Adam Yates made a Lazarus-like recovery to get into a breakaway on stage 19 of the Tour de France, and launch Tadej Pogačar to victory on Alpe d'Huez.

At the end of stage 18, it seemed very much as though Yates’ entire race was done. Clearly unwell, UAE Emirates-XRG’s British rider had survived the stage but he looked, frankly, awful.

Less than 24 hours later, at the end of a brutal 127km mountain stage, he popped up to play a stage-changing lead-out role for Pogačar, who became only the second rider ever to win on Alpe d’Huez in the yellow jersey, and he set a new record on the climb while he was at it.

Clearly exhausted, but looking like a different man compared to the way he presented the previous day in Orcières-Merlette, Yates even managed a brief laugh when asked immediately after the finish if he felt reborn.

"Reborn is a strong word," he said. "I'm still suffering a lot. It's quite obvious we have had some illness in the team, and the last few days have been really difficult. Even just to finish the stage has been really hard. We knew we would get through it, but it takes time."

From the bottom of the infamous hors catégorie climb, making its first appearance at the Tour since 2022, the UAE Emirates-XRG team knew Pogačar had several minutes to make up on the leaders, and that success would depend on who they had in the break.

Despite the fact that he was still feeling the effects of his illness, Yates stood up, although he admits there was some serendipity in how things panned out.

“I didn't mean to be in the break actually, I was up near the front marking some moves, and suddenly there was a space,” he admitted to reporters. “Yeah, it was good - I got a bit of a head-start on the climb, and then the guys came from behind and you know what happened.

“I would have liked [the pull for Pogačar] to have been a little bit longer, but like I say, I've been struggling for the last few days with illness, and just to be back in this kind of shape, and to be back at the pointy end of a race is nice.

“When you're sick the only thing you pray for is health, I read the other day, and that's true. It's good to be back, and hopefully I'll be even better tomorrow.”

One thing is clear, regardless of whether there has been sickness in the squad, a mere malady isn't likely to stop Pogačar's relentless pursuit of his fifth Tour de France title.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Adam Yates is suffering from a stomach illness at the 2026 Tour de France and his participation in the race’s final few stages is not guaranteed.

The Briton dropped out the back of the peloton with 66km remaining on stage 17, and finished the day’s racing more than 26 minutes behind winner Jasper Philipsen.

His shorts were stained with salt marks as he rode back to his team's bus, which he boarded as soon as he dismounted his bike.

Yates is one of the key mountain domestiques for race leader Tadej Pogačar, and ordinarily would be providing crucial support on stage 19 and 20 which head into the high mountains and finish atop Alpe d’Huez.

But the 33-year-old’s condition will have to improve significantly if he is to be of assistance to Pogačar.

“Yesterday he was really bad – if it was a normal stage he wouldn’t have finished,” Pogačar said after stage 17. “Luckily it was just a time trial and he managed it. He looked terrible.”

UAE’s general manager Mauro Gianetti revealed that Yates’s sickness began after Monday’s rest day.

“Yesterday he was not feeling well and after the time trial he was really bad, vomiting, [and with a] stomach problem,” Gianetti said.

“We said, ‘OK, let’s see what happens tomorrow morning’, and he was feeling OK [this morning], not so bad like yesterday. He said, ‘OK, I’ll start’. He was in the group and then one moment he spoke with Nils [Politt] and said, ‘I will take the train [gruppetto] behind us to try to save some energy.

“This morning he was better but he was empty. With the full [gas] start, he suffered because he was empty from yesterday and only ate a bit this morning. He was really struggling. We knew it would be a hard day for him.”

Gianetti said that Yates has been isolated from the group, but expressed confidence that it’s nothing more than an “episode”. Neither was he concerned that the infection could be contagious to other members of the team.

“It’s just him vomiting himself – it’s just him,” Gianetti said. “Let’s see if he can recover a little bit, [and] have some good food.”

Asked if Yates will start stage 18, Gianetti responded: “I don’t know. The doctors will decide.”

Pogačar seemed more confident than Gianetti that Yates would remain in the race. “Today in the morning he looked a lot better, [he was] in a good mood and eating well. This was a good sign, but today was a hard stage even for me, and I think he paid a bit [the price] after yesterday’s bad day.

“I think he will recover. Maybe not for tomorrow, but for Alpe d’Huez. At least for the queen stage [on Saturday] he will be good.”

Fresh across the line in the saturating heat at Gavarnie-Gèdre after stage six of the Tour de France, Adam Yates helped dissect the mindset and ability of teammate, stage winner and new yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar.

"Good," Yates said, after journalists broke the news that Pogačar had reclaimed the race lead, before explaining that life as a classification leader is all the Slovenian knows in the Tour.

"For him, I think he said on the bus the other day, he doesn't know any different – he's always in white or yellow or polka-dot or something, so he doesn't know the other side of the Tour de France, where you get to go in the bus and have a shower and all this, so I think it also shows his mental resilience," he said.

Asked whether he continued to be amazed by his Slovenian teammate, who had turned in his longest ever winning solo break in the Tour at 43km, Yates said: "When he does stuff like this… I mean, it's pretty normal for him," he joked.

Yates had been a key part of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad that bossed the stage on both the Col d'Aspin and the hors-category Col du Tourmalet, setting the stage for Pogačar to take flight, five kilometres from the summit of the latter.

He had passed through the finishing paddock a little over eight minutes before Yates arrived, his head bowed, face swarming in beads of sweat and looking pale from a combination of heat and effort – but ready to pull on the yellow jersey once again.

Yates described Pogačar's 2:42 lead on chief rival Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) as "a good advantage".

"The climb here today, the last climb after the Tourmalet is more like a valley climb," Yates went on. "It's not like a real climb so, you know, Tadej when he's on these kinds of rolling roads, he's one of the best in the world. It was always the plan to for him to launch on Tourmalet, and to try and have a gap… seems like it paid off."

Yates even confessed to being surprised at exactly how big the gap to Vingegaard was, but like any good pro cyclist addressing the media, he made sure to remind reporters that "it's never over till it's over".

"You can have bad days…" he added. "I think we just need to try not to make any mistakes and be calm. Hopefully we can recover the next two days and then we'll see."

Meanwhile Vingegaard and his team have been left licking their wounds and trying to square Pogačar's performance on stage six with the Dane's desire to win the Tour.

Yates was right, the Tour isn't over till it's over, but the rampaging Pogačar we saw today looks ever so familiar. He will take a lot to overcome.

The first Grand Tour of the year has been a long time coming and now it is finally here it has been as eventful as ever. The Giro d'Italia has arrived. New stars have been crowned. Hot favourites have bared their teeth and their rivals have responded. And, unfortunately, there have also been incidents that both fans and riders would rather forget.

So far we have enjoyed the three stages of the Bulgarian Grande Partenza, with a Monday rest day followed by the resumption of proceedings back in Italy on Tuesday.

We take a look back at some of the race's most memorable moments and people from this first few days.

Magnier: a new French 'Paul' to conjure with

With the hype and the wins produced by Paul Seixas this year have come countless headlines referencing the success of a 'young French rider'. Seixas's countryman and namesake Paul Magnier must have been biding his time until the Giro, waiting to get a piece of the action. And he has done so with aplomb, having worn the first maglia rosa of the race and taking a brace of stages with it. He now leads the pints classification, ahead of some of the luminaries of the sprinting world, like Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek).

Magnier has won races before, but never at this level. After his second stage victory in Sofia, on Sunday's third stage, Magnier seemed bemused and happy in equal measure. "I have to say I feel really good and I beat the best sprinters in the world, so I will try to enjoy this moment and keep going like this with the team," he said.

It's unlikely we've seen the last of him in this race.

Adam Yates out as UAE Team Emirates-XRG woes continue

With the loss of Joāo Almeida and Richard Carapaz from the start list even before the race had begun, the roll of serious contenders for Jonas Vingegaard had been decimated before the action had started.

Following a devastating crash involving multiple riders on stage two, the list has been reduced even further with the retirement of Almeida's stablemate, Adam Yates. The Briton, who had taken over from Almeida as UAE Team Emirates-XRG's main GC hope, limped to the finish but showed "delayed concussive symptoms" according to the team, and did not start the next day.

Yates's retirement wasn't the last of UAE Team Emirates-XRG's woes – Jay Vine also retired with a broken elbow following the same crash, and Marc Soler suffered a pelvic fracture.

Jonas Vingegaard bares his teeth

Lacking any major climbs or time trials, the Grande Partenza in Bulgaria was not one for the GC contenders. Nevertheless that did not stop hot favourite Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) from showing off some fine condition and asserting his dominance on stage two.

His attack on the final climb of the day – a cat-three up to Lyaskovets Monastery, not far from the finish – may have been at least in part an exercise in self-preservation on damp roads that had already claimed multiple crash victims and were clearly slippery. Riding out front alone on a descent is, after all, safer than being caught up in the wheels.

However, Vingegaard ended up taking his main rival Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) with him, as well as on-form Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarche), on near-race-winning move that was only caught in sight of the line. The Dane is clearly in form and ready to race.

Historic victory for Thomas Silva

The modern Giro d'Italia has diligently made itself one of the most cosmopolitan of stage races, with starts in Hungary, Albania and even Israel in recent years, as well as this season's Bulgaria. So the race will surely be pleased to add a brand new nationality to the list of riders who have won one of its stages.

Twenty-four-year-old Thomas Silva of Uruguay declared himself "speechless" after winning stage two. The XDS-Astana rider won the uphill sprint in Veliko Tarnovo at the end of what was probably the most memorable day so far – for both positive and negative reasons.

Team staff's 1,000km challenge

Giro d'Italia organiser RCS did rather well out of the Bulgaria Grande Partenza, having charged a reported €12.5 million fee, according to our colleagues at Cyclingnews. Likewise, Bulgaria tourism is probably set to enjoy a boost too. But what of riders and, especially, staff, as they make a major transfer back to Italy to continue the race.

The riders will fly, as you might expect. But most of the staff will be driving 1,000km from Sofia back to Cantanzaro in readiness for stage four on Tuesday. Not just that though. As reported in Cyclingnews, the riders will be expecting to go for their usual rest day spin and will require their bikes and equipment to be available for that at some point on Monday. That's 1,000km of driving in 24 hours – a feat that rivals what the riders do on their bikes each day.

Adam Yates did not start Sunday's third stage of the Giro d'Italia, the British rider abandoning after crashing late on Saturday's second stage to Veliko Tarnavo.

Yates was one of three riders from the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad to leave the race after a huge crash 21km from the line on Saturday, with Jay Vine and Mac Soler both failing to finish. Two others were unable to finish as well, Ådner Holter (UNO-X Mobility) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) also injured in the incident.

A battered Yates eventually finished the stage more than 13 minutes down. Last placed on the stage was Andrea Vendrame, the Italian crossing the line three minutes behind Yates, his Jayco-Alula team later announcing his withdrawal after examinations revealed three fractures in his lower back.

The incident occurred on a sweeping right hand bend, the rain making the road surface treacherous, with upwards of 20 riders going down, some of them colliding with the barrier. Before Yates restarted race coverage showed the 33-year-old Brit, whose twin brother, Simon won last year's Giro, with the left side of his face covered in blood.

"Unfortunately we were badly affected by the crash on stage 2 yesterday," read a statement on the UAE Team Emirates-XRG team's social media channels. "Jay Vine suffered a concussion and an elbow fracture. Marc Soler has a pelvic fracture. At this stage, neither should require surgery.

“Adam Yates suffered a heavy abrasions and a laceration to his left ear. He was initially assessed on site for concussion, and cleared to continue, but subsequently he has shown delayed concussive symptoms. He will not take the start of stage 3 today.

“All three are under observation of our medical staff and will travel home in the coming days to continue their recovery and rehab."

While all their riders started Sunday's stage, Lidl-Trek were also badly affected by the crash. Their GC leader, Derek Gee-West, was delayed by the incident, and while organisers had neutralised the race, they restarted it before the Canadian champion was able to reach the bunch and he eventually crossed the line 1.01 behind winner and new race leader, Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana).

The incident comes after another huge crash marred the closing metres of stage one on Friday.

Despite last-minute drop-outs from GC contenders João Almeida and Richard Carapaz, there are still plenty of strong riders lining up for the start of the Giro d'Italia in Bulgaria this Friday. Three weeks of riding through the Italian countryside (after starting in Bulgaria) will see the general classification battle shape up day-by-day; is Jonas Vingegaard's title as safe as it seems from the outset?

This is our list of the top contenders vying for the maglia rosa in 2026.

Read more: Giro d'Italia 2026 route | Giro d'Italia 2026 start list | Abandons

Jonas Vingegaard
29 | Den | Visma-Lease a Bike
Previous Giro starts: 0
Best GC result: N/A
Best stage result: N/A

This will be Jonas Vingegaard’s first participation in the Giro d’Italia. Having won the Vuelta and the Tour de France, he has made no secret of the fact he’d love to complete the full set of Grand Tours.

“I chose the Giro because it’s one of the most prestigious competitions in the world, and because I’ve never raced it before,” he said following the announcement. He also suggested that the course is not “excessively hard”, so would allow him to recover in time for the Tour de France in July.

The Dane will start as the clear favourite. Some of his most potent rivals include rising Italian star Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and Thymen Arensman (Netcompany-Ineos), a double mountains stage winner at last year’s Tour de France and a fine time triallist.

But few have been able to get close to Vingegaard in the past two Tours de France, despite a huge crash at Itzulia Basque Country in 2024 that left the Dane below par for a long, long time – possibly until right now.

“I feel like I’ve spent the last two years fighting my way back to that level – back to the Jonas I was before my crash,” he said in a recent interview. His performances so far this season have suggested he could be there. His 4.23 winning margin on GC at Paris-Nice in March was the biggest since 1939, and he took an impressive win at the more recent Volta a Catalunya.

Giulio Pellizzari
22 | Ita | Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
Previous Giro starts: 2
Best GC result: 6th (2025)
Best stage result: 2nd (2024)

While the cycling world is currently being wooed by French teen sensation Paul Seixas, another youngster with impressive chops has slipped in almost under the radar.

Despite his tender 22 years, Giulio Pellizzari already has a solid Giro d’Italia record that he will hope to build on this month. He performed well at the Vuelta a España last year too, matching his sixth overall from the Giro and winning a first Grand Tour stage.

Most recently, the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider has indicated his excellent current condition by winning two stages on the way to overall victory at the Tour of the Alps in Austria and Italy.

Speaking after the final stage, Pellizzari’s DS Christian Pömer, said: “We can be confident now to have a chance to fight for the podium at the Giro.” The Tour of the Alps result “scares me a little”, he said, because of the superstition that the winner there rarely does well at the Giro, adding, “But with [Tadej] Pogačar we’ve seen the curse of the rainbow jersey doesn't exist anymore, and we hope for the same for Tour of the Alps and the Giro.”

Hailing from Camerino in central Italy, Pellizzari is the home nation’s greatest hope of ending a 10-year GC-winners’ drought at the Giro. Pellizzari’s ability to fulfil those hopes has been further boosted by his improved time trialling, which he can now call a strength alongside his natural climbing ability. In 2024 he was gifted a maglia rosa by his idol Tadej Pogačar; it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that this year he could wear it for real.

Jai Hindley
29 | Aus | Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
Previous Giro starts: 5
Best GC result: 1st (2022)
Best stage result: 1st (x2) in 2020, ‘22

One of two former winners of the Giro d’Italia on the start list, Jai Hindley comes into the race as a co-leader for Red Bull alongside Italian hope Giulio Pellizzari. The 29-year-old has not had a 2026 to shout about, with 17th place overall at the Volta a Catalunya following 22nd place at Tirreno-Adriatico, but he has the experience to make things count over the three weeks.

Last year, Hindley crashed out of the Giro on stage six, leaving Pellizzari clear to finish sixth overall; Red Bull will hope that the pair can work together more effectively over the three weeks this time around, presenting two viable GC options for Jonas Vingegaard to worry about.

While he hasn’t won a Grand Tour since his sole Giro win in 2022, Hindley has finished in the top-10 three times since, twice at the Vuelta a España and once at the Tour de France, including fourth overall at last summer’s Vuelta. A win would be a surprise, as it was in 2022 when the Australian overcame Richard Carapaz and Mikel Landa to pull on the pink jersey, but it should not be ruled out. This Giro’s relative lack of attritional climbing should open up the race a bit more, and the inclusion of just one time trial won’t be too detrimental to his chances.

His 2022 win was built on solid consistency before a penultimate-day triumph, a lot like Simon Yates’s glory last year. There’s no reason why Hindley could not do it again. After all, shocks seem to happen more at the Giro than other Grand Tours. In a race short on top GC talent, the canny Australian might just have the ability to sneak through the pack while all eyes are on Pellizzari and Vingegaard.

Ben O’Connor
30 | Aus | Jayco-AlUla
Previous Giro starts: 4
Best GC result: 4th (2024)
Best stage result: 1st (2020)

A bold and brilliant climber, capable of winning stages solo from the break, O’Connor starts his fifth Giro with an impressive palmarès, having taken stage victories in all the Grand Tours.

The Australian took his first Grand Tour stage win at the Giro in 2020, following it up in 2021 with a stage win at the Tour de France and an impressive fourth on GC. O’Connor also finished fourth on GC at the Corsa Rosa in 2024, during his final year with Decathlon, when he later nailed a stage win and second place overall at the Vuelta a España. Last year, riding for Jayco-AlUla, he scored a stunning mountains stage win at the Tour, beating Pogačar over Col de la Loze. He has had a steady 2026 so far, but expect him to peak for the Giro and vie for a high GC placing.

Thymen Arensman
26 | Ned | Netcompany-Ineos
Previous Giro starts: 4
Best GC result: 6th (2023, 24)
Best stage result: 2nd (2022)

With a new jersey on his back and a capable co-pilot in team-mate Egan Bernal, in-form Dutchman Thymen Arensman should be gunning for a top-five place in what will be his fifth participation in the Italian tour. He has finished sixth here twice before, in 2023 and 2024, and last year won a brace of major mountains stages at the Tour de France, holding off both Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) on both occasions.

Tall, slender, and built for climbing, Arensman also has a strong time trial, which will be helpful but not crucial in this year’s single, flat TT on stage 10. Both Arensman and Bernal rode strongly at last month’s Tour of the Alps, filling out the podium behind winner Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), whom they’ll also face here at the Giro. As to which Netcompany rider will ultimately take the lead, their DS, Leonardo Basso insisted the “road will decide”.

Egan Bernal
29 | Col | Netcompany-Ineos
Previous Giro starts: 2
Best GC result: 1st (2021)
Best stage result: 1st (x2) in 2021

After years spent fighting back from a devastating training crash, Egan Bernal appears to be closing in on his former, Tour de France-winning self. This year’s Giro will see him form one half of a two-pronged GC assault alongside team-mate Thymen Arensman.

