Adam and Simon Yates will now both ride the Vuelta a España in pursuit of progression

Twin brothers Adam and Simon Yates will now both ride the Vuelta a España, after a late change in programs.

The initial plan formulated by the pair's Mitchelton-Scott team was that Simon would ride the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta, whilst Adam would target the Tour de France.

Both brothers experienced disappointments at their respective targets - Simon dominating the first two weeks to crack on stage 19, losing almost 40 minutes on his rivals, and Adam finishing the French race in 29th place - 1-17 down on winner Geraint Thomas.

“Obviously the Tour de France wasn’t what we’d hoped for Adam, but what it did highlight is that there are some things to work on, with him but also for the whole team in general,” said sports director Julian Dean.

“The idea is to continue the development of Adam and Simon by taking them both to the Vuelta, giving them another Grand Tour experience and trying to target the areas that we haven't got right, including getting some consistency across the three weeks,” he added

Simon will still lead the Mitchelton-Scott squad in Spain, whilst Adam will play a support role. The key performance indicator for both brothers is 'progression', according to the team.

“Obviously we'd still like to aim for a podium at the Vuelta. That would be a great outcome for us, but if we look back at the past Grand Tours we’ve done these last two years, we’ve got some work to do and our overall objective is to make a good progression throughout the whole race," said Dean.

“Our key performance indicator will be that we have come into the key period and Simon is able to maintain or if not gain position in those last ten days, whether that be from 15th to eighth or eighth to fifth. As long as we get that progression, that’s really what we are aiming for," he added.

“I think if we do that, the results will come for themselves, it’s just a matter of being patient and learning from what we have done in the past couple of years.”

Discussing his surprise additional grand tour, Adam said: "We came to the decision that doing the Vuelta after the Tour would be another good chance to get some experience in riding multiple Grand Tours in one year.

“It’s pretty difficult to replicate the fatigue of a Grand Tour in training so the opportunity of riding the Vuelta without the stress of riding GC will be a good step towards gaining more experience not just in racing over three weeks but also in following all the routines and day-to-day stuff that goes on in a Grand Tour," he added.

Commenting on his post Tour de France form, he commented: “So far the recovery after the Tour has been going really well and things are looking good. I took a few days away from the bike and since then I’ve been slowly getting back into the routine.”

Simon Yates - who came second at the Tour of Poland last week, losing out on the win to Team Sky's Michal Kwiatkowski - commented: "I have been slowly building towards this for the second part of the year and I hope to arrive in great shape. At Poland last week I was getting better with each stage so I’m looking forward to starting.”

“My preparation has been very different to the Giro d’Italia because like a few guys that will line up in Spain, I have one eye on the world championships later this year so it will be interesting to see how my body responds but as always I’ll give it my all to achieve a great result," he added.