Simon and Adam Yates are straight back into WorldTour action this week following the Tour de France, as the pair target victory at the Clásica San Sebastián.
The British riders are set to lead Mitchelton-Scott into the 227.3km one-day race in the Basque Country, having had mixed fortunes at the Tour de France this month.
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Simon came off a Giro d’Italia campaign that saw him finish eighth overall to win two stages at the Tour de France. Adam went into the Tour with ambitions in the general classification, but saw his race fall apart in the stage 13 time trial and the following day to the Col du Tourmalet, eventually finishing the race well over an hour down on winner Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) in 29th place.
Adam will be hoping for a better performance in San Sebastián, a race he has gone well at in the past, winning in 2015. Simon will be looking to continue his good form that he found in the second half of the Tour, with an eye on a potential Vuelta a España title defence in late August.
“I’m looking forward to returning to San Sebastián, it is a great race, always really hard and hopefully I‘ll still have good legs after the Tour,” Simon said.
“You never really know how everybody will be just one week after a Grand Tour, everybody recovers differently.
“I think it is a race that suits me, Adam has won it before and I think we’ve got a good team, some fresh riders coming in and some riders coming from the Tour like myself, Adam and [Luke] Durbridge.”
The course this year no longer has a second ascent of the difficult Jaizkibel climb on the course, instead heading to new climb Erlaitz, which tops out at 160km ridden. Once again the race has the steep Murgil-Tontorra climb just 7km from the finish which will see some strong attacks before the descent into San Sebastián.
The Yates twins, 26, will be supported by just one other rider who featured in the Tour, Luke Durbridge, with Callum Scotson, Brent Bookwalter, Lucas Hamilton and Dion Smith making up the rest of the squad.
“We all know Simon won two stages at the Tour and he’s come out of it really well,” said Mitchelton-Scott Lorenzo Lapage. “Adam has had a good rest now and they are both really motivated which is important.
“The new climb after the Jaizkibel is a really hard one so we will need to get over that climb with numbers and if we have numbers there then we can drop Adam and Simon in a good position for that last climb and we have a strong team to do that.
“We have guys like Durbridge who was climbing really well at the end of the Tour, then Hamilton, Bookwalter and Smith are all really strong guys to protect the Yateses and also Scotson who can look out for them and help them when they need.
“The guys are all really motivated, we will do a recon of the climbs and then it is up to the legs for that final climb. On paper we have a really good team and I think we have a really good chance.”