Decked out in the red, yellow and blue Colombian national champion’s jersey, with a bike to match, Bernal is slowly amassing a series of results that do ample justice to his sharp looks. Last year’s seventh overall at the Giro d’Italia was by far his best Grand Tour GC ride since his 2022 crash, and he looks capable of building on that this year judging by his recent fifth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and second overall at the mountainous Tour of the Alps. What’s more, Netcompany DS Leonardo Basso says he has the “mentality” to match his pre-crash results too.

Felix Gall
28 | Aut | Decathlon CMA CGM
Previous Giro starts: 1
Best GC result: 50th (2022)
Best stage result: 11th (2022)

The 2026 edition is only the second time Gall has raced the Giro d’Italia. His first appearance at the race, in 2022, was a Grand Tour initiation for the young AG2R rider. Now, four years later, at 28 years old and as Decathlon’s team leader, Gall will be returning to Italy with a roster of near-podium placings under his belt: fifth overall at the UAE Tour (with a third-place finish on the queen stage) and sixth at the Volta a Catalunya (finishing second on the key mountain stage).

A good climber and growing GC threat, the Austrian won a stage at the 2023 Tour de France and is now targeting a podium position at either the Giro or the Vuelta a España. The Italian race is his first major goal of the season.

Derek Gee-West
28 | Can | Lidl-Trek
Previous Giro starts: 2
Best GC result: 4th (2025)
Best stage result: 2nd (2023)

Despite an impressive overall fourth place at last year’s Giro and a series of second-place stage finishes in his 2023 debut, Gee-West was, until February, without a team for the 2026 season. Since signing with his new team, Lidl-Trek, the Canadian has made no secret of his Giro d’Italia hopes.

But Gee-West’s Giro preparation was interrupted by an illness that saw him abandon last month’s Volta a Catalunya, missing out on important pre-Giro practice stages after a solid seventh place finish at the UAE Tour just before.

The 28-year-old’s Volta disappointment seems to have been a blip in his otherwise stacked pre-Giro calendar: the Canadian prefers to work the legs right up to his favourite race of the year. At April’s Tour of the Alps, he finished a solid 12th overall. Bolstered by a new team, Gee-West looks to be in a strong position heading into the race.

OUTSIDE OPTIONS FOR GIRO GLORY

Of all the possible remaining wildcard options for the GC, there is a former Grand Tour winner in Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike). The American won the Vuelta a España in 2023 and will work for Vingegaard, but is an able deputy. Tudor Pro Cycling rider Michael Storer is a fine climber who has placed 10th on GC at the previous two Giri d’Italia and, this season, fourth overall at the recent Tour of the Alps stage race. Expect to see the 29-year-old Aussie hunting down another high GC placing this month.

Movistar’s Enric Mas has ridden 14 Grand Tours already, but never the Giro – until now. With four Vuelta GC podiums and a brace of Tour top-sixes, expect to see him in the GC hunt. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Aleksandr Vlasov has two team-mates to ride for this year, but is easily capable of finishing in the top 10 as well. Fourth in 2021, he will take over leadership duties should injury or illness beset the other two mentioned in these pages.

Abandons

Adam Yates
33 | GBr | UAE Team Emirates-XRG
Previous Giro starts: 3
Best GC result: 9th (2017)
Best stage result: 4th (2015)

The UAE leader crashed heavily on stage two, and after showing delayed concussive symptoms was prevented from starting the next day.

This feature initially appeared in the 1 May edition of Cycling Weekly magazine. You can set up your subscription now to ensure you don't miss an issue.

"It was like one of those mirages that you see in old cowboy films," says Keith Lambert, former U23 head coach at British Cycling. Speaking to me from his North Yorkshire home, he is recalling the moment, circa 2009, when he first laid eyes on the Yates twins in a bike race. As a seasoned coach, Lambert had seen plenty of fledgling talents and usually knew within a few pedal strokes who was going to make it. On the Friday evening in question, he had driven to Colne, Lancashire, to watch a local youth criterium – and initially worried he was seeing double.

"These two riders were going round in the same kit, on the same bikes, they were the same size, everything. They just rode away from everybody that day and were far ahead of the competition, even then. I remember they ended up first and second after lapping the field a few times."

It would be years before Adam and Simon Yates regularly competed in different kits, allowing fans and commentators to easily tell them apart. In their early years, the twins were almost inseparable – aside from a brief spell after Simon joined the British Cycling Academy while Adam, backed by the Dave Rayner Foundation, raced on the road in France. Now, 11 years after turning professional together with Orica-GreenEdge (now Jayco-Alula) and spending several seasons as teammates, the boys from Bury are once again racing for different teams. This May, they will both line up at the Giro d’Italia – a race Simon nearly won in 2018.

Despite their shared DNA and parallel rise to the top of the sport, Adam and Simon, now aged 32, have carved out subtly different paths. Understanding their differences in personality and temperament isn’t easy, not least because both shy away from the limelight. My interview requests – to UAE Emirates-XRG for Adam, and to Visma-Lease a Bike for Simon – were both eventually declined. This was reluctance on the brothers’ part, I suspect, rather than stonewalling from their teams. The Yates brothers may not want to comment on it, but the divergence in their career paths is now more fascinating now than ever. And if they wouldn’t talk to us, we’d just have to ask the people who know them best.

Weetabix eating contests and Call of Duty sessions

We begin with former Conti-level pro, 31-year-old Chris Latham, a childhood friend of the brothers, who joins our scheduled Zoom call grinning mischievously. "I've just texted them both now," he says in a broad Lancashire accent. "I've told them I want at least 10 grand off the pair of them for not chucking them under the bus in this," he says, bursting into laughter, clearly relishing the opportunity to talk candidly about two of his closest mates.

"They've always been tight and got on well. I remember they shared a room as kids and just smashed Call of Duty, Haribo and Lucozade all the time." Latham frequently visited the Yateses. "I lived in Bolton, only 10 miles away from them in Bury," he says. "I'd ride over to their place, go on a ride with them, and after getting battered by their dad on our bikes, we'd play Call of Duty for hours. It was quality, growing up together."

What about sibling rivalry as cycling began to replace video games – were the twins as serious back then as they often appear in interviews now? I begin to recount how James Knox once told Cycling Weekly that the Yates brothers were "hilarious" and had him "howling at the dinner table" during pre-Tokyo Olympics training in 2020, when Latham interrupts: "Oh mate, they were always chucking banter about," he says, cracking up again – supporting Knox's characterisation of the pair. "They'd compete against each other anyway, just for a laugh – whether it was how many Weetabix they could eat, or racing their bikes at the weekend. There's always a good laugh wherever those two are."

Admitting that it’s hard to imagine the Yateses as party animals, I ask Latham to provide an example. He bursts out laughing again. "They love red wine, as they think they're posh now," he jokes, "but the thing is, we used to go down to Sainsbury's most nights as kids and get a bottle of wine for a fiver – but now it's the fine wine menu with them." He recounts a recent night out and his horror as the brothers began perusing expensive bottles on the wine list. "I told them to get a grip, behave and get something cheaper."

Now that Latham had confirmed that the Yates brothers certainly don’t deserve their staid, serious image, it was time to talk about the origins of their competitive drive in more detail. After a few email exchanges with members of Bury Clarion – the brothers’ first club – I boarded a train bound for Manchester. How had the twins stayed so close despite competing for rival teams? Has this ever led to tensions? I wanted to better understand two of the most underappreciated men in the sport.

My first stop is lunch in Bury with Nick Hall, a longstanding family friend of the Yates family. "I first met Simon and Adam out on a ride," Hall recalls, pausing to sip his tea. "There were probably only half a dozen of us, and they must have only been about 12 or 13." I ask if that was unusual – kids so young joining a Saturday club run with their dad and his mates?

"Well yes, my first reaction was 'what are these two kids doing coming out with us older blokes?'" he says. "But then you got to a hill and they started racing off up it, leaving us all thinking, 'hang on, what the hell are we doing out with them?' It was obvious they were very good." Hall remembers Adam and Simon being naturally competitive, though always in a good-natured way. Even back then, their ambitions were crystal clear. "I remember talking to them on another early ride. Most local kids would say 'I want to play for Man United,' but with Simon and Adam it was always professional cycling. They told me they wanted to be cyclists and ride the Tour de France."

After lunch, Hall offers me a lift to the nearest tram stop and we continue our conversation on the way. He points out several local landmarks, including the street that the Yates family still calls home. I had hoped to speak with the twins' parents, John and Sue – having had a pleasant chat with them during a chance encounter at the 2023 Tour de France – but Hall tells me they prefer to avoid media interactions. It’s nothing personal, he assures me. "I think Sue would probably do more interviews, but it's just not John’s cup of tea," he explains. Do they fear being misquoted? "Not really," says Hall. “They’re just very private people."

Working in close proximity with a sibling is liable to cause friction, so I ask Hall if he remembers hearing any instances of Simon and Adam clashing as their careers were taking off. With a laugh, he insists that these two siblings really are as close as they seem. "They have just always understood each other, and they have fairly similar personalities," he says. "They're both very cool and laid-back, and that's genuinely how they’ve always been." Not even teenage squabbles on the club run? "No, not at all," he says.

Listening to Hall, it's becoming clear that the twins, in their younger days, really were as Chris Latham described them. I remember speaking to Simon in Canada last September: he had told me he didn't want to finalise the details of his transfer to Visma until he'd had a chance to talk through the details with his "best mate", Adam. "We always discuss everything together," he said.

Face value

A picture is emerging of two siblings who really are as close as they seem. Hall describes the humble, cohesive family unit that kept them grounded, the "two up, two down" house, and the "down-to-earth" parents. Did this background ensure they would remain modest and unassuming? "I think it all comes from John and Sue and their manner," he says. "It's just how the boys have always been brought up – they all know each other inside-out and are very close as a family."

I steer the conversation back to cycling. Simon's Vuelta win in 2018 automatically placed him among cycling's greats – while Adam's best Grand Tour result is third in the 2023 Tour de France. Hall insists that this has never provoked any jealousy or tension, reiterating a point also made by Keith Lambert: through good and bad times, the brothers have always had each other's backs. As an example, he tells me that Adam fiercely defended his twin in 2016 after Simon tested positive for the asthma drug Terbutaline (the team blamed an "administrative error").

The twins have now spent several years on rival teams, and who can forget their dramatic one-two finish on the opening day of the 2023 Tour de France. Latham, Hall and Lambert all draw attention to that moment, recalling having their hearts in their mouths. But it wasn't the first time they had gone one-two in a major bike race. Back in 2013, the brothers finished first and second on a key mountain stage in the Tour de l’Avenir, with Simon taking the win.

In my conversation with Latham, I hypothesised that it could happen again this May – would Adam attack even if the overall lead were at stake for Simon? There will be no favours given, insists Latham. "When it comes to cycling, they are absolutely zoned-in," he says. "It's as simple as that, they don’t fuck about. They're absolute best mates, but they'd always let their legs decide in any race scenario. They're proper bike racers in that sense – that's just who they are and always will be."

In recent years, the unofficial Grand Tour hat-trick has become one of the most sought after prizes in cycling with just one catch - you don’t get a medal, a jersey or a trophy for the achievement. Instead of a more solid prize, riders simply get the prestige of having it listed on their palmarès, as well as kudos from their fellow professionals and the rest of the cycling world.

The achievement doesn’t really have an official name either, but for the purpose of this, we’ll go with the Grand Tour hat-trick. In case it isn't clear, riders who have won stages in all three of cycling’s Grand Tours are those who have completed the treble. 111 men have pulled off victories in the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España, with Ben O’Connor being the latest to do so. Richard Carapaz, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe also all rounded off a set of stage wins in all three of the Grand Tours last year, the latter with a memorable victory in Fano in the Giro in one of his final acts for Soudal Quick-Step.

With the Giro due to get underway in Albania today, we found ourselves asking: who could complete the hat trick this May? The answer is six riders: Wout Poels (XDS Astana), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL), Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) and UAE Team Emirates-XRG pair Adam Yates and Rafal Majka.

Members of the triple winners club tend to be repeat stage winners, the sort of riders you could put your last £10 on to win a stage in a Grand Tour and they’d pull it off for you. But it is extremely rare for riders to have won exactly one stage in each of the three races, as as pointed out by Cillian Kelly on his Substack. In fact it’s so rare that only two riders still competing have done just that, Ben O’Connor and Lidl-Trek’s Lennard Kämna.

Separately, four women have completed the hat-trick in the female peloton. Given her prolific winning record during her career, it’s no surprise that Annemiek van Vleuten is one of the four. Marianne Vos, Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes round off the list. If she takes a win in the Giro Donne this year, Demi Vollering will join the club.

Check out our How to watch the Giro guide to follow all of the racing across the next three weeks, and keep an eye out for the six men who could join the hat-trick list.

The start of the Giro d’Italia is just five weeks away, but it already looks set to become a two-way scrap between Primož Roglič and Juan Ayuso, a clash of two of the sport’s biggest teams, UAE Team Emirates-XRG and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. Tadej Pogačar’s absence from the startlist has opened the door to a range of different riders looking to contest the race. However, Roglič and Ayuso are already pulling away from the competition after both making an exceptional start to the year.

The latter may have started his season later than the Slovenian, although he has already got 17 race days in the legs compared to Roglič’s 12 days of competition, picking up victories in both the Faun Drome Classic and Trofeo Laigueglia before sealing the overall win at Tirreno-Adriatico.

On paper, his start to the new campaign is impressive, particularly as that was then followed up with a second overall finish, victory in the youth classification and an individual stage win at the Volta a Catalunya. But Roglič, who is 13 years his senior, seemingly holds the upper hand and will have the cutting edge once the race gets underway as he goes in search of a second Giro title.

While he will have been undoubtedly disappointed with his low key start in Portugal, Roglič’s form coming out of Catalunya appears to be razor sharp and was underscored by his dominant performance on the final stage into Barcelona which he won convincingly to seal his overall triumph.

It is worth mentioning that Roglič emphatically winning week long stage races is nothing new - he has won 12 since beginning his career almost ten years ago - but his performance in Catalunya was a statement of intent and proof that despite being 35 he still has what it takes to dominate and perform at the highest level for a while longer yet.

It would have been easy to speculate and cast doubt on his ambitions for the Giro after he was bested by Ayuso on stage three at La Molina. The Slovenian simply never loses an uphill sprint, so much so that his trademark race-winning attack gained a name - Roglification. Many of the best GC riders currently competing on the men’s WorldTour have fallen afoul of such a move, although Ayuso took on the master at his own game in Catalunya.

Roglič’s final day showing blended tactical nous, outright force and clever race craft as he attacked from range to seal the win after hoovering up some of the mid-race bonus seconds on offer. "I had to do something. I always say that Catalunya is an honest race where the legs are talking. But I really didn't have a great feeling until the last stage," Roglič said afterwards before going on to warn that he felt the result "doesn't really influence the outcome of the Giro".

That may be so, but try telling that to the likes of Egan Bernal, Simon Yates and Richard Carapaz, three riders who will all be hoping to compete in Italy but who all finished more than a minute down on yours truly.

Anything can happen in the Corsa Rosa and the race can suddenly turn on its head - as proved by Chris Froome in 2018 - but recent showings have proved that Yates, Carapaz, Bernal, and the best of the rest are going to have their work cut out to get on the podium, let alone the top step which seems to be reserved for the two main protagonists in Spain.

Make no mistake, Roglič has the experience that age provides on his side, but Ayuso possesses the innocence of youth and, similarly to his famous UAE teammate, a burning desire to make a permanent mark on cycling by securing his first-ever Grand Tour victory.

The answer then, to "can anyone stop Primož Roglič or Juan Ayuso from winning the Giro d’Italia?", seems simple right now - probably not.

Simon Yates says it wasn’t the offer of a huge payday that convinced him to join Visma-Lease a Bike at the end of the season. The British climber will ride for the Dutch superteam alongside Jonas Vingegaard from 2025, but he says he has actually taken a pay cut to do so. 

Ahead of the Grand Prix Cyclistes de Québec and Montréal in Canada this weekend, Yates spoke for the first time after agreeing a move to his new team. The 32-year-old explained that he had sought advice from his brother, Adam, after receiving the transfer proposal and said it was not a decision he had taken lightly. 

"I never really have had a serious opportunity to move teams actually," Yates said in Québec. "I have had some offers before, but nowhere was really that interesting like the Visma offer. So that's why I've taken it. When the announcement was made that I was making a switch, I saw a lot of comments saying that there should be salary caps. But actually, I took a pay cut to go to Visma."

"I was actively wanting to go there," Yates said as he explained that the lower salary on offer didn’t put him off. "I wanted to be part of one of the best teams. I've had 11 years of chances to do my own thing on this team. So I don't think there's anything wrong now with wanting to move on."

"I think it's an exciting opportunity," he added. "I think it was the right moment to make a change. I'm not getting any younger, I'm getting old now, but I still have motivation and I still have strong feelings in my legs so now was the time to change. 

"I think I would regret it when I finish if I didn't know what it was really like to be in one of the best teams. The proposal came and I just couldn't really miss an opportunity like that. If I stay here for another two years, three years, I'll be 35 or 36 and then it's too late."

Brotherly advice 

Yates is likely to come up against his UAE Emirates twin as a super mountain domestique for the likes of Vingegaard in the months ahead. After racing each other into Bilbao on the opening day of the 2023 Tour de France, coming up against his twin on the biggest of stages will be nothing new. Adam took the victory and the race's first yellow jersey in the Basque Country, but the brothers celebrated together as they crossed the line to complete a Yates family 1-2. 

Simon said that Adam backing him to take the plunge and sign on the Visma dotted line had been one of the final things he needed in order to make the decision to move on from Jayco. 

"It gave me confidence that it would be a good decision," he said. "We discuss pretty much everything together. He had the same opinion and said that maybe a change would be good. 

"I was joking with him, saying it's just like training. We train together every day when we're at home, and we stick it to each other there for multiple hours a day. So it'll all just be like another training day."

Yates explained that he’d already been told by the Visma hierarchy that his new role would be "a free one" meaning he is likely to be given his own chance to race in week long stage races before he then switches to a support role on other occasions. 

The huge strength in depth on his new team will also mean that a place in a Grand Tour lineup next year may not be guaranteed. Yates said this didn’t faze him in the slightest and, if anything, it provided him with yet more inspiration to raise his level to an even higher place.

He said: "If I'm not good enough to make the selection for a race, it's completely fine. If there's a logical reason, hard facts on a piece of paper, then I'll just prove myself for the next time. But that's sport in general. You've got to really believe in yourself and get amongst it so hopefully this pays off."

Yates has won ten Grand Tour stages across his time with Jayco, as well as Tirreno-Adriatico in 2021. His crowning achievement though was overall victory at the 2018 Vuelta a España. After a difficult final year with the team, impacted by several bouts of illness, he said that he was determined to end it on a high note, particularly at Sunday’s GP Montréal.

"I've only put my arms in the air once this year, and I would like to do it again one final time at least, to do it for the team. So I'm motivated for the end of the season, but it's not easy to win these days anymore."

Dominance appears to be a buzzword of modern day cycling, particularly with regards to the current season as it unfolds. If it’s not Tadej Pogačar’s dominance at Strade Bianche or the Giro d’Italia, it’s Mathieu van der Poel’s dominance of the Spring Classics that we’re all talking about. 

