Adam and Simon Yates to ride Tour de France, as Mitchelton-Scott announce squad

Adam and Simon Yates will ride the 2019 Tour de France, as Mitchelton-Scott announce their eight-man squad for the French Grand Tour.

Simon will ride in support of Adam's general classification ambitions, returning the favour to his twin brother as Adam assisted Simon to his Vuelta a España 2018 victory.

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Fresh from defending his national road race and time trial championship titles, South African Daryl Impey will be the most experienced member of the squad, the 34-year-old riding his seventh Tour de France.

Luke Durbridge will be one of three Australian's represented in the team of the same nationality alongside Michael Hepburn and Jack Haig, who will be making his Tour de France debut following a successful Critérium du Dauphiné where he was pipped to the stage eight victory by Dylan van Baarle (Ineos) and also finished fourth at Paris-Nice.

Completing the line-up will be Chris Juul-Jensen and current European champion Matteo Trentin.

Adam Yates will be looking to build on his 2016 Tour performance where he finished fourth rather than last year's disappointing ride that saw the Brit finish 29th.

His 2019 season so far has included second place finishes at both Tirreno-Adriatico and Volta a Catalunya. The 26-year-old was also second in the Critérium du Dauphiné, eight seconds behind eventual winner Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) before he abandoned the race 50km from the finish line on the final stage.

Simon Yates followed up his Vuelta a España 2018 victory with an eighth place finish at this year's Giro d'Italia.

While Simon went into the Giro saying if he were his rivals "I would be scared, I'd be sh**ting myself", Adam remains vague about his ambitions for the race, although says he's recovered from the illness that saw him withdraw from the Dauphiné.

"After the Dauphiné I’ve managed to come back around pretty quick, back into full training and feeling good so hopefully it was just a minor bump," Adam Yates said.

"The Tour this year is a tough one, especially towards the end of the race. I checked out stages 18, 19, 20 just before Dauphine and three stages like that back-to-back at the very end of the race will be sure to have some fireworks.

"Not only that, but there’s some real tricky stages like stage six to Planche des Belles Filles, which I know quite well from when I raced for CC Etupes and lived in France. So overall a very tough route with some challenging terrain.

"A couple years ago I was fourth and not far from the podium, I don’t really want to put a marker on what I want to achieve, I just know I’ll like to go better than previously and with the condition and consistency I’ve had this year I don’t see why not."