Adam Yates
Based
From
Bury
Date of birth
07/08/1992
Team
Team Ineos Grenadiers
Adam and twin brother Simon were selected for the Great Britain Cycling Team’s men’s road race team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Adam’s second appearance at a Games after riding the road race at Rio 2016. Currently riding for UCI WorldTeam UAE Emirates.
Yates had announced his arrival as a major force in the world of professional road racing in 2016, when he finished fourth overall at the Tour de France, holding a podium place for much of the three-week Grand Tour and winning the young rider classification by over two minutes. That performance was the highlight of a successful six-year period Yates spent with the Australian-based Orica-GreenEDGE team.
Among his most eye-catching results were further top ten Grand Tour finishes at the Tour de France in 2020 (9th) and the 2017 Giro d’Italia (9th), second place finishes at the major stage races Tirreno-Adriatico, Volta a Catalunya and Criterium du Dauphine, plus a win on general classification at the 2021 Volta a Catalunya, riding for Ineos Grenadiers.
In 2023 Adam spent 5 stages in the yellow jersey after winning on stage 1, beating his brother Simon to the line.
Career in numbers
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Biography
Yates was introduced to the sport by his cycling father John who took Adam and twin brother Simon to Manchester Velodrome to ride with his club Bury Clarion as youngsters. The pair quickly improved, with Clarion and local junior track team Eastlands Velo, before Adam took the decision to pursue a professional road career in France, helped by support from the Dave Rayner Fund.
After two years with the UVCA Troyes amateur team and a further one with CC Etupes, Yates enjoyed his first breakout performance at the 2013 Tour de l’Avenir, riding for a Great Britain team, in which he finished second on general classification, just 55 seconds behind Ruben Fernandez of Spain. His performances on the French amateur scene earned him his first professional contract, along with brother Simon, with Orica GreenEDGE for 2014 with the youngster finishing 11th overall and winning the young rider classification on his professional debut, at the Tour de San Luis in Argentina.
In a busy spring schedule, Yates recorded a stunning victory at the Tour of Turkey, a stage race for which he and his brother had been designated as the team’s protected riders for general classification. Simon crashed out of the race on stage three, a day on which Adam finished second and moved up to second on general classification, and a stunning victory on a mountain day on stage 6 moved Adam into a race lead he held until the final stage in Istanbul.
A fifth place overall at the Tour of California and sixth at the Criterium du Dauphine was followed by his first professional one-day victory at the GP Industria & Artigianato in Italy. Having been rested for the Tour de France by his team, Yates was still able to make his Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta where he finished the Spanish race 82nd overall.
Strong performances at Tirreno-Adriatico and the Criterium du Dauphine earned Yates his first Tour de France call-up in 2015, finishing in the top ten on two mountain stages and 50th overall before he took his biggest victory to date, beating a strong field at the Clasica de San Sebastian.
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A deflating experience
It appeared that Yates was about to make his mark on the Tour de France and that duly came in 2016. Yates was involved in a bizarre accident at the end of stage 7 when, having broken clear of the group of main contenders, the inflatable “Flamme rouge,” used to mark the one kilometre to go line, collapsed on him. Organisers allowed Yates to keep the advantage he had held over the group at that point, moving him into second place on general classification.
Yates held a podium place for 11 days, only dropping into fourth on stage 19 and eventually ending the race in that position, just 21 seconds behind third-placed Nairo Quintana. Yates had the considerable consolation of winning the young rider competition by well over two minutes. Given his form, Yates was an obvious choice for the Great Britain team at the Rio Olympics where he finished 15th in the road race in support of Chris Froome.
The 2017 season started with another victory at the GP Industria & Artigianato as Yates prepared for a summer which would feature both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta Grand Tours as part of his race programme. In Italy, Yates was the first British finisher, in ninth overall, and was only edged out of victory in the young rider classification by Bobby Jungels on the final stage, a time trial.
The Vuelta saw Yates finish 34th before he rode impressively at the Milano-Torino one-day race, coming second to winner Rigoberto Uran. Yates started the 2018 season, in which he would lead his team – now called Mitchelton-Scott – in impressive fashion, finishing in the top five overall at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour of California and the Criterium du Dauphine, where he was second.
There were also stage victories at Tirreno-Adriatico and Dauphine for the British climber although the closest he could come to a stage win at the Tour de France was on stage 16 where he crashed while in the lead on the final descent and was overtaken by Julian Alaphilippe, coming home third on that stage on his way to finishing 29th overall.
Top ten Tour
Yates also completed another Vuelta in 2018 before starting a 2019 season that would again be focused around the Tour de France. Early signs were good, with stage wins at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and Tirreno-Adriatico, where he also finished second on general classification, only losing the lead to Primo Roglic by one second on the final stage individual time trial.
Further stage wins at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and Itzulia Basque Country were followed by an impressive fourth at the Liege-Bastogne-Liege Classic. Team leader at the Tour de France, where he was supported by his brother, Adam repeated his 29th place finish from the year before and ended his season with overall victory at the CRO Race, in Croatia, which included a stage win, and third at Milano-Torino.
A 2020 season that would eventually be disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic opened with a stage win and overall victory at the UAE Tour before the season finally got underway in late summer at the Criterium du Dauphine. By the Tour de France, in late August, Yates started the race strongly, with a third place on stage 2 in Nice moving him to second overall before he took the yellow jersey on stage 5 into Privas. Yates held the yellow jersey until stage 9, where he came in nearly a minute behind winner Tadej Pogacar, but he remained in the top 10 for the remainder of the race, eventually finishing ninth – his second-best finish ever on the race.
For the 2021 season, Yates moved to Ineos Grenadiers and, after coming second at the UAE Tour stage race, won the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, winning stage 3 and leading home team-mates Richie Porte and Thomas as his team enjoyed a clean sweep of all three podium places. For once, Yates’s season would not centre on the Tour de France, however, with his team confirming that he would lead them at the Vuelta in Spain after his appearance at the Olympics.
Palmarès
| 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Volta Ciclista a Catalunya | general classification | 1st |
| Volta Ciclista a Catalunya stage 3 | 1st | |
| UAE Tour general classification | 2nd | |
| 2020 | ||
| UAE Tour | general classification | 1st |
| UAE Tour stage 3 | 1st | |
| 2019 | ||
| Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana stage 4 | 1st | |
| Tirreno-Adriatico | general classification | 2nd |
| Tirreno-Adriatico stage 1 | (team time trial) | 1st |
| Volta Ciclista a Catalunya | general classification | 2nd |
| Volta Ciclista a Catalunya stage 3 | 1st | |
| Itzulia Basque Country | mountains classification | 1st |
| Itzulia Basque Country stage 6 | 1st | |
| CRO Race | general classification | 1st |
| CRO Race | mountains classification | 1st |
| CRO Race stage 5 | 1st | |
| 2018 | ||
| Tirreno-Adriatico stage 5 | 1st | |
| Criterium du Dauphine | general classification | 2nd |
| Criterium du Dauphine stage 7 | 1st | |
| 2017 | ||
| GP Industria & Artigianatio | 1st | |
| 2016 | ||
| Tour de France | youth classification | 1st |
| 2015 | ||
| Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian | 1st | |
| Tour of Alberta | youth classification | 1st |
| 2014 | ||
| Tour de San Luis | youth classification | 1sr |
| Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey | general classification | 1st |
| Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey stage 6 | 1st | |
| GP Industria & Artigianatio | 1st | |
| 2013 | ||
| Tour de l’Avenir | general classification | 2nd |