But in relation to Pogačar and his UAE Emirates team, the dominance and superiority that we’ve already witnessed could imminently be elevated to new heights by the end of July. 

Winning a Grand Tour by almost ten minutes, as Pogačar did at the Giro in May, was something previously only associated with sepia-toned photographs of the likes of Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx and other greats, until the Slovenian phenom brought that concept crashing back into the present day this year. 

Although that feat, as impressive as it is, could soon be bumped to one side if UAE Emirates achieve what is seemingly a very real possibility for the state-owned squad, a clean sweep of the Tour de France podium this summer.

Pogačar recently confirmed his full list of teammates for the Tour and said that Adam Yates will be his right hand man as he looks to land a third overall victory in the yellow jersey. Yates and João Almeida are both in the squad alongside an array of other fearsome talent. 

Since then, both riders underlined their own credentials and proved that they are equally bang in form with a stunning display of dominance at the Tour de Suisse. Four stage wins for the group and Yates taking the overall title will have reverberated through the WorldTour peloton.  

Not only is Pogačar the best male rider in the world on current form, he’s heading to the Grand Départ with two teammates by his side who are equally capable of causing utter mayhem in the high mountains once the race gets underway. 

As well as being present beside their leader when the gradients begin to bite in the mountains, both riders have the form and talent to ride themselves onto the final podium in Nice alongside Pogačar. 

Clean sweeps of a Grand Tour podium are nothing new. Visma-Lease a Bike managed to achieve just that at the Vuelta a España last year with Sepp Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič taking first, second and third respectively. 

But it has not been achieved at the Tour de France, the biggest of the three, since 1928. Bernard Hinault, Greg Lemond and the iconic La Vie Claire team came close in 1986, although Andy Hampsten’s fourth-place finish meant the team just missed out on achieving the clean sweep. 

A handful of teams have managed to get two riders on the Tour podium in Paris in the last ten years. UAE did just that last year with Pogačar and Yates completing the podium behind Vingegaard as he took his second win. However, the Dane’s form and fitness coming into this year’s Tour has meant that the odds have increased of a UAE 1, 2, 3 this time out. 

Vingegaard’s horrific injuries sustained in a high-speed crash at Itzulia Basque Country in April have been well documented. Primož Roglič, now of Bora-Hansgrohe, also came down in the fall, as did Remco Evenepoel. Since getting back on his bike, Vingegaard is yet to race and has been focusing on training, most recently in Tignes, as he prepares for an expected Tour return. 

Evenepoel was in contention at the recent Critérium du Dauphiné before Roglič eventually took the win. All three are expected to challenge Pogačar in July, but there is uncertainty as to how they will fare once the race gets underway, particularly the Dane if he is indeed selected. 

With question marks surrounding his rival's fitness, UAE Emirates and Pogačar could look to take control of the race from the word go as they did last year in Bilbao. 

The two hilly opening stages finishing in Rimini and Bologna could see Pogačar on the offensive, looking to land an early blow before the yellow jersey title fight has even reached the fifth round.

UAE’s strength in depth and the form of the team’s key men means that they are already streets ahead. Get ready for a whole new level of dominance this July. 

João Almeida sprung to victory on stage six of the Tour de Suisse, out-sprinting his teammate Adam Yates in the final.

Yates attacked with just over 3km to go, but his UAE Team Emirates teammate Almeida joined him in the final kilometre, and then sprinted away to victory, claiming four seconds advantage.

UAE Team Emirates, as a result, remain in control of the race, with Yates 27 seconds ahead of Almeida in second place. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) remains in third, 1:28 behind the leader.

The original 151.1km route had been cut down to just 42.5km due to snow on the climbs, with the race essentially descending to the foot of the day's final climb, the Blatten.

"I think we were both quite strong, it was good," Almeida said post-stage. "He attacked quite far from the finish, and I was just on the wheel of Skjelmose, which was perfect for me. I caught him without bringing the other riders. I'm really happy with this victory.

"I think it's positive, as long as we do first and second it doesn't matter who, I think we're both happy. As long as we do good teamwork, and respect each other, as we always do, that's the main thing. At the end of the day, the team wins. Keep the focus the next two days, and hopefully we can make it.

"Of course I want to win all the time, but of course I respect the team and my teammates."

Two more stages remain, another mountains test on Saturday, before an uphill time trial on Sunday.

More to follow...

How it happened

With just 43km of action on Friday, it was almost guaranteed that it would not be a day for the breakaway.

However, there was a lot of attempts to get up the road early on, with a quartet managing to escape: Frank van den Broek (dsm-Firmenich PostNL) Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost), Alexis Renard (Cofidis) and Anders Foldager (Jayco AlUla).

Renard did not last long up the road, but the leading trio's advantage grew to over a minute, despite the stage being short.

UAE Team Emirates, the squad of race leader Adam Yates, provided the impetus in the peloton behind, ensuring that Van den Broek, Bissegger and Foldager were kept on a short leash.

Foldager was the first to fold, leaving Renard and Bissegger. The latter attacked to ensure he won the sprint for a Tissot watch - something he confirmed later - before Van den Broek became the last rider up the road.

However, he was soon swallowed up by the UAE-led peloton, with Isaac del Toro putting on the pace, before his leader Yates attacked with 3.2km to go.

There was never a decisive gap, however, with a small collection of favourites, including João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) chasing.

As Yates went under the flamme rouge, Almeida attacked from the chasing group, caught Yates, and then went past him in the final 300m to take the victory.

Everyone lost time on Yates, with the most notable being Enric Mas (Movistar) and Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech), who both lost 47 seconds.

Results

Tour de Suisse 2024, stage five: Ulrichen > Blatten (42.5km)

1. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, in 55:13
2. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates, +4s
3. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +9s
4. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, +15s
5. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +35s
6. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +40s
7. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, +47s
8. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, both at same time
9. Pelayo Sánchez (Esp) Movistar, +54s
10. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team, both at same time

General Classification after stage six

1. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates, 16:39:46
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +27s
3. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, +1:28
4. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, +2:24
5. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, + 2:38
6. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +2:42
7. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +3:28
8. Oscar Onley (GBr) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +3:37
9. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team, +4:01
10. Pelayo Sánchez (Esp) Movistar, +4:28

Adam Yates cemented his position at the top of the Tour de Suisse GC with a virtuoso victory at Carì on stage five.

He now leads by 35 seconds, but it's not quite as simple as it could be – hot on his heels is UAE Team Emirates team-mate Joāo Almeida, who did not only pace Yates up the steep, 10km climb, but shredded the lead group too. Then, after Yates took flight alone at 1.7km to go, Almeida stayed in touch to take an impressive second place, just six seconds behind the Briton.

With Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) now 1:11 down on Yates, Almeida is the closest challenger by some margin, and as Yates insist, he's not the boss.

"Yeah of course," he said, when asked if Almeida might be allowed to win. "If Joāo was stronger than me then he can win. You saw today he really put the pace on. If he has the same legs for the next two days then for sure he can take a win."

He added: "It's a good position to be in, to have two riders in great shape. From the beginning we were both co-leaders and so far it's working well.

After an impressive mountains victory Yates was happy just to revel in the strength in depth the team possesses, on a day when they overcame the best efforts of Ineos Grenadiers to ultimately prevail.

"It was a really strong performance," Yates said. "Right at the end there Joāo was putting on a crazy pace. I only had to follow for four of five k's and he was still there. He's obviously in great shape and the whole team's super motivated for the rest of the week.

"You saw today it wasn't easy for us," he added. "Ineos set a pace on the first two climbs that was really hard to try and flick us, but we came back as a team, got organised and we could do our pace in the final.

The stage – the second in a run of five consecutive days out in the mountains – took riders 148.6km from Ambri to Cari, bookended at each end by major climbs – different approaches to the same Alpine resort.

How it happened

With the race embarking on the category-two climb of Altanca almost from the gun, followed immediately by the day's first ascent to Carì, the peloton was never going to stay together for long.

An eight-rider group was established within two kilometres, though that quickly became smaller and by the time they crested the first-cat to Carì only Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) remained, followed shortly by Tom Pidcock and Egan Bernal, as Ineos Grenadiers attempted to put the thumbscrews on Yates's UAE team.

A five-man group of Einer Rubio (Movistar), Stevie Williams (Israel-PremierTech), Nans Peters (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) and Lutsenko eased clear with around 100km to ride, joined shortly afterwards by Johannes Staune-Mittet (Visma-Lease a bike).

They were never really let off the leash, but nevertheless this quintet survived the long, flat central section of the stage, all the way to foot of the foot of the final climb.

Ineos took some early turns on a climb that was eight and nine per cent most of the way up, before UAE Team Emirates took the bull by the horns and Almeida began to systematically decimate the mid-sized front group. By the time he moved over to let Yates go at 1.7km, only four or five riders were left in total, and though Bernal and Enric Mas (Movistar) made valiant attempts to keep up, they were short-lived, with Almeida coming round to take second behind the man in yellow.

Results

Tour de Suisse 2024 stage five, Ambrì > Carì: results

1. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates, in 3:5437
2. Joāo Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +5sec
3. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, +16
4. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-PremierTech, +18
5. Enric Mas (Spa) Movistar, +22
6. Oscar Onley (GBr) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +54
7. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, at s.t.
8. Sergio Higuita (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe, +1:03
9. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, +1:13
10. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease a bike, +1:20

General Classification after stage five

1. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates, 15:44:35
2. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +35s
3. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, +1:11
4. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, at same time, + 1:49
5. Matthew Riccitello (USA) Israel-Premier Tech, +1:53
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek, at same time
7. Oscar Onley (GBr) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +2:21
8. Tom Pidcock (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, +2:46
9. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:51
10. Sergio Higuita (Col) Bora-Hansgrohe, +3:01

Adam Yates was awarded Cycling Weekly's Male Rider of the Year for 2023. This exclusive interview originally appeared in the magazine on 7 December. Subscribe now and never miss an issue in 2024. 

Wandering through the paddock of stage two of the Tour de France, in a utilitarian car park on the edge of Vitoria-Gasteiz, there was one thing wearing a yellow jersey which everyone was interested in, more than any other.

It was not Adam Yates, the holder of the maillot jaune after his stage one heroics in Bilbao, but his dog. Zoe, his samoyed, was taking all the attention outside the UAE Team Emirates bus and in the paddock, ably marshalled by Yates’ then fiancée, Lisa. The day before, Zoe’s owner had done what only three British riders had ever done before, and won the opening stage of the Tour de France, and the first yellow jersey as a result.

Yates is not one for attention or adulation, so it helped having a white cloud of a dog present to distract on that Sunday morning.

“I'm not too bothered by it all, I get on with the job,” he tells Cycling Weekly in October. “I know what I'm there for, I'm not great with the media stuff, so I just try and keep it as minimal as possible. Then I just do my job, to ride my bike, which I'm not too bad at.”

However, his achievements should not be glossed over. Great Britain’s achievements in the Tour might not have been anything particularly special until the last decade, but Yates’ time in the race lead in July meant that he is now the Briton with the fourth-longest time in the yellow jersey, with eight days. Add to this the fact that he is just the fourth British rider to ever finish on the podium - Yates ended up finishing third in Paris - and it was an incredible summer for the 31-year-old from Bury.

His opening stage win, where he broke away from the elite group in Bilbao with his twin brother Simon, is one for the history books too, one which Adam described as “super nice” for his parents, who were there.

“The first stage in the Tour is pretty hard to win, as is any stage really, but the first one especially,” he explains. “I know how hard it is, to manage to win that, it was a really good start. I don't know what to say really, it was nice.

“It's pretty rare that we come 1-2 in any race, let alone stage one of the Tour. I was super happy to share that experience.”

In fact, it was probably Yates best year in professional cycling to date, in his tenth year in the peloton. Alongside the stage win and podium finish at the Tour, there was a stage win at the UAE Tour, a stage win and the overall at the Tour de Romandie, second place overall at the Critérium du Dauphiné, and finally a win at the Grand Prix du Montréal.

“It's been good,” Yates says. “I like to rate seasons on wins, and I had five wins, I think, in 2019, and I got five this year. It was an equal amount, but I guess the level has been a little higher. It's been good. I've not really had any bad races, I've been consistent throughout the whole year, which is something I've been working through some past years. Super happy with that, I've worked pretty hard on that.”

From the outside, there were not many big changes in Yates’ approach to racing this year, but the big shift has to be his move from Ineos Grenadiers to UAE Team Emirates. As his former team perhaps missed the consistency of his riding this year, both in general classification and super domestique terms, Yates was riding high in new colours.

“It's not been easy,” he says, though. “Every year, I'm getting better and better, but so is everyone else, the level is getting super high. Especially this year the level has been a bit crazy.”

“Every race I've been to has been an enjoyable experience,” he continues. “Everyone is nice and friendly, and get on. We've got a lot of big riders, a lot of strong riders on the team. Sometimes it's not easy to figure out the tactics, but in the end we just want to win.

“I've not raced so much with Tadej [Pogačar], only really at the Tour. He's super easy to work with, for me he's the best bike rider in the world. We turn up, we set a super high pace, and nine times out of ten he finishes the job for us. It's quite enjoyable.”

That’s the biggest difference between Ineos and UAE at the moment, the fact that Yates’ new team has a generational cycling talent, already one of the greatest riders in the history of the sport, while his former employers do not.

However, despite this, and despite Yates’ opening stage win and all that seemed to herald back at the beginning of July, the team failed in their biggest goal of the year, winning the Tour de France. The title instead went to Jonas Vingegaard and Jumbo-Visma. A few months on though, Yates seems pretty sanguine:

“We didn't win, but at the end of the day there was only one guy that was stronger than us,” he explains. “We had two guys on the podium, the white jersey with Tadej, and three stage wins between us. Also, we had a really good time while doing it. Even if we had a bad day, we lost a bit of time, we were still laughing and joking around the dinner table.

“Even though we didn't win, we had fun, and already, a lot of us know that we will be going next year and we're motivated to win, to go one step further.”

For the man from Bury, the biggest difference was not necessarily the change of teams, but just a change in fortune.

“One of the main things has been not getting sick or injured as much,” Yates says. “Especially last year, I was sick a lot of the time. I came into a race after some illness, or I'd have some illness, or an injury.

“This year, I've arrived at the races in good condition. I've also not had anything go wrong, which is the main thing. I've had some bad luck over the years and this year everything has slotted into place and worked. I'm super grateful for that, and hopefully I can do the same next year.”

Yates might not have been ill or injured in 2023, but he has also benefited from a team which seems to be better organised, and has slotted him into the plan seamlessly. They have also backed him. In the run up to this year’s Tour the UAE team management were insisting that Yates and Pogačar were co-leaders, despite Yates repeatedly saying that he was there to work for the “best bike rider in the world”.

“Last year, already in November/December, the team was already asking me about what I wanted to do, and what would work for me,” Yates says. “They had a plan throughout the season, with a flow. That works really well, because then you have a plan and a goal. Of course, things can change, but you then have something to build to, you have something to work towards. That's quite motivating for me.”

Yates turned 31 in August, a fact which can seem hard to compute. Is he not still the baby-faced rider who won the Tour’s youth classification in 2016? Is it really three years since he rode for what was then Mitchelton-Scott? Did he really spend two years at Ineos Grenadiers? Two years?

2023 marked Yates’ 10th year in the peloton, but he refuses to reflect on what he might have changed, given a time machine. “You can't change the past,” he argues.

Time marches on for us all, and Yates is no exception. He seems to have found a good place, and a good role at UAE, and is forging a different career to his twin brother, who has remained at what is now Jayco-AlUla. Despite this, it still seems hard to separate the pair; they didn’t make it easy for everyone else with their 1-2 on stage one of the Tour. One of the most popular Instagram reels from the Tour was the pair climbing almost exactly in time together. It is hard to make a clean break from your twin.

One thing is for certain though, Adam Yates had an electric 2023, and will look to power on, furrow his own course in 2024 and beyond. And don’t worry, Zoe the samoyed was rewarded for her starring role: she got to rip the toy lion given to every yellow jersey wearer to shreds. A just prize.

A lack of pressure bearing down on his shoulders paid of for Adam Yates at the Tour de France as he wrapped up third place today.

The British rider from Bury, Lancashire came into the Tour de France as a domestique deluxe for yellow jersey challenge of two-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar but right from day one he put himself in contention for a good GC result by winning the stage and taking the race lead.

While he later lost the jersey he then, bit-by-bit, consolidated his position and he lifted himself onto the podium at the start of the third week with a seventh place in the time trial.

All that was left to do in the Tour’s final mountain stage today was to mark moves from those close behind him. He did that successfully, inadvertently helping his brother Simon jump past Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) to fourth on GC in the process, when Simon attacked and dropped the Spaniard before Adam bridged across to him to protect his own GC place.

Speaking after the race he said: “I definitely came in, myself, with less pressure. When you ride for yourself you have the whole team on your back... I came in relaxed. The team knew I was good, and I think that helped with my consistency. I found my level, there were only two guys a little bit better than me.”

The UAE Emirates rider was visibly stress-free in his post Tour press conference. Asked if he might have his own GC opportunities now, after bagging such a result he said: “When I signed for the team - I first spoke to them this time last year I was in Greece on holiday - their whole idea for me was to come to the Tour and be the last man for Tadej.

“It’s worked well this year and I managed to get a podium out of it. Whether I get leadership in another Grand Tour that’s not up for me to decide the team whether they want me to go to the Tour, whether they want me to go the Vuelta, whether they want me to go to the Tour of Guangxi and target GC then I’ll do it.”

Yates has been effusive in his praise of his team-leader throughout the race. Yates had started as a co-leader with doubts over Pogačar’s form after a broken wrist forced him off the bike for five weeks in the crucial Tour de France build-up phase of his training, but he has been keen to point out that Pogačar’s result was his main concern. Even though Pogačar slipped out of contention with a disastrous day in the high Alps in the third week of the Tour Yates’s dedication did not slip.

Asked if Pogačar was still, as Yates had said he was earlier in the race, “the best rider in the world” he said: “For me yes. Obviously, we lost the Tour, but when someone can win the Tour of Flanders and beat the best Classics riders in the world and they come to the Tour de France and beat some of the best climbers in the world, well, there's not many people who can do that throughout history.”

He added that although people might question Pogačar’s quality after his defeat at the legs of Jonas Vingegaard that maintaining his high level of physical performance throughout the year was “not easy”.

Yates added that Pogačar’s personality helped to galvanize and lift the team. “When you have a leader like Tadej it’s more enjoyable, because he’s always good,” Yates siad. “Even when he’s bad he’s good, coming onto the bus making jokes. He’s here for us mentally and physically. It’s been an enjoyable Grand Tour. We didn’t have any really stressful days.”

Though Yates, despite being new to the team also has had a role to play in building the mate-ship that binds a squad together, he is charge of the music on the bus. “I sit at the front of the bus, which maybe helps maybe with how close I am to the bluetooth,” he said with a smile. “If it’s a sprint day I put some rap on, if it’s a day like today I put some heavy dance on.”

