Stage 15 of the Tour de France saw Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) become an almost unintentional protagonist in the ongoing general classification battle for third place, after the Briton first laid down a searing pace for teammate and overall contender Tadej Pogačar and then briefly, and unexpectedly, left the Slovenian behind.
In the maillot jaune after winning the opening stage in Bilbao, Yates' aggressive move on Sunday was later explained by lead sports director Joxean Fernández Matxin as being part of a strategy for Pogačar to bridge across, even if the Briton’s gaining time on GC was also an added benefit.
“I have no idea where I am on GC, to be honest. I was just pulling full gas and hoping Tadej would come up to me, as I was suffering so much,” Yates said after the stage, playing down his role in the overall battle.
Both Pogačar and Vingegaard overtook Yates by the finish to Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, where he lost 20 seconds to the top two overall. But Yates still moved up to fourth on GC, overhauling an injured Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) and closing in on Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers), who also lost a little time. As one journalist put it to him, “there’s a real battle for third place and you’re in it, whether you like it or not”.
Fourth overall in the Tour in 2016, when he also won the best young rider’s jersey, remains Yates’ best placing in the race’s GC. But if he’s now back in that same place on the provisional GC, Yates insisted that when he left Pogačar behind, it was more because “we had a few issues with the radio” and then things came down to thinking on their feet and trying to use that situation to their advantage.
“I’m still high up on GC, so if Tadej lets me go, then Jumbo have to chase,” he pointed out, “and this can work in our favour.
“Today was a little bit unexpected, but these little things add up over three weeks, so we’ll keep trying and hopefully in Paris, we’ll have the yellow.”
He denied that he was producing some of the best climbing performances of his career, rather that the key difference in this year’s Tour was “I’m more consistent”. His response, in any case, of "Fuck, yeah", when it was pointed out to him that Monday was a rest day, made it very clear that some respite from high mountain racing would be more than welcome.
For UAE team management, after Yates’ brief moment in the limelight, their race remains very much centred on Pogačar and pulling back the 10-second gap between yellow jersey Vingegaard and the Slovenian.
“They are both very strong riders, and today we tried another tactic with Adam, to see what happened if he went for it," Fernandez Matxin told reporters afterwards.
“The idea was to see if Tadej could then get across and they could make a gap together. We were interested in Adam getting time on GC, but the priority remains the yellow.
“We are totally confident in Tadej, the whole team is at an amazing level, and we will keep trying and fighting. We’re not settling for second, that’s for sure.”
