A Yates in yellow

In-form Adam may prove key to UAE success at this year’s Tour

- Adam Becket

Adam Yates has had an upand-down relationship with the Tour de France. For every top 10 finish, white jersey win or stint in yellow there has been a collapsing inflatable gantry, a day of suffering in extreme heat, or just plain bad luck. Come stage one both his legs and karma seemed to be paying back in dividends, winning alongside his brother in spectacular fashion, leaving some of the best riders in the world for dead and claiming the much coveted yellow jersey in the process. Not that this came as a surprise to his UAE team.

“Actually yes, we expected this from Adam,” UAE’s team principal, Mauro Gianetti, told CW ahead of stage two. “He has shown during his career that he is at a very good level, and probably was at a point in his career where he wanted to come in our team, he wanted to change, to have new motivation. We knew as a rider that he could be at this level, and he showed during the spring, his level and his attitude.”

It is not the first time that Yates has spent time in the yellow jersey; that came in 2020, when the then Mitchelton-Scott rider led the Tour for four days, but it is the first time that he has won a stage of the world’s biggest race, or any other Grand Tour for that matter.