Yates has become integral to the UAE Emirates set up in a short time, he has a bond with Pogačar that is clearly rooted in a deep respect. He may not get another shot at a top GC result but he’ll almost certainly be back at the Tour with his team leader in 2024, taking opportunities as they present themselves. And he seems absolutely fine with that.

Adam and Simon Yates' mother said it was always a dream to have a one-two at any race, let alone the Tour de France, so ended up delighted on Saturday evening.

Suzy Yates told Cycling Weekly on Sunday afternoon that her heart was going at a million miles an hour as the twins approached the line in Bilbao on stage one. Adam, who rides for UAE Team Emirates, won the stage and took the yellow jersey, while Simon, of Jayco-AlUla, had to settle for second.

“We were watching the Tour as normal, watched it go past as usual, and we were on our way to the next place,” Suzy said. “We were going to stop, when all of a sudden Adam's partner called and said 'Adam and Simon are away, they've got a gap'. I put the phone down, tried to get it on the TV, I had to get it on the phone, and I was just screaming 'oh my god, oh my god’

“My heart was going at a million miles an hour, and we were still driving on the motorway, so we had nowhere to stop.

“We managed to see them cross the line. I didn't care who won, I just wanted one of them to win. It was my dream to have a one-two, and for this in the Tour is a dream,” she added. “I just wanted them to stay away.”

Both Suzy and her husband, John, joked that the two brothers would have exchanged a fair bit of banter after Adam pipped Simon to the stage win and maillot jaune.

“There would have been a lot of banter afterwards... I'll have you next time, that kind of thing,” she said. “They're so, so close. Even if they don't speak to us for days on end, they're on the phone to each other.”

Mrs Yates explained that no matter what race the twins are competing in, they always get her joint support.

“It's always been a bit surreal,” she said. “It's always hard when they're in a race together, to know who to support. They both get my equal shouting and screaming at the TV, and it's just fabulous.

“I've waited a long time for this. I always tell them it would be really nice to have a one-two. I send them good wishes every morning. Happy days.”

Coming into the Tour, Adam Yates was named as co-leader of UAE Team Emirates with Tadej Pogačar. While Adam has played this down, the team has continued to insist he is a contender for the overall. He is in the yellow jersey, to be fair.

Pogačar suffered a wrist injury at Liège–Bastogne–Liège leading to doubts on how ready he would be fitness wise when the Tour arrived. The two-time winner looked strong on both of the opening stages and despite currently leading the race, Suzy told Cycling Weekly that Adam’s focus would be solely on supporting his teammate once the mountains arrive in the coming days.

“Tadej is his first port of call, so who knows how it will go,” Mrs Yates explained. “He's very strong, he's very tactical, I think he's a bit under the radar. Who knows, why not. I'd love him to keep it a few more days, but who knows.”

Almost everyone - if they're not an only child - has memories of special moments spent with a sibling. It could be a trip to Legoland, rushing downstairs to open Christmas presents together, or going on a first night out together. Not many siblings are able to say they have been locked together in a battle for a stage of the world's biggest bike race, and the most famous leader's jersey of all.

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) and Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) are not ordinary people. In fact, they have been some of the best bike riders in the world for the past few years, sharing 54 professional wins between them. The twins from Bury might be exceptional bike riders, but it was still a unique situation for the pair on Saturday evening, as stage one of the Tour de France ended in delight for one Yates, and regret for the other.

The pair attacked down the final climb of the day, the Côte de Pike, and stayed away from the likes of Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), in order to go pedal-to-pedal up a punchy finalé. Adam took the initiative and had more energy than his brother, storming to his first Tour and Grand Tour stage win.

"It was a super special experience. To go one-two on the final climb with your brother is not something many people can say, so it was really nice," Adam said post-stage. "He did most of the work on the descent and on the flat, because obviously I had Tadej behind. With four, five kilometres to go, I got the call from Tadej saying I could work, and we went full gas to the finish, so it was a super nice experience, and a great day."

It was a gutting finish for Simon, coming second to the man who he has probably raced the most over his 30 years, from the streets where he grew up in Lancashire, to the streets of Andorra, where the pair live, close together.

"It's difficult," Simon explained. "I'm pretty pleased for him, [it's a] first Grand Tour stage. Of course I'm ecstatic for him, but I also wanted to win, we're quite competitive. Like I said, I'll try and get the better of him in the coming days."

Adam was wary of his brother's threat in the coming days, as he will seek to get one back over him.

"When we got away together I said, 'I can't work, I can't work', and he knew how it was," Adam said. "He's professional, I'm professional, and that's professional bike racing. Then I got the call that I could start to work, and we went full gas to the finish.

"On the final climb I managed to have a bit more energy, because he spent some on the descent. But he's still in super great shape, I'm sure he's going to be a pain in the ass over the next few weeks."

The pair's parents are on the roads of the Tour, and saw the special moment. It is not the first time the twins have finished first and second at a race - that was at the Tour de l'Avenir in 2013, where Simon won - but this is a whole different level. It must be an odd feeling to experience jubilation and yet empathy for your brother's loss, which Adam went through, and then feel regret and also happy for your brother, as Simon did.

"I have a fantastic relationship with my brother, so I'm really happy for him, and I'll stick it to him in the coming days," Simon explained. "They're [his parents] out on course somewhere, I didn't manage to see them, it was too hectic. They're following the whole thing, I'm sure they'll see us come past tomorrow."

"We’re super close, I've spoken to him every day for the last 15 years, well, 20 years," Adam said. "We’re really close, but this year, we did preparation differently. He's been training alone, making sure he stays out of trouble, and I've been doing Dauphiné, and I was in the Sierra Nevada before that. So I've been with my team for a long time, and he's being doing his own thing. When we're back in Andorra, he lives five, ten minutes away, so we see each other whenever we can."

Despite the stage win, and the time in yellow that follows, Adam is realistic about his job at this year's Tour de France: he is here to help Tadej Pogačar win. This is despite the team trailing Adam and Pogačar as co-leaders last week.

"At the end of the day, we're here for Tadej," Adam said. "For me, he is the best rider in the world, he's been the best rider for years now, and we 100% back him. If I can help him out with tactics like today, chipping off the front and causing a bit of carnage, then that's what we'll do. Depending on the race, depending on the situation, we'll see."

Sunday is another day, another hard stage, but Adam Yates and UAE Team Emirates have already stamped their authority on this year's race. Now we will wait and see if Simon has a response.

Adam Yates secured his first overall title since joining UAE Team Emirates this season when he finished safely in the bunch on the final stage of the Tour de Romandie, which concluded with a bunch sprint won by Movistar’s Fernando Gaviria. Having moved into the yellow jersey with victory on Saturday’s ‘queen’ stage to the ski station of Thyon 2000, the 30-year-old Briton finished the race 19 seconds clear of Gaviria’s team-mate Matteo Jorgenson, with Bahrain Victorious’ Damiano Caruso third and the hugely promising 20-year-old Briton Max Poole (Team DSM) in fourth.

‘Credit to the guys, they controlled the race perfectly today,’ said Yates, who was making his debut in the Swiss stage race and joked that he was delighted to end it with a 100% winning record. ‘It’s been a perfect week for us with two stage wins and the overall, so we can’t ask for much more,' he added, his mountain triumph coming the day after team-mate Juan Ayuso had been quickest in the 19km time trial.

Romandie was Yates’s first competitive outing since March’s Volta a Catalunya, where he was set back by injuries sustained in an opening day crash. ‘Winning here was the plan after the little break that I had that gave me a chance to recover from my crash in Catalunya,’ said the UAE climber. ‘We knew that there was a big mountain day that I could win. It’s easier said than done and much harder to put all of the pieces together, but in the end we managed to do it.’

Yates will now turn his attention to preparing for the Tour de France, where he will step back into a support role for two-time champion Tadej Pogačar. ‘I’ll have a small break now and then maybe do some altitude, and then step by step we’ll make my condition a little bit better and hopefully be ready for the big objective at the Tour de France,’ he said.

Gaviria, who has a one-year contract with Movistar after leaving UAE in the off-season, clinched his second victory for the Spanish team with a canny piece of sprinting. With 300 metres remaining, the Colombian accelerated to the front going into a sweeping right-hand bend and came out of it with a clear lead. The victory, his first in a WorldTour race since the 2021 Tour of Poland, took him to 51 career successes, level with Nairo Quintana as the leading Colombian winner of all time.

Adam Yates has insisted that he will still have opportunities to ride for general classification in Grand Tours, having made the switch from Ineos Grenadiers to UAE Team Emirates.

The Briton has joined his new employees on a three-year contract after two seasons with Ineos where he continued to assert his class in one week stage races but failed to challenge for overall honours in either the Vuelta a España or Tour de France.

Now aged 30, the Bury-born rider appreciates that his new team have a raft of GC options, including two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar, young Spanish prodigy Juan Ayuso and Portuguese João Almeida.

That, however, does not mean that he will be prevented from trying to win a Grand Tour himself. Asked by a small collection of press at UAE’s December training camp whether the crowded nature of his new team means that his own GC ambitions will have to take a backseat, Yates responded: “I wouldn’t say so.

“We have one big superstar in Tadej, and we have a lot of young guys who have a lot of potential. But you can’t just have one leader all of the time. Who knows if they need me to do something. If someone gets injured then I can step in.

“Just because I’ve changed teams doesn’t mean I’ve gone down a level - it’s still the same as before.

“It’s the same situation as at Ineos: there are a lot of good riders at a high level and we always went to Grand Tours with two options, sometimes three options, and I think that’s the way the sport is going.

“It’s so easy for something to happen, or for someone to have a crash, so it’d be silly these days to invest that much money into riders and not have a second option.

“I’m not really bothered by what [races] they put me in. Obviously I’d like to go to the big races and try and show myself, but we’ve got some big riders here who can win big races so we will see.”

During his two seasons with Ineos, Yates finished fourth at the 2021 Vuelta a España but was never in contention for the win, while at the 2022 Tour de France he overcame illness to ride to a respectable 10th (upgraded to ninth following Nairo Quintana’s expulsion). 

Yates has completed all 11 Grand Tours he has started since 2014, and has finished in the top-10 on four occasions; fourth overall, and the young jersey, at the 2016 Tour remains his best result.

“I’m not ashamed at all [about his Grand Tour results],” he added. “When I race, I race 100%, no matter what race it is.

“Ok, maybe it’s not gone 100% perfect for the Grand Tours, but when I am at my best, I am amongst the best. As long as I keep ticking all of the boxes, keep doing what I am doing, then the results will come. Last year I had a lot of bad luck with illness at key moments - I could have done a lot better.”

Despite there being a feeling of never quite kicking on in three week races, Yates has demonstrated his enduring class across shorter stage races, winning the Volta a Catalunya and Deutschland Tour in recent years.

He admits that those week-long races are his forte and thus he will continue to prioritise similar results. 

“You like what you’re good at,” he went on. “I am pretty good at one week stuff. That is what I am good at and have been good at in the past. 

“A good example is Richie Porte. He’s won almost every race you can [win] on the calendar. Ok, he’s not won a Grand Tour, but you can’t say he wasn’t one of the best stage racers in the world.

“The [UAE Team Emirates] coaches here have different coaching techniques but they said to me, ‘don’t change anything’ [and to] keep doing what I have been doing for the last few years. 

“I’m not young anymore, I’m getting older, I’ve been around the block a few times so I guess I know what I am doing to an extent. I just need a nudge here and there to get the best out of me.”

Yates revealed that he had considered staying on Ineos Grenadiers, although it is understood that the British team were not prepared to give Yates guarantee of Grand Tour leadership.

When he began speaking with UAE about a potential move, he was persuaded by how they intended to use him and also the length of the contract.

“We [Ineos and Yates] were talking throughout the year but then when this opportunity came around, I felt like the time was to change,” he added.

“From the moment we started speaking, they had a plan. They already knew what they wanted to do with me to an extent and for me that is the most important thing. Them knowing what they want from me and knowing they trust me and support me - that’s the main thing. We only spoke briefly and within a week of talking we sat down and started talking about a contract.

“I asked if they would agree to three years because at Ineos and my last two years at Mitchelton [Scott] it was always two years. You do your first year and then in February and March you’re already thinking about your contract so I said to the team, ‘listen, let me settle down, let’s work together, come up with a plan, and then make something happen’. From the beginning they trusted me to do that and hopefully it’ll work out.”

Adam Yates will leave Ineos Grenadiers at the end of the current season after agreeing a three year deal with UAE Team Emirates from 2023. 

The contract agreed with his new team will see the British climber rider for UAE Team Emirates until the end of 2025. 

Yates finished ninth at this year’s Tour de France and represents a significant signing ahead of his new teammate Tadej Pogačar's attempt to win a third Tour de France title next season. 

Thirty-year-old Yates admitted that joining his new team will coincide with what he feels will be his best years. 

“I’m really excited to join UAE Team Emirates. I have seen the growth of the team over the years and the opportunity to join was one that I could not turn down. I feel that I’m entering my peak years as a rider and the team will get the best out of me. I look forward to riding with many of the top riders in the world and to contribute to the team becoming number one in the world,” he said. 

Yates joins a team full of Grand Tour winning potential including the likes of Pogačar, Juan Ayuso who finished third at the recent Vuelta a España and João Almeida. 

UAE Team Emirates CEO Mauro Gianetti said that the British riders consistency was something that drew the team's attention when considering recruiting Yates for next season. 

Gianetti said: “His ability to win and achieve top results across a wide variety of races is very impressive and he has proven to be a consistent talent. We all know he is a rider of great panache and we believe that he will be the right fit for our structure as we continue to reinforce the team for the coming years.”

Yates has 18 major victories to his name including the 2021 Vuelta a Catalunya, the 2020 UAE Tour and the recent 2022 Deutschland Tour. 

As well as this, Yates has consistently placed high in the overall standings at races like the Tour de France. The Bury-born rider also wore the yellow jersey at the 2020 edition of the French grand Tour holding it between stages five and eight. 

Geraint Thomas has revealed that Tadej Pogačar sought his help in an effort to dethrone current yellow jersey wearer Jonas Vingegaard on stage 14 of the Tour de France to Mende.

The race had been aggressive from the first kilometre where Pogačar attacked. Not long after Thomas said Pogačar approached him seeking an alliance.

“On the first climb, I saw him go and I was quite a way behind. I saw Jonas not panicking, but jumping as well, but I thought ‘Nah, it’s not gonna keep riding when they’re together’ so I managed to stay in the wheels, follow some guys and work my way up, kind of how I’ve been riding the whole race basically. 

“He [Pogačar] came to me and said Jumbo are struggling, they’re struggling, but I was like, ‘Yeah, but, if we all jump and it’s just GC guys, it makes no difference anyway.’ Obviously they’re having a hard day, but if he wants to jump around and make it hard for them, it’s fine by me.”

Thomas explained his decision to remain in the bunch. “If a GC guy did go up the road and Vingegaard doesn’t have teammates and he’s got to ride, then obviously [you’d get involved]… You’re looking at numbers all of the time, and the combinations, and if it is a good unit you slip and slide.”

In the end the race calmed down after the first hour and a big break was established, which would eventually contest the stage win. 

When the GC group reached it Thomas was distanced on the climb, which has three consecutive kilometres of over 10% gradients, to Mende. As soon as Tadej Pogačar attacked Thomas found himself swiftly left by the Slovenian and yellow jersey wearer Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) but fought to maintain the gap to minimum, eventually crossing the line with David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) 17 seconds behind the GC leading pair.

Thomas said: “It’s not necessarily my type of climb: steep and punchy, and 10 minutes or less and bang it was over. But it was solid. As I said at the start of the day, a climb like that you can have the same sort of gaps as on Alpe d’Huez sometimes.”

He added: “Days like today are some of the hardest just because your legs are feeling a lot of attacks like today, and not much control, you’re always on the pedals and I don’t what our average was but the first hour would have been super high.”

Yates hangs on

Ineos’s other GC hope Adam Yates lost a few more seconds but kept his place in he top five.

Ineos Grenadiers deputy team principal Rod Ellingworth said: “I think that Adam, without any issues prior to this race, would have been able to stay with them [Pogačar and Vingegaard] on that climb.

“He’s getting better with each day. They’re just racing, as we set out from the beginning and letting the road play out. The ambiance in the group is really good and they’re looking out for each other. I think that Adam was happy to take things up there for Geraint on that climb and then maybe another day it will be the other way around. They rode well together.”

However, the squad's third GC card, Tom Pidcock slipped a place on GC to ninth after getting distanced at the bottom of the climb and losing over a minute to the yellow jersey.

Ellingworth said: “He hardly slept the night he won that stage [12 to Alpe d’Huez] he got maybe two or three hours. This is all part of it for Tom, having the experience and the ups and downs.”

Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) won stage 11 at the Tour de France after attacking the other GC contenders on the Col du Granon on Wednesday. He put in a devastating ride to snatch the overall lead from the shoulders of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates). 

In an epic showdown in the high Alps, Jumbo-Visma pulled off a tactical masterstroke to dislodge Pogačar from his throne and land a hammer blow to the Slovenian’s hopes of winning a third straight Tour de France. 

For the first time in his career, Pogačar was under serious pressure and would soon be seriously isolated on the Col du Galibier. As the leaders  took on the savage gradients of the Col du Granon, Vingegaard took flight. After Pogačar had managed to hold on all day, this time he was distanced and soon the Dane had a lead of more than a minute.

Earlier in the day Warren Barguil had been part of a big breakaway, not that it mattered to Vingegaard as he flew past the Frenchman with Pogačar still on the ropes to take a monumental victory for Jumbo-Visma. 

Nairo Quintana came in second on a remarkable day with Romain Bardet third. Geraint Thomas took fourth as Pogačar haemorrhaged time on a dramatic day of racing. 

By the time Tadej Pogačar crossed the finish line himself, he had lost nearly two minutes to slip to third overall. Romain Bardet climbed to second with Geraint Thomas in fourth.  

HOW IT HAPPENED

Prior to the mammoth 152 kilometre stage getting underway, much of the pre-race talk was how UAE Team Emirates would cope after losing George Bennett yesterday. 

Tadej Pogačar was still at the top of the overall standings, but was expected to be put under pressure in the high mountains. The race was due to climb the giant Col du Galibier, this year’s Souvenir Henri Desgrange, before climbing the Col du Granon Serre Chevalier, the highest summit finish at the Tour de France this century. 

The last time the race finished there was 36 years ago, which saw Bernard Hinault lose the yellow jersey to Greg LeMond. With a summit finish at more than 2,400 metres, today would be one for the pure climbers.

The moment Christian Prudhomme dropped the flag, both Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) were straight on the attack. Van Aert will have wanted the intermediate sprint points at Aiguebelle. Van Aert won the stage to Mont Ventoux at last year’s race and certainly looked like he was up for the fight again today. 

