ,,
10  KEPPLINGER Rainer Bahrain - Victorious 0:18