Yates on attack
SIMON YATES closed to within 10 seconds of the leader’s Red Jersey at the Vuelta a Espana after attacking late on in the fourth stage yesterday.
Mitchelton-Scott’s Yates burst clear of his general classification rivals with about 5.5km to go to the summit finish of Puerto de Alfacar. Although his break was not enough to overhaul the overall leader, Team Sky’s Michal Kwiatkowski, Yates did close the gap to sit third in the standings, behind the Pole and Bora-Hansgrohe’s Emanuel Buchmann.
“It wasn’t the plan [to attack], I just got carried away, but I felt good and I saw an opportunity there,” said Britain’s Yates.
“I don’t really know what I was doing. Maybe I was testing the other guys and thinking someone would come with me straight away, but that was that.
“I didn’t mean to [attack]. I’m not trying to be cocky or anything, it was just one of those things. And when I tried once, I got away.”
Dimension Data’s Ben King won the stage after being part of the breakaway group.
Today’s stage is a 188.7km hilly route from Granada to Roquetas de Mar. MARIE-JOSEE TA LOU, the Ivory Coast star who shares the world’s fastest 100m time this year of 10.85secs with Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, believes the era of Jamaican and American dominance is coming to an end.
Ta Lou, who races at the Diamond League Finals tomorrow in Zurich, said: “I can’t now say the Americans or Jamaicans are top. I’m very optimistic that with the top athletes in the world in the line-up, no one can say who’ll win.”