Multiple other riders attempted to join them, including Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma), Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jan Tratnik (Bahrain Victorious) and Bret Van Moer (Lotto Soudal). Van Aert and van der Poel had a 40 second gap from the main field. With Van Aert ahead and Benoot behind him, Jumbo-Visma looked like the plans were already in motion ahead of the summit finish later in the day. 

With 130km to go the race was flying along the valley road on the way to the spectacular 18 hairpins of the Lacets de Montvernier climb. Matteo Cattaneo (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) put in a huge effort to try and bridge across to the front and would eventually make it. 

A large number of riders then joined the trio forming a group of 20, including Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma), Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic), Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-EasyPost), Nils Pollitt & Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Dylan Teuns (Bahrain Victorious) and Simon Geschke (Cofidis). After the breakaway hit the Lacets de Montvernier with 100 kilometres to go, they had established a solid lead of almost five minutes. 

As the leaders crested the climb, they still had their advantage nicely intact with Pierre Latour (TotalEnergies) leading them over. With 80 kilometres to go the lead had increased to 7-24 and they approached the famous Col du Télégraphe. Van Aert was leading the charge up the climb, with Simon Geshcke looking to extend his lead in the King of the Mountains jersey. 

With 70 kilometres to go, Pogačar was increasingly isolated at the front of the peloton. Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) had disappeared from the main group, and the Col du Télégraphe was continuing to do the damage. Riders dropped away from the breakaway leaving just 10 in front. At this point, Van der Poel threw in the towel, abandoning the race.

Jumbo-Visma’s plan revealed itself as both Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) put in a surprise attack looking to draw out Pogačar and put UAE rider under the hammer before the race hit the Galibier. Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) initially responded, although the move came to nothing major with UAE responding. Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) began to drop away along with Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) as Jumbo-Visma continued to push on. 

Not satisfied with the pace, Tiesj Benoot (Jumbo-Visma) got onto the front of the peloton and continued to set a fierce tempo intent on causing the remaining UAE domestiques to suffer. Roglič would try again as they summited the Télégraphe although the race leader was set on not allowing Roglič out of his sight. Roglič continued to push on as they descended towards the Col du Galibier and finally had his fellow-countryman isolated. 

Roglič, Pogačar, Laporte, Vingegaard and Geraint Thomas were now clear and 6-36 behind the leading group as they rode towards the Col du Galibier. With Van Aert still up the road, Jumbo-Visma were firmly in the driving seat as the race neared its first Hors Categorie climb. 

Roglič went again as Jumbo-Visma continued to work Tadej Pogačar over. The attacks kept coming but Pogačar was always able to respond. 

With 50 kilometres to go to the finish line, Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) pushed on as the race leaders approached the summit of the Galibier climb. Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) dropped away, although not due to Barguil’s acceleration, but due to the assault his teammates were putting UAE Emirates under. After a brief respite, Roglič would go again forcing Pogačar to chase and splitting the group again. Thomas could follow again but this time, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) was able to follow. 

Sensing that Roglič was beginning to tire, Pogačar attacked himself, distancing his fellow Slovenian, Kuss and Yates. Pogačar was clearly trying to isolate Vingegaard and he attacked again. The race leader had done his work and only Vingegaard could follow. Whereas 10 kilometres previously, it was the yellow jersey that was under pressure, the race had now tipped back in his favour. Meanwhile up ahead, Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) took the souvenir Henri Desgrange atop the mighty mountain. 

As the race got set for an epic finale, Van Aert appeared to sit up and wait for his team leader as they reached the summit. Onto the descent, Pogacar and Vingegaard were frantically eating, hoping to sustain energy for the climb to Col du Granon. Barguil was still 4-30 ahead of the chasing group as Thomas would make it back on as the descent ramped up. Quintana was sprinting behind to join the Pogacar group too. Eventually the leader's group reached Van Aert, and Yates would also make contact. 

On the descent, Van Aert had waited for Roglič and they were joined by Groupama-FDJ pair Thibaut Pinot and David Gaudu. Jumbo-Visma appeared to be hoping that after some brief respite, Roglič was set to do a huge job for his team at the finish. In the valley road the Van Aert group rejoined the group led by Pogačar as the stage was reaching its conclusion. Barguil led the chasers by 5-00 as the Frenchman began to climb the Col du Granon. 

Roglič instantly attacked, but it was last showing from Roglič as he would then drop away. Quintana then tried something, and with a teammate up the road the Colombian was looking good. 

Quintana was making huge gains on the overall standings and with seven kilometres to go, a stage win was a real possibility. Barguil was rapidly fading up ahead on the brutal gradients. Quintana closed to 1-25 on his teammate, and the contenders were closing in too. 

With four kilometres to go, Bardet and Quintana rapidly closed on Barguil. Vingegaard fired another bullet and suddenly had a gap; for the first time all day Pogačar was distanced.

Vingegaard soon caught Bardet and was tearing towards a huge career win at the Tour de France. Grimacing in pain but flying, the Dane powered straight past Quintana and led Pogačar by a minute. Bardet was second on the road as the race turned upside down.

Vingegaard showed no signs of relenting and knowing Tadej Pogačar was falling away, he continued. 

Crossing the line Vingegaard screamed as he punched the air to take an unbelievable victory. Pogačar conceded more than two minutes on the Jumbo-Visma rider in an epic day of racing. 

Romain Bardet also made monumental gains and would be nearly two minutes ahead of Tadej Pogačar and climbed to second place overall. 

 TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE 11 RESULTS 

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma, in 04-18-02
2. Nairo Quintana (Col) Arkea-Samsic, at 59s
3. Romain Bardet (Fra) Team DSM, at 1-10
4. Geraint Thomas (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers, at 1-38
5. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, at 02-04
6. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers, at 02-10
7. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 02-51
8. Aleksey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana-Qazaqstan, at 03-38
9. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 03-59
10. Warren Barguil (Fra) Arkea-Samsic, at 04-16

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 11

1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Jumbo-Visma, in 41-29-59
2. Romain Bardet (Fra) Team DSM, at 02-16
3. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 02-22
4. Geraint Thomas (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers, at 2-26
5. Nairo Quintana (Col) Arkea-Samsic, at 02-37
6. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers, at 03-36
7. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, at 03-13
8. Aleksandr Vlasov Bora-Hansgrohe, at 07-23
9. Aleksey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Qazaqstan, at 8-07
10. Enric Mas (Spa) Movistar, at 09-29

Geraint Thomas was in a bullish mood on the Tour's second rest day as he sat in the third podium spot in the general classification hinting he may try a banzai attack to try and claim a second Tour title.

The 36-year-old said: “It depends on the risk, if it’s some crazy long-range thing, but to be honest, I’d be proud to make the podium again especially after the last couple of years to prove people wrong. The main thing is having no regrets and knowing that I along with the team tried everything we could." 

Thomas is 1-17 away from the yellow jersey of Tadej Pogačar.

The Ineos Grenadiers leader added: “We’re just trying to look forward and stay positive. We’re still in a good place for myself and Yatesy [Adam Yates] and Tom [Pidcock] is still up there too , it could be a lot worse, the main thing is having no regrets."

A three week grand tour is a long block of racing to get through and Thomas knows all too well that anything can happen. After the gilet incident in the first week, it’s crucial to avoid any further mistakes. 

The Welshman explained that the risks of losing time are present for everyone including Pogačar but that so far, the race leader has shown himself to be at his best. 

When asked how Pogačar compares to former multiple Tour winners like Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome in his prime, Thomas said: “He’s just a level above you know. I think Nibali and Contador were great climbers. Contador improved his time trialling and Froomey could do both.

"Pogačar has got everything else though. He’s got the sprints, he can ride the cobbles, he can do everything.” 

However, earlier in the year Pogačar was visibly unnerved at the Tour of Flanders where he managed to come forth in a two-up sprint and Thomas believes it’s possible to put him under pressure again. 

“At Flanders he was the strongest guy in the race, he was phenomenal but that was the first time I saw him rattled at that finish,” Thomas said, “I think the heat could play a big part as well, it’s certainly forecast to be coming and will definitely add something to the race." 

At the 2021 edition of the race, Pogačar showed signs of weakness on Mont Ventoux when put under pressure by Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). The Slovenian had later noted that the hot weather that day had played a big part. 

Looking ahead to a big week of climbing in the Alps, Thomas explained that the altitude will play a big part in deciding how the rest of the race develops.  In 2018, Thomas won on Alpe D’Huez on his way to overall victory and added that the climb would prove to be a stern test once again. 

Prior to Thursday’s summit finish on Alpe d’Huez, the race will tackle the giant Col du Granon. Wednesday’s summit finish will be the highest point the Tour de France reaches this year but Thomas added that altitude wasn’t something he feared. 

“Generally, I feel pretty good at altitude so that’s going to be interesting.  I think the Granon day will be the first real big test, we’ll see wherever it shapes up from there,” he said. 

“Alpe d’Huez is just phenomenal to race up as well.  At Suisse [Tour de Suisse] I think we had the hottest week of racing I’ve ever done, so that will stand us in good stead, how we deal with that is always good. Thursday’s going to be the third day in the Alps so that will be decisive too” Thomas said. 

“We already know that Vingegaard and Pogačar are riding really strongly. Either way it’s going to be an exciting week” he added. 

Standing on the podium in Paris again would be a huge achievement for the Ineos Grenadiers rider but in the next two weeks, his focus is still on the top step. 

Team tactics

Having multiple cards to play is something that Thomas sees as being a key weapon for Ineos Grenadiers. When asked whether Tom Pidcock could be used as bait to force riders to chase him in the stages to come, Thomas was coy and careful not to give too much away. 

“It’s one thing having the numbers and another having the right situation to actually use them,” Thomas said “obviously you’ve got Pogačar and Jumbo up there as well who aren’t just going to let something happen.  It’s about finding opportunities when they come up but they’ll be making sure that they don’t lose that second place for themselves if anything happens,” he added. 

Tadej Pogačar may be in the driving seat for now, but it’s a long way to Paris and from the Ineos Grenadiers perspective, it’s all still very much to play for. 

The idea that the newer strains of Covid are milder did not reach Adam Yates. The Ineos Grenadiers rider suffered badly with his virus, like many have done before, not bouncing back simply like some of his infected peers in the peloton. 

As a result, the 29-year-old will approach the Tour de France on Friday with some reservations about his form. He might have recovered from it, but he also missed a crucial week of training ahead of this Tour. He was forced to withdraw from the Tour de Suisse, a race that was eventually won by his teammate - and rival for the yellow jersey - Geraint Thomas.

"I’m much better now obviously," Yates told the press on Wednesday, with a laugh. "I had three or four days, quite bad to be honest. Some guys get a little tickle in their throat, but I had proper fever and chills. I missed the real crucial stages in Suisse. Not ideal, but luckily for me I get fit quite quickly. I didn’t lose too much. Here we are, and we will find out in the TT if I’m good enough."

Beside him, co-leader Dani Martínez used the antibacterial gel in front of him on the desk, as if he was guarding from the virus at that moment.

Unlike other teams, Ineos did their press conference in person, but this was a fully masked-up affair, with restrictions on numbers. The spectre of Covid hangs over this race, with Matteo Trentin of UAE Team Emirates the latest to be forced out of the race; at least Yates has already been through his bout of it.

He will be on the start line with other recent Covid patients like Stefan Küng and Thibaut Pinot of Groupama-FDJ. These guys might be in the best shape for the next few weeks, in fact.

The Covid protocols have been changed ahead of this Friday, with the Tour's organisers no longer obliged to kick out teams that have two or more riders that test positive for the virus.

"I think the main thing is if two riders go positive the whole team can go on," Thomas said. "Teams can be less stressed now. It’s good that that’s gone. I’m pretty relaxed about it now. It is what it is, it’s the world we’re living in now. It seems a lot less deadly than it was a couple of years ago."

As for Yates' form, it was posed to the man from Bury that he is won of the only riders to have gone toe-to-toe with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), the overwhelming favourite of the race, this year. That was at the UAE Tour back in February, where Pogačar triumphed, but Yates ran him close.

"UAE is a long time ago now, feels like it now anyway," he said. "Me and Pogo had some good battles there. It’s always a bit different there, pan flat run into the finish. I just hope to be at my best. I’ve not had the best of luck with Covid, missed out on a few key sessions."

Time trialling might be crucial this year, with 53km of racing against the clock this year. This is something Yates has been working on.

"This year I’ve done pretty well in TTs really," he explained. "Guys my size, less than 60 kilos, it's not easy to go well in a TT. I do a lot, two or three sessions every week. There’s not much more I can do, just get my head down and see what I can do. We’ll give it a shot on Friday we will see. I do the same power on the climbs as I do on the TT."

Covid free, Yates will now be looking for good luck for the next three weeks.

Teams fear that coronavirus could derail the line-up for the Tour de France after swathes of riders have been forced to abandon the Tour de Suisse and the Tour of Slovenia after testing positive.

A huge list of riders from multiple teams were withdrawn from the action this morning due to the virus. Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) won yesterday's stage five and held the overall lead, and his teammate, Anton Palzer, both tested positive for covid and are now out of the race. Bahrain-Victorious lost Gino Mäder to illness yesterday and have since withdrawn their whole squad from the race. 

Other names who are out of the race due to covid include Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates), Stefan Bisseger, Alberto Bettiol, Rigoberto Urán and Hugh Carthy (EF Education–EasyPost) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers). 

Pidcock’s team mate, Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) was one of the names forced out of the action yesterday after a positive covid test. While, three DSM riders along with the whole of Jumbo-Visma are also out of the race in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, the team-mate of defending Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar, Mikkel Bjerg was forced to leave the Tour of Slovenia this morning after testing positive for the virus.

The Tour de France gets underway in Copenhagen, Denmark, in just over two weeks. The positive covid cases in Switzerland and the the Tour of Slovenia will come as very bad timing for those using the race as preparation for the Tour.

Many teams are set to announce their Tour de France line-ups next week. 

UAE  Emirates director of performance Iñigo San-Millán said, in a tweet that was later deleted, that covid was “the largest enemy” of the Tour in 2022

It continued: “Much more than in the last two years. The way the situation is now with total lax of measurements against covid, TdF can be a complete chaos with major teams forced to leave the race. Le Tour please bring the bubble back.” 

San-Millán said he felt it was impossible to control covid without reintroduction of protocols.

“Selfies, pens from autographs, elevator buttons, door knobs, hand shaking…Without a strict bubble at Le Tour, it will be impossible to control covid and with many teams forced to leave the entire Tour may have to be cancelled. Le Tour please bring strict bubble back.” he added. 

San-Millán deleted some of his comments but he does not appear to be alone. Speaking to Ouest-France, Groupama-FDJ sports director, Philipe Maduit, said “everyone [at the Tour de Suisse] has the willies” and was crossing their fingers that they won’t be the next team to be affected.

 "For the moment, we cross our fingers because it falls hard next to us but we are not affected. This Friday morning, we felt it even more than yesterday and it was already impressive. It feels like coming back in February-March. Since yesterday, we have seen the return of masks everywhere," Maduit said.

However, Maduit was reluctant to commit to pulling the team's riders out of the Tour de Suisse due to the risk of picking up the virus elsewhere. "We are not considering that [pulling riders from the race]. Because honestly, if they go back, they're on a plane, but who says they won't catch it on the plane? It can happen at any time, you have to accept it, but be more careful.” he added. 

Tour de Suisse organiser Amaury Sport Organisation [ASO] has been approached for comment. 

Adam Yates has been withdrawn from the Tour de Suisse after a positive test for coronavirus.

The Ineos Grenadier was experiencing mild symptoms, and after returning a positive lateral flow result was withdrawn by his team.

His departure follows the  news that Jumbo-Visma have withdrawn their whole squad from the race after at least one member of the team caught the virus.

At the same time DSM also announced three of its riders had left the race after testing positive. Casper Pedersen, Søren Kragh Andersen and Cees Bol all left the race this morning after returning a positive lateral flow test.

Ineos Grenadiers said: “In line with team and UCI protocols, Adam Yates has withdrawn from the Tour de Suisse 2022 this morning after experiencing mild symptoms and returning a positive lateral flow result” 

Yates was widely expected to challenge for overall victory in Switzerland and despite suffering with covid symptoms was sitting 10th overall. 

He departure leaves his teammate, Geraint Thomas, as the lone lead rider for Ineos at the race. The Welshman is seven seconds off the lead of Stephen Williams (Bahrain Victorious). 

With just over two weeks until the start of the Tour de France, Yates contracting coronavirus is bad timing for the Ineo Grenadiers team. Egan Bernal is still recovering after a horrific training accident and the quality of Yates's preparation will now be in doubt.

Ineos Grenadiers are expected to announce their final eight rider Tour roster after the Tour de Suisse. Geraint Thomas hinted yesterday that his role may not necessarily be as a lead rider. “I don’t think that the result will necessarily be why I make the team or not. But if you’re going well and showing good form then it’s always good for my own confidence. The team, and with my role, I’ll be able to fit in there. All being well I hope to be in the team, it’s just about what I actually have to do within that really,” Thomas said.

Adam Yates is keeping his fitness up in the off-season by running the Barcelona Marathon over the weekend, and he didn't take it easy either. 

The Ineos Grenadiers rider managed to break the highly coveted three-hour barrier at the event, sharing images of his run and the timings on his watch to social media. The official results concluded that Yates finished in 2:58:44, placing him 584th in a field of thousands of people. 

The 29-year-old claims his preparation for the marathon wasn't ideal either, telling his Instagram followers: "I think I’ll stick to bike riding. Couple of weeks on the beach not the most ideal prep but I’m happy with 2:58:44 here at Barcelona Marathon."

However, the official timings actually had Yates finishing the marathon in a slower pace than what he shared with his social media followers. Included on the Instagram post is a photo of Yates' watch, displaying his total time and average time per kilometre.

The Briton's watch shows that he finished the marathon in 2:58:08 over 42.65km, giving him an average pace of four minutes 11 seconds per kilometre. Considering that a marathon is also 42.195km, Yates seemingly finished at a quicker pace than the official timings suggest. 

Yates then proceeded to joke in the post that he won't be able to walk for the next week, with one image depicting him being given a piggyback through the streets of the Catalan city. 

The 2016 Tour de France young rider classification winner is now looking to build on his 2021 season, which heralded a win at the Volta a Catalunya and a ninth-place finish in the Olympic road race. 

Having finished third at Il Lombardia a month ago, Yates' marathon shows that he isn't taking too much time off to relax - despite what his Instagram message says. And despite tackling the course, he didn't seem too affected come the end of the race while posing for photos.

Egan Bernal and Adam Yates have reflected on a mixed Vuelta a España for Ineos Grenadiers, as both riders spoke of the “suffering” they experienced late in the race.

British WorldTour team Ineos went into the race as one of the favourite teams, fielding both Bernal and Yates as their co-leaders in the Spanish Grand Tour.

But the team left Spain without a reason to celebrate, as their riders both missed the podium, with no stage wins along the way. 

Yates was riding his first Grand Tour with Ineos after joining from Mitchelton-Scott at the start of the season.

Bernal was targeting his second major victory of the year, having won the Giro d’Italia in the spring before he was diagnosed with Covid-19, which upended his preparation for the Vuelta.

