Not for the first time this year, the plan came together for Adam Yates. Once UAE Team Emirates took up the reins at the head of the race with three laps remaining, there was a certain inevitability about how the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal would play out.
Rafal Majka and Brandon McNulty’s efforts burned the peloton to the quick and quenched any late attacks before they could fully ignite. On the final ascent of the Côte Camillien-Houde, Yates took over, accelerating from the front group at a pace that only Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) could follow.
On an equally grey and damp afternoon in 2015, Yates lost this race from a strikingly similar situation, beaten in a two-up sprint by his future UAE teammate Tim Wellens. Eight years on, Yates would force a different outcome, as he overwhelmed another future teammate on the drag up the Avenue du Parc.
“We didn’t play any games, there was no time to play around,” Yates said on arriving in the press room in the basement of the nearby Mission Santa Cruz church. “I’ve been in that situation before with my now teammate Tim Wellens in 2015. It was the same then. You don’t really have time to play games or bluff. We both just went full gas to the finish.
“I went super fast on the climb and Pavel was still there. He obviously had super legs and good condition, so he was always a threat. I thought I could go a little quicker in the sprint, but I’m getting older and I’m not as quick as I used to be. Still, I managed to get him on the front in the last kilometre and I wound it up from there, so it was perfect.”
There was no time for the two escapees to talk during Sunday’s breathless finale, but one wonders if Sivakov had sought Yates’ counsel in recent months before agreeing to join him at UAE Team Emirates next season. The decision to swap Ineos for pastures new has certainly borne fruit for Yates, who has won the Tour de Romandie and placed third overall at the Tour de France in his maiden season at UAE Team Emirates.
Yates’ two-year stint at Ineos was hardly a bust – he won the 2021 Volta a Catalunya and placed fourth at that year’s Vuelta a España, after all – but his first campaign with UAE has been the finest of his career. Sunday was his fifth win of the year, equalling his previous best tally, but the quality of those victories and performances are arguably of a different calibre to what has come before.
“It’s not easy when you change teams to be at a super high level straight from the gun, so I’m super happy,” said Yates, who suggested the key difference between this year and previous campaigns was forward planning. “I think when the team sets out a plan and when you have something to focus on and really dial in, then it makes a big difference.
“When the team has a plan and they know what they want from you, it makes it easier to plan. It’s not just the racing schedule, but the training – when you go to altitude, when you do other things. I’m pretty organised when I’m at home, so it was perfect for me that the team knew already what they wanted from me.
“Even before I signed, when we were talking, that was the idea. They were clear on what they wanted from me and it’s working pretty well so far. Now in October, we’ll make the plan for next year and we’ll keep working and trying to win bike races together.”
Yates’ thoughts haven’t shifted to 2024 just yet, mind. After a Tour that yielded a stage win, a stint in yellow and a podium place, the 31-year-old proceeded to impress at the Vuelta a Burgos, and he will now try to carry that form as far as Il Lombardia next month, where he will line up alongside Pogacar.
“I’ve got some Italian races coming up so I’m looking forward to them,” Yates said. “It’s been a good season and it’s not over yet, so hopefully I can get one more win and make it my most successful season.”
