One of Tadej Pogačar's most important domestiques, Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), had a torrid day at the Tour de France on Wednesday as he struggled through illness to make the time cut, eventually fairly comfortably after some fears.
On a rapid day of racing, Yates was dropped early – and on the flat – with around 80km to go, as he just seemed unable to push the pace anymore.
He had not crashed, and it was later reported that he was sick, suffering from stomach problems on Tuesday. According to his teammate Pogačar, the British rider had felt better on Wednesday, but paid for riding the stage 16 TT through illness.
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Despite the finale of the stage being largely flat, the racing was very active and fast, which meant that as soon as Yates started drifting back, his gap started ballooning out, and he was more than 16 minutes down with still 20km to race – and no let-up in pace up front.
Eventually, teammate Tim Wellens dropped back to try and support him until the finish line, but there were points when Yates was struggling even to keep up with the Belgian. But having a teammate to shepherd him through was a clear help.
With a large gap and only getting further dropped, the question of whether Yates may be time cut from the race arose, especially with the pace of the stage only making the time cut shorter.
Mercifully, though, and certainly thanks to the help of Wellens, Yates managed to finish within the time cut, 26:36 down on stage winner Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and some 18 minutes down on the main part of the peloton. The day's time limit was 39:49.
Yellow jersey Pogačar finished safely in that main group, and explained what was ailing his left-hand man.
"Adam was sick yesterday – he felt like sick in in the morning and throughout the day, so he suffered like a dog yesterday. Today in the morning he looked much better. He was eating good and all, but when you have a bad day like him yesterday, then you pay the day later," Pogačar said.
"I hope that he didn't go too deep into the hole and that he will be better tomorrow."
Yates finished alongside Wellens and Anders Halland Johanessen (Uno-X Mobility), with Movistar's Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda the last rider to finish the stage, at 28:29.
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