British pro Yates was the best-placed finisher for Ineos in the Vuelta, taking fourth place almost two minutes away from the podium placings. 

The 29-year-old from Bury said: “We had some good days and we had some bad days. I think we raced quite well as a team. For me it’s my first Grand Tour with my new team. I enjoyed every moment. Not every day was perfect but it’s something to build on for next year and the years after that." 

Bernal meanwhile previously admitted he knew he wasn’t at his best from the very first day of racing in Spain, eventually finishing sixth overall, more than 13 minutes down on overall winner Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma).

>>> Movistar react to result of Vuelta a España after drama in final week

Bernal said: "I learned about suffering. I think I’ve suffered a lot in this Vuelta but at the same time I enjoyed it a lot. I think in every race you learn something and I hope it will be good for next year. 

"I'm really happy for Primož. For sure he deserves it." 

Despite having led the youth classification for much of the race, Bernal eventually finished second in that competition to Switzerland's Gino Mäder (Bahrain Victorious). 

His best stage result came on day 18 to Altu d'El Gamoniteiru, where he finished fourth as Miguel Ángel López rode to the win. 

Yates's best result from the race came on the final mountain stage of the race to Mos. Castro de Herville, where he finished third.

Adam Yates and Egan Bernal have shared their thoughts on the Vuelta a España 2021 during the first rest day, as Primož Roglič maintains a firm grip on the race after the first week. 

Monday (August 23) marked the first day off for the peloton in this year’s Spanish Grand Tour, giving teams the chance to analyse their performance from the first nine days of racing. 

With two weeks still to ride in the Vuelta, Jumbo-Visma leader Roglič leads the race by 28 seconds to Enric Mas of Movistar, while Ineos Grenadiers leaders Yates and Bernal both sit around two minutes down in the general classification. 

Speaking during a video press conference on the first rest day Yates, who is racing his first Grand Tour in Ineos colours, said: “I've been pretty consistent throughout the whole race

“On all the real mountain stages I've been up there. I feel like I'm being quite consistent. It's about trying to keep that consistency for the whole three weeks. It's been a hard nine stages, not just for us but for everyone. Hopefully we can try and do something in the last two weeks.”

>>> Mathieu van der Poel forced to pull out of mountain bike World Championships 

Yates put in his signature style of attacks on stage nine to Alto de Velefique, just before the first rest day, but he was comfortably matched by double Vuelta winner Roglič, who eventually went on the attack and gained more time. 

British hopeful Yates said: “It was a really tough stage.

“We had a plan, we pushed the pace, we tried to wear down the group, try and get rid of some of Jumbo's riders, but they stepped it up as a team. 

"It didn't work out as we planned. On the very last climb I tried to be aggressive early,  and Egan was going to sit in the wheels and stay with the best guys. We did the best we could and it's not easy. It's been a hard nine stages, every day has been stressful, every day has been a fight. We need to keep plugging away and doing our best.”

On Roglič’s form, Yates added: “He looked pretty solid. We saw yesterday he was probably the strongest guy there.

“In the final he got away with Mas, so I don't think he's going too bad to be honest.” 

The winner of the 2021 Vuelta won’t be decided until the final day however, after the finish of the 33km time trial, a discipline that Roglič thrives in having just won the Olympic TT last month. 

On how much time Roglič’s rivals would need over the Slovenian heading into the final TT, Yates said: “A lot [of time], but that's not just us, that's everybody in the top 10, they need at least two minutes. He's the Olympic champion. Everyone needs some time. We're not going to be the only ones that try and isolate him (you'd hope anyway).”

Yates currently sits sixth overall with 12 stages still to race, 2-07 down to Roglič, having lost time after being caught behind a crash on stage two and having struggled in the heat on the punchy uphill finish on stage six. 

Bernal, winner of the 2021 Giro d’Italia, sits just one place ahead of his team-mate Yates on general classification, 1-52 off the race lead. 

Speaking on the rest day, the Colombian star said: “I feel confident because I know that I'm not too far to back, I can do my own pace. 

“If I race intelligently and do what I need to do maybe I can race a good GC, even if I'm not 100 per cent.”

Bernal has admitted that he’s not in his best form, having already won a Grand Tour this year and after catching coronavirus shortly after his victory in Italy.

>>> Vuelta a España 2021 route: Nine summit finishes and no Madrid finale in this year's edition 

He said his climbing form is still good, but added that he’s missing some of the acceleration needed to stick with a strong all-rounder like Roglič: “The Giro was my big objective for this year. I wanted to prepare well for the Vuelta but I caught Covid. 

“It's normal to be missing something, but it's not too bad. I'm up there but I need to keep trying and hopefully I will move one step up.”     

Adam Yates says he’s been struggling with jet lag after the Tokyo Olympics, as he tries to target the Vuelta a España.

The British climber tried to hit out on stage three, the first summit finish of the race on Pićon Blanco, hoping to redeem himself after the disappointment of a “silly crash the previous day.” 

But headwinds near the summit neutralised Yates (Ineos Grenadiers), who had to settle for a strong finish amongst the general classification group.

Speaking after the stage, the 29-year-old from Bury said: “I was really disappointed after yesterday, losing time in a silly crash. So today I really wanted to do something. I tried quite a few times but there was a block headwind up here, so no matter what you did you weren’t going very far. It is what it is.

"In the end I’ve trained well, prepared well. I really struggled after the Olympics with the jet lag. It took me a week or two just to get back into the routine. Now here we are and I just hope it continues.

"We have cards to play. I lost some time yesterday but I’m still in the game. Hopefully we can just keep plugging away."

Yates was caught behind a late crash on stage two of the Vuelta, the first sprint opportunity of the race, eventually shipping 31 seconds to the peloton by the line. 

On stage three he proved he still had climbing legs, finishing eighth on the stage surrounded by the GC favourites, including Primož Roglič. 

Yates now sits 16th overall after the third day of racing, around 50 seconds behind Roglič, who is still the best-place of the GC riders. 

>>> Five talking points from stage three of the Vuelta a España 2021

Ineos Grenadiers can still rely on Egan Bernal however, who sits ninth overall, around 27 seconds behind Roglič. 

The race continues with a pan-flat sprint opportunity on stage five. 

Adam Yates comes into the Vuelta a España 2021 as one of three potential leaders in the Ineos Grenadiers team but hopes that his freshness from not riding any other Grand Tours will play to his advantage.

Yates, who joined Ineos Grenadiers at the start of the season from Team BikeExchange, had a superb start to the year, but had an extended break after the Ardennes Classics before returning to take ninth in the Olympic road race which was won by his Ineos team-mate, Richard Carapaz.

Since then, the rider from Bury had a mediocre showing at the Clásica San Sebastián and a low result in the Vuelta a Burgos after a crash put him out of the GC battle, but he now comes to the Vuelta as a joint leader with Carapaz and 2021 Giro d'Italia winner, Egan Bernal.

>>> Egan Bernal says winning all three Grand Tours is the 'biggest goal in my career now'

Speaking in a pre-race press conference, Yates said the first Grand Tour with Ineos felt like 'a long time coming' after a long training build-up towards the Vuelta.

"It’s good. Feels like a long time coming, you know, I’ve been at the team almost a year now but it’s really good to get to these big races. 

"I’m actually looking forward to it. I spent a long time training now. Feels like a really long time. I just want to get stuck in."

Yates showed that he can really battle with the best at the start of the year, winning the Volta a Catalunya ahead of team-mates Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte, as well as pushing Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) to the limit in the mountains at the UAE Tour.

Upon being asked if not riding any other Grand Tours this season will help him he said: "Yeah I hope so. A lot of people do the duo Giro-Vuelta or Tour-Vuelta on their programme. Not many people just do the Vuelta. 

"Hopefully, I’m going to be fresher than everyone and going into the third week that will really make a difference, or at least that’s what we’re hoping."

The 29-year-old added that the formidable Ineos line-up for the Vuelta gave them more options and an advantage over the other teams in the race.

"We’ve got a super-strong team. A lot of leaders, but I think it just gives us options. 

"We’ve seen in Grand Tours already this year that one crash can really derail a team, so having options, especially in this first week with potential for wind and for stuff to go wrong I think it is always better to have options."

The sheer amount of climbing on the Vuelta a España route will suit Yates, though he did concede that the two time trials bookending the race will be his and the team's weak point. 

There are two at this year's race with a 7.1km prologue in Burgos to start the race and a 33.8km time trial on the final stage into Santiago de Compostela. This plays into the hands of defending champion and favourite, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), who is the Olympic time trial champion.

"TTs are never going to be our forte, even the other guys," Yates said.

"We’re all small climbers. It's going to be difficult but the prologue is actually quite hard, which is better than having a pan flat one where you need more power. 

"This one is a bit more technical and tricky so hopefully we don’t lose too much time and I think the same goes for the last TT as well. Even though it’s quite a long one, it’s a hard one with almost 700 metres of climbing. Tough ones and we’ll just do our best."

The Vuelta starts on Saturday, August 14 with the prologue around Burgos with the stage starting in the cathedral and the finish just outside. Yates chose an early start time so he could get his ride done and get back to the hotel as it's quite a late start.

Adam Yates, Egan Bernal and Dani Martínez all escaped major injuries after a large crash in the opening stage of the 2021 Vuelta a Burgos, but still could potentially jeopardise their Vuelta a España chances. 

The Ineos Grenadiers leaders were being kept close to the front of the peloton for much of the race but were still unfortunately caught out by a crash that happened when they were in the second group on the road with 19km to go.

The riders are all expected to be heading to the Vuelta in just a few weeks time, so the timing of this crash is not good. The British registered team will be hoping that the injuries aren't too severe and that they can potentially focus on the GC with other riders like Pavel Sivakov in Burgos before reverting back to Yates and Bernal for the Vuelta.

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In a team statement, Ineos Grenadiers said: "The three riders [Bernal, Yates and Martínez] had been part of the second group on the road when a large crash took down a number of riders with 19 kilometres to go. The trio were assessed at the roadside before continuing at their own pace to the finish, with Carlos Rodriguez also waiting at the scene for his teammates.
 
"Bernal, Yates and Martinez suffered contusions and abrasions in the crash and after a post-stage assessment, will be monitored by the Ineos Grenadiers medical team ahead of Wednesday’s stage."

It did look like Ineos could still get something out of the opening stage though with Sivakov, along with Jhonatan Narváez, making it into a select group of leading riders. But they were caught inside the final four kilometres with Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Fenix) out-sprinting Movistar's Gonzalo Serrano to stage victory.

Ineos will be hoping to use Burgos as a chance to build form and bounce back from what, by their standards, was another relatively disappointing Tour de France despite getting third overall with Richard Carapaz.

The Vuelta team is expected to be packed with climbing talent with Bernal hoping to complete his Grand Tour set and win the Vuelta after winning the Giro d'Italia earlier in the year. Yates will make his Grand Tour debut for Ineos, while Martínez, Sivakov as well as Carapaz, and Olympic cross-country mountain bike champion Tom Pidcock are all currently down to ride.

The Vuelta a España 2021 is due to start with a prologue in Burgos on August 14 and will run for three testing weeks over hellishly steep mountains before a time trial finish in Santiago de Compostela on September 5.

Ineos Grenadiers have announced a super-strong team for the upcoming Clásica San Sebaastián, as they look to return to winning ways after a below-par Tour de France.

Giro d'Italia 2021 winner, Egan Bernal, returns to racing after a long break that started after finishing the Giro in Milan in May. Bernal has been back in Colombia where he has spent time with friends, family and training, focusing on his back injuries.

He will likely lead the line of Ineos Grenadiers riders, however, as the British team have thrown in a few other star riders that could also fight for leader's role. Former Clásica San Sebastián winner in 2015, Adam Yates, will also race just a week after racing to 9th in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games road race.

>>> Clásica San Sebastián 2021 start lists: Julian Alaphilippe and Audrey Cordon-Ragot star in Basque one-day race

As well as those two, 2020 Critérium du Dauphiné winner Dani Martínez is also set to get back into racing for the first time since the Giro, much like Bernal. Martínez is likely to be in a support role but could be used as an early attacker.

A two-time stage winner at the 2021 Tour of the Alps, Gianni Moscon is also racing after taking part in the Olympics road race where he finished 20th. 

What his form is like is unclear at the moment but he has continued to get solid results in recent months including a win at the Lugano GP in Switzerland.

The final three riders are very much support riders, but they are some of the finest in the world. Andrey Amador is another who was in Japan but as a sole representative of Costa Rica, he only managed 68th in the road race. However, he will be a vital man in the cog to victory for the Ineos Grenadiers.

Spanish rising star Carlos Rodríguez, 20, is another rider who has shown he has real promise as yet another young up-and-coming rider. He has put in multiple strong performances throughout the year, including a podium in the Spanish time trial championships and eighth in the road race.

Finally, Italian evergreen domestique rider Salvatore Puccio comes back into the supporting role for the team for the first time since the Italian National Championships alongside Moscon. 

The Clásica San Sebastián takes on Saturday, July 31, starting and finishing in the Basque Country's regional capital of San Sebastián after a gruelling 223.5km route taking on six categorised climbs as well as multiple other kicks along the way.

The main rivals for the team are looking like they will be world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo). Both are former winners of the race.

Clásica San Sebastián 2021: Ineos Grenadiers line-up

Egan Bernal (Col)
Adam Yates (GBr)
Dani Martínez (Col)
Gianni Moscon (Ita)
Andrey Amador (CRi)
Carlos Rodríguez (Esp)
Salvatore Puccio (Ita)

Simon Yates can learn to ‘stand on his own feet’ after the departure of his brother from Team BikeExchange, according to sports director Laurenzo Lapage.

Adam Yates left the Australian WorldTour team at the end of the season to join Ineos Grenadiers, while twin brother Simon remained to chase his own general classification ambitions.

As the 2021 Giro d’Italia approaches, Simon has his eye on the pink jersey once again, hoping for redemption after his heart-breaking near-miss in 2018.

Speaking ahead of the Giro, BikeExchanges DS Lapage told cycling website Wielerflits: “Normally I always saw Simon as a doubter, who took a few years to get started. Adam was less like that, he always went straight for it. Simon was even scared at times. But he had gained so much confidence in the run-up to that [2018] Giro that he let himself be guided too much by his enthusiasm.”

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Lapage added: “I never thought they would leave each other, I have to say that.

“I think that Simon can now learn to stand on his own two feet more and will therefore less shadow his brother. That will please him.”

The British pair, now 28 years old, both started their WorldTour careers with BikeExchange, then Orica GreenEdge, back in 2014, each achieving their own successes.

Simon has since won the Vuelta a España, Tirreno-Adriatico, stages of both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, and most recently the 2021 Tour of the Alps, while Adam has a collection of his own stage race victories, incuding the 2021 Volta a Catalunya with Ineos.

Speaking ahead of the 2021 Giro, Simon said: “The Giro d’Italia is a race that I really enjoy. I hope this year I can have clear run and a good go at fighting for the win and we have a very strong team to try to do that.

“This year the route looks very hard, of course there are some differences to the previous years that I have raced at the Giro d’Italia. It is book-ended with two time trials and time trials are not my speciality, so we will try to limit the losses there.”

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Head sports director at BikeExchange said: “There’s no surprise that we have put a lot of effort into preparing for this year’s Giro d’Italia, Simon is one of the favourites going into the race and we are relishing the challenge. We have built a team around him which has a very good balance of experience and youth and I know the entire team is excited about going up against the best riders in the world as we support our leader to the maximum in this year’s edition.”

Team BikeExchange squad for the Giro d’Italia 2021

Michael Hepburn (AUS)

Chris Juul-Jensen (DEN)

Tanel Kangert (EST)

Cameron Meyer (AUS)

Mikel Nieve (SPA)

Nick Schultz (AUS)

Callum Scotson (AUS)

Simon Yates (GBr)

Sir Bradley Wiggins has thrown buckets of praise at Ineos Grenadiers after they dominated the recent Volta a Catalunya, taking all three spots on the podium with Adam Yates taking the overall title.

Ineos Grenadiers showed that they have huge strength in depth at the Volta a Catalunya, not only by taking the overall as well as second and third, but also by winning two stage at the seven-day Spanish stage-race.

>>> Five things we learned from the Volta a Catalunya 2021

Wiggins heaped the praise on his former team in his podcast for Eurosport where he said: "They made a statement with the team they selected.

"Adam [Yates] has now come of age, it is fair to say, within that team. He has always been very consistent, but he has now come of age.

"Probably the icing on the cake [for Yates] was going to Ineos, really. It's the perfect team for him. Adam is the next British star and these are the early stages."

The opening stage in Catalunya saw the British super-team sit back and let other teams work before the stage two time trial, where they managed to get four riders in the top ten on the day, including the stage win with Rohan Dennis.

Yates didn't take the jersey until stage three when he attacked clear of everyone else on the summit finish, dropping the likes of his brother, Simon, as well as Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) and many more to take the lead by 45 seconds over his team-mate, Richie Porte.

After that is was back to the old style of racing for Ineos who controlled every bit of each stage, not allowing time gaps to stretch and even getting Geraint Thomas onto the podium at just 49 seconds down.

Thomas' former team-mate, Wiggins, was very pleased with the Welshman's performance: "G [Thomas] needed a performance and he showed that. It wasn't about winning for him, it was about the Tour de France

"He looked every bit the G, even without winning, that he did a few years ago when he won the Tour and he will be a real threat this year.

"That performance from Geraint has cemented his leadership for the Tour, because he has shared out the spoils and everything is on track."

The only potential disappointment for the team was that 2019 Giro d'Italia winner, Richard Carapaz, finished down in 21st place at 7-27 down on Yates. While this was the Ecuadorian's first race back after a huge altitude training camp back in Ecuador, he may have expected better things.

Adam Yates is next expected to race at the GP Miguel Indurain this Saturday (April 3) alongside Carapaz as well as last year's Giro winner, Tao Geoghegan Hart.

What does Adam Yates attribute his impressive early season form to? New team, new ideas, in his supposed peak of his career at 28? The truth is none of that.

Instead, the winner of stage three of the Volta a Catalunya is still the same bike rider he always has been, and the fact that he's now racing in Ineos Grenadiers colours and not BikeExchange is irrelevant.

"I was looking pretty good last year too. Nothing's changed," he said at the top of Vallter 2000, the second time in two successive editions he was won at the small ski resort.

"I am just doing my thing and it doesn't really matter what team. It's a great environment and it's an environment that helps you win bike races but at the end of the day I am still the same guy and I want to keep the ball rolling."

It mirrors what he told Cycling Weekly at the start of the day when asked if life inside the British super-team is different on the inside from what it appears from the outside.

"It's just another team," he dead-panned. "Every team can be a little bit different, but in the end it's all the same - everyone's trying to win bike races.

"I'll keep working like I said and hopefully I can try and win a bike race.

"Everything's good. If you've got nothing to say, then it's usually really good and you're not complaining. I've got nothing to say. It's really good.

"Everything is really organised, I've fitted in well. I'm just trying to stay focused, keep working hard and it's working well on the bike so far so I'll keep doing that."

