Adam Yates goes into the final stage of the UAE Tour on Sunday hoping that he can turn the tables on a difficult start to the race on Jabel Hafeet, the same climb where in 2020 he effectively won UAE outright.
In 2020, Yates gained over a minute on future UAE teammate Tadej Pogačar on the first ascent of Jebel Hafeet, moving into the lead, and then ran third on the race’s second summit finish on the same climb a few days later.
The race was then suspended because of COVID-19, but Yates' superiority in the mountains was already beyond doubt.
Currently lying tenth overall after stage 6, where he safely crossed the line in 68th place, after losing time in the opening crosswinds stage, Yates remains a distant but distinct threat on GC. Indeed, race leader Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) told reporters earlier this week he doesn’t rule out a major attack by Yates on the 10-kilometre Jebel Hafeet.
The Briton was in a quietly defiant mood before the stage 6 start, saying that he will push for the best result possible and that, as he repeatedly said, at this point in the game, he has “nothing to lose.”
“It’s a climb that suits me a lot more than Jebel Jais, which is quite steady and regular, but Jebel Hafeet is a very different beast, eight percent at 10 kilometres, so that’s a proper climb.
“It’s suited me in the past, we’re a little bit far down on GC, but we’ve got nothing to lose, so we’ll give it our best and see what happens.”
Taking part in his first event of 2023, Yates says he has a bigger appreciation of his racing condition and that “I’m in good shape. It’s never easy to do that, but somehow I always manage to come here and at least be up fighting and be in contention.”
“There are not many stages that suit me in this race, Jebel Jais is not the perfect climb for me, but even there, I was second in the sprint [behind Evenepoel] the other day, so I’ve got a good chance for tomorrow. We’ll see."
As for Evenepoel’s comments that Yates could still blow the race apart despite being 1:14 down, Yates' response is measured, but he does not appear to be ruling anything out.
“As I said, I’ve got nothing to lose, and the team’s motivated, and as we said from the very beginning, we came here to win,” Yates concluded.
“We’ve lost a bit of time on the first stage and a little bit here and there, so maybe it’s going to be pretty tricky to win. But in the end, we’ve got nothing to lose, and we’ll try.”
After winning their ‘home’ race outright in 2021 and 2022 with Tadej Pogačar, who opted to race in Andalucia rather than the Middle East this February, UAE Team Emirates have already gone some way to restoring any dents in their morale with a fine bunch sprint win for Juan Sebastian Molano in Dubai Bay on stage 4.
And even if claiming the overall looks hard, fighting for a second stage win on the race’s most emblematic climb - be it with Yates, Brandon McNulty or another option - would certainly be a fine way for the home team to round off the race.
