Yates aiming for Tour stages
Orica-scott’s young GC hopeful dreams of the yellow jersey — and of course, the accompanying soft toy...
imon Yates will go to the Tour de France this year with bigger expectations than ever before. Following his brother’s white jersey-winning ride last year and his own impressive ride at the Vuelta a España that netted him a stage win and sixth place on GC, hopes are high of further glory for Yates and his Orica-scott team.
Cycling Weekly sat down with him after stage five of the Critérium du Dauphiné earlier this month to quiz him on what he’s expecting from his first outing as a GC contender at the Tour.
It's only June and you’ve already scored your most wins in a season. What do you attribute that improvement to? “Natural progression and growing up a bit. Not just physically but being experienced in races. Today, for example, we went over some roads from Paris-nice which we do almost every year and it makes a difference to know when to rest when the hard parts are coming, when to move up, when to sit back, and when to save some energy — it all makes a huge difference. I’m still only 24, so I’ve had some good years before, I just missed those wins. In 2015 I had multiple top-10s on GC but just not that win, so you can look at it both ways.”
How will the two-pronged attack with your team-mate Esteban Chaves work? “We worked really well in the Vuelta last year. We have a good relationship but at that time in the Vuelta I was unproven — it was my first time and I wanted to do a good GC but if I blew up it didn’t matter. This time we’re going with two guys we hope can go top-10 in the GC. That’s a huge advantage for us as a team because we’ve got two leaders who have proven they can be there and inside the top 10. Also, there are not too many TT kilometres, which plays into our hands because that’s pretty difficult for us small guys — they should have some weight classes or something!” Is your brother going to give you some stick if you’re not in the white jersey? “I get texts off him anyway always telling me I need to do something or giving me advice and I’m like ‘you should do the same!’ because he never does any of those things. There’s never any rivalry there, he only wishes me good luck. For sure, maybe he can give me some advice too, I’ve not asked for any yet though.
“I think the white jersey is really not a priority until the last few days, we just get as high on the GC as possible and then come the final week if I’ve lost five minutes to the guy in front of me and there’s still a fight for the white jersey then I’ll think about the white jersey.”
What do you think is key to a top-10 place? “Consistency. It’s an overused word but you can’t have bad days in the Tour any more, if you do you lose minutes, it’s not seconds any more. You’ve got to be good every day not just in the mountains or the TT, the flat stages and the crosswinds, but if we are having a slightly bad day the team is there to help us too. If there’s one thing that’s key it’s consistency.”
How many minutes do you think you’d need to feel confident of keeping your GC placing going into the Tour’s final TT? (Laughing) “Who’s behind me? I need about three minutes to be comfortable! Two minutes is the bare minimum.”
What happened to the cuddly cow you won at Paris-nice? “It’s in my room at the moment. I really want a lion [the former mascot of LCL bank handed to the Tour’s yellow jersey wearers]. These are the things I really like to get from races. Sometimes when I was a junior or whatever you’d always get the same trophy but now as pro… look at Tirreno-adriatico with the trident, imagine having that above the TV. It’d be sweet.”