Neither he or his twin brother Simon can be relied on for headline quotes - they let their bikes do the talking.

And right now, his bike is screaming loudly: second at the UAE Tour, seventh in this race's time trial, and now a victory.

"I just like winning bike races. It's good fun," he chuckled. "I train hard and work hard and it's good when you win.

"At the beginning of the day we had options and we used them at the bottom. I felt the moment and I just went for it. It's a good job I did.

"It feels good [to get his first win for Ineos] I came close in UAE and I would have been in Paris-Nice but I messed my face up pretty bad so we decided to take a bit more of a rest, recover fully and come here with good ambitions.

"The condition and the form is still there, I hope I showed that. I am just really happy to win."

Leading the GC by 45 seconds from his team-mate Richie Porte, with Geraint Thomas fourth a further eight seconds back, Ineos are in pole position to win the Catalan race, if they can overcome stage four's shark-tooth profile.

"We all did a good TT so it's about playing the cards and being smart about what we do," he said.

"We go into tomorrow which is much harder than today. There's a couple of big climbs, not just one big one at the end.

"There are three big bergs tomorrow. It's pretty close to where I live so it's convenient and I managed to do the recon the other week so we'll see."

His victory in the Pyrenees puts him alongside Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar as the standout GC riders of the early season.

Yates, however, will not be taking aim at a Grand Tour until late summer's Vuelta a España, instead targeting a number of shorter races, with the next set to be the Tour of the Basque Country.

He revealed: "When the team was asking me what I wanted to do, I said I wanted to race a lot in the beginning. It's a lot of racing back-to-back-to-back and it's the kind of style that suits me.

"I did it before in 2019 and it went really well so I wanted to do the same thing and try get some wins.

"We have a lot of big riders and leaders in this team and it's not so easy to be number one, but so far so good."

Adam Yates came out on top on stage three of Volta a Catalunya 2021 up the Vallter 2000 climb, finishing solo ahead of Esteban Chaves and Alejandro Valverde.

Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) used his team-mates brilliantly before counter-attacking hard in the final few kilometres over the top of a group including Valverde (Movistar) with Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) able to follow too.

Chaves attacked out of the peloton a few kilometres later and very nearly made it across to Yates, who finished 13 seconds ahead of the Colombian rider and former team-mate. Yates' victory on the summit finish moved him into the overall lead, 45 seconds clear of second place.

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Leader at the start of the day João Almeida (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) slipped down to third overall at 50 seconds behind Yates after he was isolated with a big amount of the climb still to go. Yates holds the overall lead over fellow Ineos man, Richie Porte by 45 seconds going into the next mountain stage on Thursday.

How it happened

The 203.1km long stage started at the Canal Olímpic de Catalunya before taking in a rather unchallenging course for much of the day until the riders got to Camprodon, where they started the climb up to the summit finish of Vallter 2000.

Nine riders went up the road early on, with Thymen Arensman (Team DSM), Alexander Kamp (Trek-Segafredo), Clément Venturini (Ag2r-Citroën), Thomas Champion (Cofidis), Alex Evans (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert), Francisco Galván (Kern Pharma), Colin Joyce (Rally), Sean Bennett and Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg (both Qhubeka-Assos) all included in the escape.

The gap to the break went out to 12 minutes before Ineos Grenadiers, Jumbo-Visma, and Deceuninck - Quick-Step started the chase behind for their leaders, bringing the gap down to around five minutes. The break's advantage needed to be brought down with Galván at just 1-02 behind the overall leader, João Almeida.

As they went onto the climb with 20km to go the gap was still over four minutes up to the break, which was working well together ahead of the peloton led by Deceuninck - Quick-Step. The Belgian team were using Rémi Cavagna and Josef Černy on the lower slopes.

With 18km to go however Ineos Grenadiers rejoined the front of the peloton alongside Deceuninck - Quick-Step and Israel Start-Up Nation as the bigger gradients were just around the corner.

The break still held around three minutes with 12km to go but Joyce became the first rider to be dropped out of the back of the leading group. He was quickly joined by Janse Van Rensburg and sprinter Venturini as Galván also struggled to hold the pace.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was the first to roll the dice from the peloton with 10km to go, with Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation), Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) the riders to follow the 40-year-old's move.

That attack put Chris Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation) out of the back as he slowly finds his way back to form.

The Valverde group's advantage was short-lived however, and they were quickly brought back to the fold.

Simon Yates (BikeExchange) was the next man to push on but the peloton was very keen to not let him get away at the 8km to go mark. Almeida was isolated by this point and was now being forced as race leader to chase solo before his team-mate Fausto Masnada managed to come up and help.

Valverde then kicked again and got away solo with 7km to go with the other overall favourites left looking at each other.

Arensman was the last man standing from the break by now, holding just over a minute with 6km to go over both Valverde and the chasing peloton led by Ineos Grenadiers. Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) then kicked hard away from the peloton, leaving everyone behind as he looked to bridge his former team-mate of Valverde, which he did very quickly.

Ciccone was the next man to bridge to Quintana and Valverde closely followed by Carapaz but the Ecuadorian looked to be struggling. As Carapaz began to fade, his team-mate Adam Yates launched his move with 5km to go, immediately bridging across with Sepp Kuss. Yates then flew past the Quintana group, dropping everyone but Kuss and Valverde.

The trio of climbers quickly bridged to Arensman with 4.5km to go as they held 30 seconds back to the peloton, with Almeida now refusing to work alone. That gave incentive for Esteban Chaves to hit out to try and get across.

Arensman found something deep down to have enough energy to try a late attack, but Yates, Kuss and Valverde eased back across with 3km to go, dropping the Dutchman from the break.

Kuss tried a move with 2.5km to go but he was swiftly brought back by Yates as Valverde lost the wheel slightly. Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto-Soudal) and Carthy tried a late move to get across from the peloton but had seemingly left it too late.

Valverde lost touch with his fellow breakaway companions with 2km to go, Yates then attacking Kuss a few hundred metres later, dropping Kuss as he rode to victory.

Chaves flew past Valverde and Kuss and was closing rapidly on Yates inside the final kilometre but he never made it, with Yates crossing the line first, 13 seconds ahead of the Colombian climber.

Yates now holds 45 seconds ahead of his team-mate, Richie Porte in the overall standings and a further 50 seconds to the former leader, Almeida as the race continues in the high mountains on Thursday's stage four.

Results

Volta a Catalunya 2021, stage three: Canal Olimpic de Catalunya to Vallter 2000 (203.1km)

1. Adam Yates (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, in 5-00-58

2. Esteban Chaves (Col) Team BikeExchange, at 13 seconds

3. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar Team, at 19s

4. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, at 31s

5. Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at same time

6. Sepp Kuss (USA) Team Jumbo-Visma, at 33s

7. Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Education-Nippo, at same time

8. Michael Woods (Can) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 36s

9. Richie Porte (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers

10. Giulio Ciccone (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, all at same time

General classification after stage three

1. Adam Yates (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, in 9-44-21

2. Richie Porte (Aus) Ineos Grenadiers, at 45 seconds

3. João Almeida (Por) Deceuninck - Quick-Step, at 50s

4. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, at 53s

5. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Bora-Hansgrohe, at 1-03

6. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar Team, at 1-04

7. Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Education-Nippo, at 1-16

8. Simon Yates (GBr) Team BikeExchange, at 1-21

9. Esteban Chaves (Col) Team BikeExchange, at same time

10. Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at 1-30

Adam Yates was left bloodied in a nasty-looking crash at the UAE Tour.

Nearing the last 40km of the final stage, Yates was brought down in a crash in the peloton, landing face-first on the road alongside a number of his Ineos Grenadiers team-mates.

The Brit, riding his first race for his new team, immediately clutched his face after hitting the deck in the painful fall, his team-mates having collided with him from the side and the origin of the crash currently unknown.

The peloton sat up as Yates was checked over by Ineos support staff, his team-mates Filippo Ganna and Andrey Amador also hanging back for their leader.

Yates then got back on his bike, still receiving assistance from the medic car at the back of the peloton, but seeming not to have suffered a serious injury in the crash.

The Ineos rider currently sits second on GC, 35 seconds behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), who narrowly avoided coming down in the fall, having been riding behind a number of the Ineos Grenadiers riders involved.

Having rejoined the peloton, and after hitting another bump in the road but staying upright, Yates signalled to the motorbike cameraman that he was okay.

Update: After the finish, Ineos Grenadiers confirmed Yates had been taken to hospital for precautionary checks, having sustained cuts and bruises to his face.

In that same crash, Brandon Rivera suffered abrasions while new signing Dani Martinez abandoned due to knee pain.

Stage win, or general classification? Stage win? Or. General classification?

All Adam Yates wants to do, or what he says he wants to do, is "take it day by day".

As much as taking each stage as it comes is the most sensible option for a rider fifth on GC at the Tour de France, the banality belies how Adam Yates has raced over the past two weeks.

Going on the offensive with Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) on stage two, then taking yellow after the Frenchman fell foul of the rules, Yates fell out of the race lead in the Pyrenees as expected. Suggesting he would reset to his original goal of a stage win, the Brit didn't sit up and allow himself the breathing room to ride away from the GC group. Instead, his legs have lasted longer than the likes of Egan Bernal (Ineos) and Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic).

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"It would have been silly to lose any time on purpose," Yates explained. "If I was going to lose time, it would have been on stage 15.

"I stayed out of trouble and really there were only two stages where there was a major GC battle. I said if I was struggling [on stage 15] I could have stopped by the side of the road and waiting for the gruppetto for 20 minutes."

But he didn't struggle. On the Grand Colombier, Yates was also the only one brave enough to attack the Jumbo-Visma train, reeled in by Tom Dumoulin and then staying in the mix to drift up the standings.

"I feel like the last couple of stages we’ve waited and waited and then they’ve punched at the final," Yates said of his hit out on stage 15. "I feel like that doesn’t suit me, I’m missing that little punch at the end."

What Yates is clearly not lacking in is confidence, and he keeps reiterating that he's feeling better and better with every passing day. He's reconned all the three remaining big mountain days in the Alps and says that at this stage of the race it may not have to be a choice between keeping his GC position or going for a stage win.

"I still want to try and win a stage, I tried yesterday but it wasn't to be. I don't see why I can't win a stage if I’m high up on GC, Pogačar has done it. We’ll still keep trying," Yates promised.

"I’m 100 per cent sure that will happen at a certain point," the Brit added of another top 10 GC rider trying to escape up the road from a long way out, "but whether that is Pogačar or someone further down the list...it will happen once people start getting desperate."

It will be a weird mix of defending his overall placing and sussing out whether he can try for stage glory, but the way the cards have fallen, Yates won't throw away the chance of bettering his fourth overall at the 2016 Tour.

"I mean I’d love to stay up there on GC but we came here for stage wins. I’m not going to throw it away for a stage win but the race is going to explode, and you have to have the legs to get into these moves, then you can try and make a move yourself," he said.

There is still a lot of racing with only one week left of the Tour de France, and despite Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas being left at home, there will be a Brit in the heat of the action again this year.

Adam Yates was the only rider brave enough to try his luck against an irrepressible Jumbo-Visma train up the Grand Colombier on stage 15 of the Tour de France, saying he was making the most of the last bit of racing before the second rest day.

"I wanted to try something just before the rest day," Yates said, explaining his solo attack with 7km to go, staying off the front for about a kilometre before Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) dragged him back to heel.

Yates wasn't spat out the GC group, though, crossing the line in eighth, 15 seconds down on stage winner Tadej Pogačar. The Brit was the highest-finishing Ineos rider on the day  (if we're counting members of their 2021 squad) as defending champion Egan Bernal cracked and fell out of contention for the overall.

The Mitchelton-Scott rider, freed from the responsibilities of the yellow jersey, now finds himself moving back up the overall classification to fifth place, his legs proving stronger than GC riders such as Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic).

"I'm getting better day by day, I didn't want it to come down until the last kilometre or two because in the previous stages I've kind of suffered and then struggled to hold the wheel," Yates said of his lack of final kick compared to Roglič and Pogačar, "so I went, tried to get over the steep bit to the flat up-down section, but yeah, Jumbo weren't happy with me trying anything so they brought me back."

>>> ‘I think everyone expected more from Ineos,’ says Tadej Pogačar as Egan Bernal drops out of GC contention 

Since losing the race lead, Yates said he would re-focus and target stage victories for the remainder of the Tour, whether he'll now look to protect his GC position, improve it, or throw it away for stage wins will soon become clear.

"Sensations are good, we'll have a good rest day and then hopefully have some good stages in the Alps."

Adam Yates started the Tour de France in good form with a third place finish on stage two and taking the yellow jersey two days later.

Yates came into the Tour with very little racing in the legs after only racing the Critérium du Dauphiné before the French Grand Tour, with his team revealing that he'd also suffered from a mystery illness a few weeks before the Tour.

"He had some kind of parasite - there was a lot of vomiting - we think from fountain water he drank." said his team according to BBC Sport.

"It knocked him for six - he had 10 days completely off the bike, then two or three weeks when he was certainly on restricted training. And that was right at the time when we are going hard on the training."

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This makes his ride in the first week of the Tour even more impressive after taking the race lead from Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step), who was penalised for taking a bottle inside the last 20km of stage five.

Yates looked in superb form on stage two when he attacked across to Alaphilippe, who went on to take the stage win, and Marc Hirschi (Team Sunweb).

The race was then rather simple to control for Yates' team in the days after him unexpectedly going into yellow.

On the first day of the Pyrenees the other riders going for the general classification peppered the last climb with attacks but every time they came back together Yates managed to get back on.

While he couldn't follow any moves of the big favourites, he rode up the climb at his own pace and finished with them and kept yellow.

>>> Tour de France 2020: Five things to look out for during the second week

Stage nine saw Yates crack and slip out of yellow and dropped to eighth overall at just over a minute down on the new leader, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma).

The British climber will likely now target stages in the coming mountain stages that pepper the end of week two and the final week of the race as he looks to improve his condition as he races on.

“I did everything I could. I said from the very beginning, even before the Tour started, that I wasn’t at 100 per cent,” Yates said after the finish of stage nine. “And I think we did well. We hung on for as long as we could. And yeah, there are a couple of guys going better than me. So I did the best I could and I think we can be proud.

“It’s a big honour riding in yellow,” he added. “It was good fun while it lasted.”

Adam Yates went down fighting as he lost the yellow jersey at the 2020 Tour de France, finally distanced from the race lead for good on the Col de Marie Blanque, as the GC battle burst into life for a second day in the Pyrenees.

"I did everything I could. I said from the very beginning, even before the Tour started, that I wasn’t at 100 per cent," Yates said after the finish of stage nine. "And I think we did well. We hung on for as long as we could. And yeah, there are a couple of guys going better than me. So I did the best I could and I think we can be proud."

>>> Primož Roglič claims overall lead as Tadej Pogačar wins thrilling Tour de France 2020 stage nine

After being gapped on the Col de Marie Blanque, Yates fell into the third GC group on the road, as Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), and Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) found themselves behind Roglič and company.

"I could see them [up ahead] but on a climb like this, it’s pretty steep, you can see them but they’re actually quite far away. So yeah, came up short but still a lot of stages to come and a lot of stages which suit me," Yates explained.

"We were going full gas on the descent, I had a couple of guys with me - Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Miguel Ángel López (Astana), Enric Mas (Movistar), and we worked well together but the gap was just too big."

Yates fought valiantly to keep yellow as long as possible, having clawed his way back into the front GC group on stage eight, but after the rest day, he will assess his options, potentially sitting up and losing time so he's allowed off the front in search of stage wins.

"Yeah for sure. We’ll have to look at it. I think I’m going to look forward to the rest day first before we start thinking about next week. But there are a lot of stages which suit me, particularly in the final week. We’ll have a rest day first and I’ll let you know after that. The next couple of days are flat. It might be pretty easy to lose some time."

As for his days in yellow, that's something no-one can take away from the Brit.

"It’s a big honour riding in yellow," Yates added. "It was good fun while it lasted."

Heartbreak again for Thibaut Pinot

The cycling world bore witness to an upsetting but familiar sight on the Port de Balès, as Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) was dropped out of contention for the yellow jersey.

There was a horrible sense of deja-vu reminiscent of his collapse in the Alps at last year's Tour de France, with teammate Stefan Küng even putting a consoling arm over his shoulder just as William Bonnet did so memorably.

One difference, though, was that this time Pinot was not in tears, instead seeming more resigned than devastated. These were, after all, different circumstances than last year, when he appeared to be on the form of his life and was potentially just days away from winning the yellow jersey.

What went wrong? From his body language, and the way he clutched his back at one moment, it appeared that the Frenchman is still hurting from the injuries sustained from his opening stage crash, despite having managed to stay with the favourites on all the stages up until now.

Remembering how Pinot even considered retiring following the heart-breaking end to last year’s Tour, you have to wonder what the future holds for Pinot — who has already described today as potentially a “major turning point in my career”.

For now, let’s hope he can overcome the pain to stay in the race, and potentially bounce back to try and win a stage.

Adam Yates gallantly defends yellow on the first GC showdown

Although we’ve had difficult climbs and summit finishes already in this Tour, stage eight felt like the first proper showdown between the favourites.

Many fans had flocked to the top of the Col de Peyresourde, providing the familiar sight of riders crawling up the climb in single file while surrounded by waves of cheering spectators — albeit with the unfamiliar twist that most of them were wearing masks.

Those spectators were treated to some thrilling racing, too, as the favourites attacked each other all the way up the climb.

That put Adam Yates’ (Mithcelton-Scott) slender hold on the yellow jersey under serious threat. With so many riders within just 13 seconds of his lead, the attacks were constant, with the likes of Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) all sniffing a chance at take yellow.

These accelerations saw Yates dropped several times, but he remained calm, riding the mountain at his own pace. By the summit he had re-joined the small group of favourites, and managed to fend off attacks from Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and Bardet on the descent to successfully defend his lead.

It was a gutsy, intelligent ride from the Lancastrian, and an indication that he might still be yellow for some time yet.

Nans Peters wins the stage

In a day of mixed fortunes for French riders, one unqualified triumph was Nans Peters (AG2R La Mondiale), who masterfully won the stage from the breakaway.

In a race that had up until now been largely dominated by the famous, established names, Peters becomes one of only two riders (the other being Alexey Lutsenko) to win a stage this year having never done so in the past.

The victory was as much a result of his skills going downhill as it was going uphill. When the Frenchman reached the summit of Port de Balès alongside Ilnur Zakarin (CCC), Zakarin looked the best bet to win the stage, what with his pedigree as a former Grand Tour podium finisher.

But 25 of the remaining 35 kilometres were downhill, which proved to be Zakarin’s downfall as Peters dropped him on the descent of Port de Balès. The lead of around 30 seconds he had gained once reaching the base of the Peyresourde proved to be enough of a buffer, and Peters soloed to victory.

It’s the 26-year-old’s second Grand Tour stage win from a breakaway after he won stage seventeen of the Giro d’Italia last year, and, on this basis, there could be many more to follow.

