When Adam Yates was asked at the UAE Tour pre-race press conference on Sunday if he remembered the last time he’d done a team time trial, you could almost hear him scratching his head as he tried hard to recollect the occasion.
“That’s a good question, my friend,” he said, before giving up on the answer. “I really don’t remember. But I do know I’ve won one, back in 2019 in Tirreno-Adriatico.”
But for all Yates’ uncertainty with his TTT participation record – on checking, his last was in the 2019 Tour de France – it turns out the UAE Tour contender’s recollection of a TTT victory four years ago was spot on. And he knows exactly what his tactic will be on Tuesday’s key 17.2km exercise in the speciality, too.
“Normally the time differences aren’t so big [in an individual time trial] but in this case, it could make the difference between winning and losing outright,” Yates told a small group of reporters.”
“But it’s not so easy for me, because I’m 10 kilos lighter than the next person. So I’ll just try and hold the wheel of the other guys and hopefully, I’ll stay with them to the finish.”
The TTT speciality accentuated the challenges of a lightly built climber racing against the clock, he explained, because “If it was an individual time trial, it’d be a little bit easier for me, I’d just put my head down and go as aero as possible.”
“But in a team time trial, it could be really difficult. So I’ll just try and keep my speed up to the speed that the other guys set, and” – he says with typically dour humour – “try and keep out of the way.”
Heading the home side UAE Team Emirates in one of their biggest two stage races of the season - together with the Tour de France - in his first race with his new team sounds like a major challenge. But if anybody has the track record to go the distance in 2023, it’s Adam Yates.
“The last three years I’ve been really good here, the first year I won and the next two I came second to arguably the best bike rider in the world” - teammate Tadej Pogačar - “so that gives me a lot of confidence. Obviously, he’s not here this year, but there are a lot of good bike riders here and it’s not going to be easy. So we’ll try our best.”
Asked to compare his condition with when he had his last meet-up with the press back in the UAE training camp in Spain in December, Yates says his winter has been good, and that, he says with a grin, “I’m definitely a lot fitter than I was back then.”
In terms of winter training, “There’s no point in changing it if it works, so I just kept on following the same blueprint. Training and racing are very different but hopefully, I’ll have the legs.”
Prior to the two summit finishes and the TTT, Yates points to the opening stage as a potential GC challenge as the course is so open and exposed, “the most of all the flat stages all week.” As a result, crosswinds could have a serious impact, particularly on the last 18km loop running partly along the coast.
“For sure tomorrow [Monday] is probably the windiest stage of all. But everybody’s got a lot of power in our squad, so we’ll just try and stick together as best we can,” Yates said.
Certainly, if Yates is able to “stay out of the way and stay on the wheels,” on Tuesday’s team time trial, UAE are one of the top favourites for victory on the day.
Riders like former Junior World TT Champion Brandon McNulty, recently crowned Australian national TT champion Jay Vine and three times U-23 World TT Champion Mikkel Berg are all deeply talented racers against the clock. While it’s too much to say that Tadej Pogačar’s absence may not even be noticed given his track record in the UAE Tour, his teammates certainly look like they could be making the running.
“Tadej is the number one in the world, but we have a powerful team, riders who can try to win as well,” Team Principal Mauro Gianetti commented to reporters.
“For us it was important to give Tadej a chance to change his program, and that’s why we decided to give him a quiet spring, but now…” he concluded with a grin, given Pogačar has just won five times in less than a week. “But in any case, we are here with Jay Vine, with Adam, with Marc Soler, with Brandon. We have a very good team.”
Gianetti recognised with a slightly wicked smile that given the firepower the team has, “it could mean some interesting conversations in the team bus in the mornings. But it’s good to have this challenge inside the bus at every race, it’s good chemistry. It’s a good thing about our sport.”
“For Adam, this is a nice big opportunity in a race he likes a lot and it’s good to give him that. We are an ambitious team, and I think all of these riders, they like to have ambitions and they like to have pressure. It’s a combination of good emotions.”
However, for all UAE are going to be a major contender for a third straight win in their home race, Gianetti warned that, “We’re not alone in wanting to win, but it’s a tough race and there are a lot of good riders here.
“That first stage, the time trial, the crosswinds... this race maybe looks easy on TV – but it’s not. At any point, something can happen. This is one week of full-on concentration.”
