The Mitchelton-Scott rider finished fourth overall and won the white jersey of best young rider in 2016 but endured a disappointing race last year, reaching Paris in 29th place overall. He later revealed to Cyclingnews that he and the Mitchelton-Scott team "messed up a little bit with nutritional stuff".
He is keen to put things right come July.
"I’m super excited to go back to the Tour this year. Last year we made some mistakes that cost us and it was a big disappointment, so it’ll be good to go back and rectify that," Yates said in a statement released by Mitchelton-Scott on Tuesday.
"Even though I’ve got earlier races/targets coming up, in the back of my mind everything I’m doing is build-up for the Tour."
Yates’ twin brother Simon, meanwhile, has already announced that he will ride the Giro d’Italia in 2019 and last week told Cyclingnews, "At this moment, the Tour isn't doing anything for me." Simon Yates led the Giro d'Italia for two weeks last year before losing pink on stage 19, but he returned to win the Vuelta a España in September.
Adam Yates has made a strong start to the 2019 season, winning a stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and placing fifth overall at Ruta del Sol. The Bury native is due to line out Tirreno-Adriatico and the Volta a Catalunya this month.
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"Already this year the team has been really committed in all aspects and it just goes to show because the results are flowing. Even though the Tour is a long way away at this moment in time and there’s a lot of races before we get there, it’s a good feeling to see the team working so well so early in the season,"Yates said.
"Obviously 2016 was a highlight for me personally, riding almost two weeks in the white jersey and eventually finishing fourth on general classification was an amazing experience and confirmed to myself that I can ride at the highest level for three weeks."
Repeating a breakthrough performance
Yates made his Tour de France debut in 2015, placing 50th overall, before winning the white jersey a year later. In 2017, he placed ninth at the Giro d’Italia, while his brother Simon emulated him as best young rider at the Tour.
"The challenge for any athlete is repeating a breakthrough performance," Mitchelton-Scott directeur sportif Matt White said.
"Adam showed in 2016 that he can mix it with the big boys at the Tour de France, he had a very solid Giro in 2017 and even though last year didn’t go as we had planned, we are heading back this year with ambitions of Adam challenging for a spot on the podium come July."
White believes that the route of the 2019 Tour is well-suited to Adam Yates’ characteristics, not least because of the sheer volume of climbing on the parcours. The race makes an early entry into the mountains in the Vosges on stage 5, while there is just one individual time trial, the 27km test around Pau on stage 13.
"It is an interesting course with limited time trial kilometres and some very high passes, which have not been seen before in the Tour de France," White said.
"I like the route and avoiding Western France makes that first week a little less tense. We are in the mountains quite early and with a team time trial day two we will certainly see the lay of the land quite early in proceedings."