The yellow jersey favourites emerge

Although the first seven stages had given us some idea as to what form the favourites are in, stage eight was our first glimpse of who really are the strongest riders at this year’s Tour de France.

Unsurprisingly Primož Roglič was one of them, and it was the pace set by his Jumbo-Visma team that blew the race to pieces on the Peyresourde. Once Tom Dumoulin had finished his turn at the front, just nine other riders remained.

Roglič was also one of only two riders who were able to respond to an attack from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), the other being Nairo Quintana. With a sizeable gap over the other favourites, who either did not or could not try to follow them, it looked for a moment as though we might have been witnessing the eventual make-up of the podium.

But the trio chose not to press on, allowing for a regrouping, leaving questions about whether they are indeed stronger than the other favourites inconclusive.

At the finish, ten riders finished in the yellow jersey group (38 seconds behind Pogačar, who had successfully attack again earlier): Romain Bardet, Miguel Ángel López, Adam Yates, Egan Bernal, Mikel Landa, Guillaume Martin, Primož Roglič, Nairo Quintana, Rigoberto Urán and Richie Porte. It’s highly likely that one of these riders will be wearing the yellow jersey in Paris.

Big names are taken out of contention

The Peyresourde proved to be the Waterloo of many of the top favourites’ dreams of winning this year’s Tour de France.

In a bizarre series of events, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) was ejected out the back of the peloton just moments after attempting to make an attack. It was a strange misjudgement of how strong his legs were, and he ended up finishing over ten minutes behind the group of favourites. There will therefore be no repeat of his dramatic pursuit of overall victory last year, and he will probably target stage wins from now on instead.

Jumbo-Visma adopted a strategy that appeared to sacrifice Tom Dumoulin’s hopes of a GC finish. The Dutchman used up all his energy setting a ferocious pace at the front of the peloton, and ultimately lost over two minutes to the other favourites.

>>> ‘This wasn’t the plan’: Tom Dumoulin sacrifices GC ambitions mid-stage at Tour de France 

Others dropped included last year’s fourth-place finisher Emanual Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), who may still be struggling from the injury that forced him out of the Dauphine last month, Ineos Grenadiers’ Richard Carapaz and Yates’ teammate Esteban Chaves — although these riders managed to limit their losses to just one minute, so could still be in contention for a high GC finish.

Adam Yates was relentless in his defence of the yellow jersey on stage eight of the Tour de France 2020, after a breathless day of mountain racing.

Nans Peters (AG2R La Mondiale) scored an outstanding solo stage victory from a 13-rider breakaway, however the real drama unfolded in the GC group behind with none of the yellow jersey contenders able to overcome the minimal time gaps at the top of the overall standings.

British race leader Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was dropped multiple times on the Col de Peyresourde as his rivals fired attack after attack, but Yates would not be shaken.

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) was able to break free on the climb and claw back around 38 seconds after he lost time in the crosswinds the previous day, but Yates leads the race for another day.

But disaster did strike for French fans early in the stage as Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) sat up on the second climb of the day, losing 20 minutes and ending his GC ambitions for the year.

How it happened 

Stage eight of the Tour de France 2020 marked the first excursion into the Pyrenees for the peloton and another mountain opportunity for the GC favourites to fight it out. 

The punchy 141km stage from Cazeres to Loudenvielle started with a gradual rise to the foot of the Col de Mentè, a first category climb that runs to 6.9km-long with an 8.1 per cent average gradient. 

After cresting that climb 59km into the stage, riders then descended to the valley floor before hitting the first beyond categorisation climb of the 2020 Tour, the Port de Balès (12.2km at 7.6 per cent), which topped out 104km into the day.

After another long descent, it was onto the famous Col de Peyresourde (9.7km at 7.5 per cent).

From the summit of the Peyresourde it was 11km to the line, with a 7km descent followed by a very brief ramp up into a downhill final kilometre. 

After a hectic day of racing on stage seven, there was still plenty of appetite for aggressive racing when the flag dropped with breakaway attacks coming immediately. 

Less than 10km into the stage the day’s breakaway had formed with 13 riders making it up the road quickly, including Nans Peters, mountains classification leader Benoît Cosneyfroy (Ag2r La Mondial), Tom Skujinš (Trek-Segafredo), Ilnur Zakarin (CCC Team) and Jerôme Cousin (Total Direct Energie). 

That group quickly pulled out an insurmountable time advantage over the peloton and 50km into the stage the gap was up to almost 15 minutes, making it clear the stage winner would come from this group. 

The breakaway secured most of the points on offer at the intermediate sprint point just at the foot of the Mentè, but back in the bunch Sam Bennett (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) was still able to secure the final two points and narrow the gap to Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe)  in the green jersey competition. 

On the first climb of the day the break stuck together, with Cosneyfroy being allowed to go clear at the top to gain the KoM points.

Cousin then grew frustrated with the lack of cohesion in the front group and took off solo but then caught on the slopes of the Port de Bales. 

Then it was Nans Peters’s turn to launched an attack and he was followed by Zakarin, with the pair hitting the top of the Balès together. 

Meanwhile back in the peloton Jumbo-Visma were the dominant team at the head of the peloton and their pace caused some major upsets, with Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) losing contact with the group of favourites and losing chunks of time rapidly and effectively calling time on his GC ambitions in this year’s race.   

Wout van Aert, stage winner in a bunch sprint the previous day, was unbelievable in the peloton for Jumbo-Visma, outlasting team-mates Sep Kuss and Robert Gesink on domestique duties and leading the bunch over the summit of the Balès and down the other side. 

At the front of the race,  Peters was more comfortable on the frightening turns descending the Balès and he easily distanced Zakarin, who was looking shaky as the road turned downwards. 

Peters pulled out a 40-second advantage over Zakarin as he hit the foot of the final ascent, the Peyresourde, with another four-rider chasing group from the breakaway one minute behind the Frenchman.  

But as both Peters and Zakarin hit the lower slopes of the Peyresourde, Zakarin began to close down his rival and the gap tumbled to 12 seconds.

At the top of the climb, Peters was still alone with a minute advantage as Zakarin was joined by breakaway riders Toms Skujinś (Trek-Segafredo) and Carlos Verona (Movistar). 

Peters was still alone as he hit the bottom of the descent from the Peyresoude and inside the final kilometre he had the victory wrapped up, crossing the line to take his second Grand Tour stage victory  after the 2019 Giro d’Italia and the biggest victory of his career.

Zakarin cracked in the final and it was Skujinš who took second with Verona closing out the podium. 

In the GC group, 10 minutes further down the mountain, Jumbo-Visma continued to control until Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) launched an attack to kick off the action, but the Frenchman was caught and then dropped out the back almost immediately. 

Tadej Pogačar then fired his move and while Primož Roglič easily followed and the rest of the favourites joined them. 

But yellow jersey Adam Yates struggled under the pressure and was dropped. 

Further up the climb Pogačar launched a second attack and this time he was allowed to go free, in the hopes of making up the time he lost in the crosswinds the previous day.

Only Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) set off in pursuit of the Slovenian as they also needed to make back the time they lost on stage seven. 

As the favourites let Pogačar ride away, Adam Yates was able to rejoin the group of 11 overall contenders - only Ineos Grenadiers had more than one rider present as Egan Bernal had Richard Carapaz for support.  

It was Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) who made the next big move from the group of favourites but he was pursued by Roglič while Yates lost contact again but fought back once more, with Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) making his first attack of the Tour as he approached the summit. 

>>> Tom Pidcock wins final stage of under-23 Giro d'Italia 

Roglič followed Quintana and the pair caught Landa and Porte, but the attacks then fell apart on the descent and all the GC favourites came back together, apart from Pogačar who was still 30 seconds closer to the finish by the descent of the Peyresourde. 

Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) launched a strong attack at the bottom of the descent and picked up a few seconds at the line but  the GC group all rode in together.

Yates still leads the race by three seconds over Roglič, with Guillaume Martin in third. 

Pogačar earned back 38 seconds with his courageous attack and moves back into the top-10 overall.  

The race continues with a challenging day of climbing on stage eight, with a 153km route from Pau to Laruns with a first category climb in the final 20km and a slightly uphill finish.

Results

Tour de France 2020, stage eight: Cazères to Loudenvielle (141km)

1. Nans Peters (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale, in 4-02-12

2. Toms Skujinš (Lat) Trek-Segafredo, at 47s

3. Carlos Verona (Esp) Movistar, at same time

4. Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) CCC Team, at 1-09

5. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Pro Cycling, at 1-41

6. Ben Hermans (Bel) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 3-42

7. Quentin Pacher (Fra) B&B Hotels-Vital Concept p/b KTM, at same time

8. Søren Kragh Andersen (Den) Sunweb, at 4-04

9. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 6-00

10. Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2r La Mondiale, at 6-38

General classification after stage eight

1. Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott, at 34-44-52

2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Jumbo-Visma, at 3s

3. Guillaume Martin (Fra) Cofidis, at 9s

4. Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale, at 11s

5. Egan Bernal (Col) Ineos Grenadiers, at 13s

6. Nairo Quintana (Col) Arkéa-Samsic

7. Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana

8. Rigoberto Urán (Col) EF Pro Cycling, all at same time

9. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, at 48s

10. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, at 1-00

Despite saying wearing the yellow jersey at the Tour de France is something you dream of as a kid, Adam Yates says those words would be the wrong way to describe his first ever day in the maillot jaune.

"Dreamed is the wrong word but when you grow up as a kid everyone wants to wear yellow at the Tour de France, that’s what you watch growing up," Yates said, still uncomfortable with the manner in which he took the jersey off of Julian Alaphilippe, after the Frenchman received a time penalty on stage five.

"It was a nice experience, hopefully we can keep it for a few more days at least and really savour it," Yates added, more positively. "We’re already looking forward to tomorrow and we’ll see how long we can keep it for."

Any hopes of GC action or Yates trying to take the stage win, which he said was still his plan despite being in the race lead, failed to materialise on the climb to Mont Aigoual.

>>> ‘You can’t get away with it just because you’re in yellow’: Cycling Weekly readers react as Julian Alaphilippe loses race lead due to time penalty

After Alexey Lutsenko had taken the stage win from the breakaway, Alaphilippe attacked the GC group in the closing kilometre, finishing fifth and gaining one second over his rivals.

"From the start we controlled it quite well, there was a nice group up the road, no-one really dangerous to the GC," Yates explained of how the stage unfolded. "In the final, the steep climb was quite far out and the finish line wasn’t too hard, it was quite a shallow climb, so if you attacked there it was pretty difficult to gain seconds and you’d have made a big effort so I think everyone was just keeping kind of quiet and saving their energy for later days."

With stage victories still at the top of his wish list for the 2020 Tour, Yates says he will target the upcoming Pyrenean days.

"Like I've said from the beginning before I was sitting here in the yellow jersey, hopefully we can do something, today wasn't the day, it was a long flat stage before we hit the climb. Maybe it would have been a tricky stage to try and win. Maybe in the high mountains I can try something."

Adam Yates was already showered and waiting for his team-mates to finish washing before their transfer to the hotel, when Mitchelton-Scott got the call that their British rider had taken the yellow jersey.

Trailing Julian Alaphilippe by four seconds at the start of the day, he and Yates finished on the same time, but an illegal feed in the closing kilometres saw the Frenchman receive a time penalty, boosting Yates up into first place at the 2020 Tour de France.

"I don't think anyone wants to take the yellow jersey like this," Yates said, slightly shellshocked. "You want to do it by winning or taking time.

"I was on the bus, already showered, waiting for the last few guys to finish showering and then we'd have been going to the hotel but somebody called our director and told me we might have yellow so we had to head to the podium."

>>> Julian Alaphilippe loses Tour de France lead to Adam Yates after being penalised on stage five

Arriving at the podium, Alaphilippe then explained to Yates what had happened.

"I only found out when I asked Julian what was going on and he said he had a time penalty for taking a feed, or something like this, late on in the stage, and I don't know what happened," Yates continued, then saying he will wear the yellow jersey on stage six despite the circumstances of how it found its way onto his shoulders. "I mean probably, I'm pretty sure I'll get fined if I don't so I guess I'll have to."

Alaphilippe has said he was at the Tour for stage wins despite finding himself in yellow, and Yates says that is his plan too, taking the race lead doesn't change that.

"We're here for stages, we're not here for GC. I just want to get involved, be aggressive on the stages and try and win. I mean we'll still try tomorrow, being in yellow and being in the lead doesn't really change anything, we'll just go after it like we would normally," Yates said, adding the only difference is that he may be marked more in the final.

"I came close to wearing yellow before, in 2016 when the motorbike incident happened with Froome. Similar sort of situation, it's happened to me twice now. I'd rather do this and get yellow with my legs than anything so I think we'll take it stage by stage and see how it goes from there."

Julian Alaphilippe lost his Tour de France yellow jersey on stage four after being handed a time penalty.

The Deceuninck - Quick-Step rider was forced to hand the race lead to Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) after he was penalised during a sedate day of racing from Gap to Privas.  

There is no official confirmation about why Alaphilippe was punished, but Yates now moves into the race lead.  

Reports suggest that Alaphilippe was handed a 20-second penalty for taking a bidon from a roadside helper inside the final 20km of the stage.

According to the Tour organisers, the commissaires made the decision to punish Alaphilippe after he made an "unauthorised supply pick-up."

Video footage has since emerged of Alaphilippe taking a bottle from team staff with around 17km of the stage left to race.

UCI rules state that all feeding outside the feed zones, either from a car or on foot, is strictly forbidden inside the first 30km of a stage and inside the last 20km.

Alaphilippe now slips down to 16th place overall,  16 seconds behind Yates.

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) now sits second, three seconds behind Yates while Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) is third, seven seconds off the lead.

An official statement from the organisers said: "Following the commissaries' decision, Julian Alaphilippe receives a sanction of 20 seconds for an un-authorised supply pick-up. Adam Yates is the new wearer of the yellow jersey."

>>> How to live stream the Tour de France: watch the Tour de France 2020 from anywhere 

UCI regulation 2.3.027 says: "All feeding (from a car and on foot outside of the feeding zones signposted by the organiser) is strictly forbidden: during the 30 first and last 20 kilometres; in the last 500 meters before a sprint counting for a secondary classification (points classification, king of mountain classification or others), bonus sprint, feeding zone; in the first 50 meters after a sprint counting for a secondary classification (points classification, king of mountain classification or others), bonus sprint, feeding zone; on descents of mountains listed on the mountain classification;  in any other area specified by the organiser or the commissaires panel.

"The commissaires panel may adapt the distances mentioned above, depending on atmospheric conditions and the category, type and length of the race. Such a decision must be communicated to the followers through radio-tour."

Adam Yates said he was happy to settle for third on stage three of the Tour de France 2020, realising the limits of his abilities when up against Julian Alaphilippe in a sprint finish, especially with the Frenchman's appetite for the yellow jersey.

"In the final I got away with the two guys. The little fella [Marc Hirschi] was not contributing much but in the end we started working well," Yates said after the finish. "And then I was never going to win the sprint was I? So I think third was the best I could have got out of that situation."

After a bruising day for the peloton on stage one, the two category one climbs on day two provided little relief, with Yates saying he could already sense the tired legs in the bunch.

"It was a really hard day out. Even the climbs at the beginning were ridden at a good solid pace. You could feel the fatigue, you could see a lot of people suffering just like me.

>>> Julian Alaphilippe takes yellow jersey with Tour de France 2020 stage two victory

"Jumbo-Visma were riding quite a hard pace anyway, so I waited until a little steep bit and then jumped across and tried to work straight away.

"All in all a good day."

The finish along the Promenade des Anglais would have provided some perfect nominative determinism, but the Brit ended up on the front on the run-in to the line and also didn't have the power when faced with a headwind along the seafront.

"It was a block headwind and I ended up on the front. So not a good scenario for me there. But like I said, I was probably never going to win that sprint anyway, they are both faster than me. So yeah, have to be happy with third."

Expect to see more from the Mitchelton-Scott rider in his final Tour for the Australian squad before his move to Ineos, as he has been set on riding an attacking Tour since the start of the year.

"I said to the team last winter that I wanted to come to the Tour and be aggressive in the first week, and they’ve allowed me to do that," Yates said.

"So here we are: stage two. Amongst it. And plenty more opportunities to go."

This year’s Tour de France will certainly be missing some of the biggest British names, but there are still some UK riders that will be worth keeping in mind during the race.

With Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish all left behind by their teams in 2020, we’re not likely to see the British dominance we’ve grown accustomed to over the last 10 years.

The UK has been a dominant cycling force over the last decade, with Cavendish sweeping up victories in the sprint finishes while Froome and Thomas have won five Tours between them since 2013. 

While there looks to be no real chance of a British yellow jersey winner this year, here are all the homegrown talents to keep an eye on in this year’s race. 

Luke Rowe 

Team Ineos maybe be leaving their biggest British stars behind, but they are still taking their faithful workhorse and road captain Luke Rowe, who is now heading into his sixth Tour de France.

The Welshman, a strong Classics rider in his own right, has built a reputation as a slick tactician capable of dealing with crosswinds and tricky terrain, while also having the power to lead the entire peloton for huge chunks of a stage. 

Rowe was ejected from last year’s Tour on stage 17 after an altercation with Jumbo-Visma’s road captain Tony Martin. 

While Rowe won’t be getting his own chances of glory in this year’s edition, always keep an eye out for him at the front of the bunch. 

Connor Swift 

Swift will be one of the most exciting stories to follow at this year’s Tour, as he will be supporting Nairo Quintana’s yellow jersey pursuit in his first full season at WorldTour level.

The Yorkshireman, who was riding for Madison Genesis in the UK at the start of 2019 before he was drafted to Arkéa-Samsic, told Cycling Weekly how he found out he would be riding the Tour and gave his reaction.

Swift, the unexpected British champion back in 2018, will be lining up at the Tour in just his fifth WorldTour event. 

Hugh Carthy 

Another British Tour debutant is EF Pro Cycling’s Hugh Carthy. 

The 26-year-old has been progressing at WorldTour level since joining the US squad back in 2017, having ridden three editions of the Giro d’Italia as well as two editions of the Vuelta a España so far.

Last year Carthy was one of the stand-out riders in the Giro d’Italia General Classification, finishing 11th overall. 

This year will be Carthy’s first Tour de France, where he is likely to ride in support of his team’s yellow jersey contenders Rigoberto Urán and Sergio Higuita.  

Adam Yates 

The final Brit to watch out for in the Tour de France this year is Adam Yates.

Adam and his twin brother Simon, both riding for Mitchelton-Scott, look to be part of the next generation of Grand Tour talent to emerge from Britain. 

While Adam has been a serious contender in the Tour de France, finishing fourth overall in 2016 and winning the youth classification, this year Mitchelton-Scott said they are focused solely on stage victories. 

>>> Tour de France 2020 route: Eight mountain finishes and uphill time trial to decide 107th edition 

We may not see Yates, who is heading for Team Ineos next season, leading the race overall but expect to see some ambitious and aggressive racing from the 28-year-old as he pursues his first Grand Tour stage victory.