Spanish gold
Yates closes in on historic Vuelta victory
Simon Yates said he was doing his best to stay calm but admitted he was “feeling good” as he closed in on his first grand tour win.
The Bury-born rider is one stage from making history after a dominant performance in the penultimate mountain test of this year’s Vuelta a Espana.
Yates is seeking to become only the second Briton to win the Tour of Spain, after Chris Froome’s victory last year. A win for Yates would also mean Britons had won the past five grand tours, including all three in 2018 with different riders, something no other country has ever done.
Yates was imperious on stage 19 in his adopted home of Andorra yesterday, swatting aside a concerted day-long attack by rivals Movistar to finish second on the summit finish on the Col de la Rabassa to end the day 1min 38sec up on Alejandro Valverde. He now just needs to mark his rival in today’s final mountain test, again in Andorra, to assure himself of a triumphant ride into Madrid tomorrow.
That will be easier said than done. At just 97kilometres, today’s stage from Escaldes-engordany to the climb of La Gallina may be short, but it packs a nasty punch with more than 4,000m of vertical ascent. Yates will feel confident, though, after his dominant performance yesterday.
The 26-year-old began the stage from Lleida with a mere 25-second lead over Valverde. But he ended it looking like the champion-elect.
Movistar had worked hard all day to unsettle him, attacking in crosswinds in the valley preceding the final climb, and driving the pace on the front of the peloton, trying to set Valverde up for a final assault.
But Yates and his Australian team, Mitchelton-scott, were more than a match. Valverde’s Movistar team-mate Nairo Quintana – sixth on general classification at the start of the day – attacked as expected early on the final 16km climb to the Col de la Rabassa, taking a couple of riders with him.
Quintana, though, looks a shadow of the rider who won the Vuelta two years ago and, after Yates decided to take matters into his own hands with 10½km remaining by bridging to the front group himself with almost indecent ease, Quintana was swiftly dropped.
Yates, riding with Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Steven Kruijswijk (Lottonl-jumbo), then proceeded to drive the pace on the front as Valverde toiled in the chase group.
“I felt good,” Yates said of his tactics. “I felt good myself which is why I tried. And the team did a fantastic job again. Jack Haig did a good ride to really set me up before I went away and [twin brother] Adam was behind in case I came back. We did a fantastic job.”
Pinot, who worked with Yates to increase the gap to the chase group, dropping even Kruijswijk, eventually won the stage, claiming his second summit-finish win of the race.
But Yates was happy to let the Frenchman win, crossing the line second, five seconds behind, to bank six useful bonus seconds.
Valverde was more than a minute further back, having lost contact with even the chase group.
Yates lost the Giro d’italia in May, having led the race with three days to go, but he looks far less fatigued now, having ridden conservatively for the most part in this Vuelta.
“I have to thank Thibaut for helping me in the final,” he said. “He could have sat on and not helped.
“There is only one more day to go, we really need to focus now. I know only too well in one day everything can change so we will try to recover and give it everything to try to win the race. It is not over until it is over.”