British Tour de France rider leads Orica-Bike Exchange
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Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange) continues as best young rider(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Orica-BikeExchange's Adam Yates was a revelation of the Tour, winning the best young rider jersey and finishing fourth overall(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The four classification winners on the Paris podium: Peter Sagan, Chris Froome, Adam Yates and Rafal Majka(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Podium kisses for Clasica San Sebastian winner Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEdge)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The British fans cheer on Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The Orica-Bike Exchange team will target a second consecutive victory at the Clasica a San Sebastian with Adam and Simon Yates leading the Australian team with strong support from Michael Albasini and Daryl Impey.
Adam Yates won the Spanish WorldTour race last year with a late solo attack after chaos on the final lead to a race motorbike taking down Greg Van Avermaet (BMC). Yates finished fourth overall and won the best young rider’s jersey at the Tour de France. He may be tired after an intense three weeks but will use the Spanish race as a final test before travelling to Rio to ride the Olympic road race as part of the Great Britain team.
Simon Yates secured his first professional victory at the tough Spanish one-day race Prueba Villafranca-Ordiziako Klasika with a solo attack on the final climb. The Basque based Orica-GreenEdge sport director Neil Stephens hopes the brothers can give the Australian team a second success on Saturday.
“One of the hardest things in cycling is winning but, one thing [that is] even harder is coming back to try and win a second time. We have a difficult task ahead of us but we will be looking for another good result on Saturday,” Stephens in a press release from the team.
“Half of the squad are coming into the team after three hard weeks of racing at the Tour de France and obviously there will be some tired legs out there. Nevertheless we have a strong and versatile line up and we are highly motivated to try and place Adam and Simon in the best possible positions throughout the race.
“They’re both on good form right now and we are aiming for that to continue at the weekend. The change to the final climb may affect our chances a little, but we are ready to give it everything we’ve got to be competitive in the finale.”
The Clasica San Sebastian is a climbers Classic. The race starts overlooking the spectacular San Sebastian Conca bay and covers 220km in the hills. The finale of the 2016 race is slightly different to previous editions and includes a steep climb in the last 16kilometres, the Murgil Bidea.
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Completing the Orica-Bike Exchange line-up includes Luke Durbridge and Chris Juul Jensen, Canadian Christian Meier and local climber Amets Txurruka.
Cyclingnews will have full coverage of the Clasica San Sebastian on Saturday July 30.
