The 27-year-old Brit from Soudal Quick-Step was the fastest after 4 kilometers around the Zuiderpark in The Hague: 4.26.67. Hayter was slightly faster than the Australian Cameron Rogers and the Swede Jakob Söderqvist. Huub Artz from Wanty-Intermarché was the best Dutchman in fifth place.
Top sprinters Kooij and Merlier present in the new NIBC Tour of Holland, De Lie wins in Wallonia
Dark The Hague
The prologue in The Hague was held in the dark under artificial lighting. The cyclists also started in a BMX starting block, which automatically goes down, after which the time starts running.
Hayter, who started late, was 0.33 seconds under the time of Australian Rogers from Lidl-Trek. He had improved the best time of the Dutchman Nils Eekhoff by 5 seconds. The Frenchman Christophe Laporte was also faster than Eekhoff and the Swede Jakob Söderqvist was only 0.3 seconds above the time of his teammate Rogers.
Four Dutch people in the top ten
Artz was 3 seconds slower than Hayter. With Eekhoff (sixth), Olav Kooij (seventh) and Dutch time trial champion Daan Hoole (tenth), there were four Dutch people in the top ten.
“Very nice to end the season like this,” Hayter said in the flash interview. “I didn’t take any risks in the corners and gave it my all on the straights. I think the time trial in two days suits me better.”