UAE Team Emirates leader to return to Italian Grand Tour after eight-year absence
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) won the 2024 Tour of Oman(Image credit: Getty Images)
When Adam Yates was asked what has changed for him, performance-wise, between his time at Ineos Grenadiers and UAE Team Emirates he takes about two milliseconds before answering: "Everything."
It's undeniable that the 32-year-old Grand Tour rider has moved into a new phase of his career at UAE Team Emirates. He is a key wing man for Tadej Pogačar but also claimed his first Tour de France podium in 2023 and in 204 he took six victories, his highest number for a single season. They included overall victory in the Tour de Suisse and a spectacular Vuelta a España stage from an ultra long-distance solo break through the mountains of Sierra Nevada.
Life is good for Yates at UAE Team Emirates but in 2025 he will shake the dust off the pages of a more distant chapter of his career, and return to the Giro d'Italia for the first time in eight years.
If Pogačar does not opt to defend his 2024 victory, as seems unlikely, Yates will have his own crack at the maglia rosa in the Italian Grand Tour, perhaps sharing leadership with Juan Ayuso.
"I would like to do the Giro for myself personally, I asked [UAE head sports director Joxean Fernández] Matxin if I could do it one more time because I've only done it one time in my career," Yates revealed at the UAE team training camp in Benidorm, Spain.
"I've been at a high level for the last two years, and I said to him: 'I don't know how many years I can keep going at this level. So I need to go back and try one more time, and see what I can do.'"
"I also think I've reached another level, not just in performances but also in my consistency. And when you have this kind of level it's logical you can target some big races."
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The big caveat at the moment Yates about racing for pink next May is that Pogačar has not yet decided if he'll go for the Giro again or the Vuelta.
Yates quickly makes it clear that if Pogačar does opt to go again for the Giro-Tour combination in 2025, then he'll be more than happy to help the Slovenian with what could be the first 'double-double' since Miguel Indurain won both Giro and Tour in 1992 and 1993.
Yet as things stand, the most likely scenario is that Yates will be co-leading the UAE effort to win the Giro d'Italia for a second season running with Ayuso, a rider ten years his junior. Pogačar would target the Tour de France, with Yates more than likely to be by his side for a third time. Pogačar is likely to then go on and target Vuelta a España, while Yates enjoys a lighter programme.
Yates has no problem fighting for the overall victory in Italy alongside the young Spanish rider.
"We've seen in the past that it makes sense. If we have more than one guy, I don't think it matters who's leading, or co-leading as long as we don't make any mistakes and we try to perform at a high level," Yates said.
In terms of deciding who races where, in any case, "It's not up to me, is it? It's up to Matxin. He's the magician with the calendar, so for him, it's not an easy job.
"But I think in the last two seasons we've done very well, we've won a lot of races, and even if we've not won, we've been up there fighting with one or two guys."
"It's not an easy environment to be in, but it's an environment where you grow as a rider, you try to push yourself. You try to be the best you can be to perform and that's how it is."
Inspired by the 2017 Giro d'Italia
Adam Yates (Image credit: Getty Images)
Happily for Yates, if he casts a glance over his shoulder at 2024, he had a stellar year, where not even a bad fall at the UAE Tour and subsequent injuries could wreck his momentum. All the more reason to feel upbeat about 2025.
"It was a good season, I had six wins, my best total ever, that sounds like nothing compared to Tadej but it's actually quite nice for me. I started strongly in February but I managed to win in the Vuelta in late August too, and it's not easy to keep going all year."
"I had a nasty crash in UAE and it took me a long time to come back to a high level, but I managed it. And at the moment at least I've got no side effects from the crash, no problems and that's the main thing."
Looking back at 2024, his Vuelta stage win in Granada after a 58-kilometre solo break on a searingly hot day through some of the toughest mountains in Spain felt like a personal high point in his career, let alone his season.
Looking ahead and following his stage win in Bilbao in the 2023 Tour, that Vuelta victory now puts Yates in the privileged position of trying to complete the 'set' of stage victories in all three Grand Tours, starting next May.
While the Vuelta victory was a very special moment and a Giro stage win remains a target, it is GC rather than a day of glory that interests him the most in the first 2025 Grand Tour.
"I'm not really built for these long solos, especially in the heat, so when I crossed the finish line that day I was completely empty, and super-relieved I'd managed to pull it off," he said.
"At the time that was super-nice, but I don't think I can do it many times in my career because for a guy of my size, those long breaks are not easy. For sure, though, if there's an opportunity I'll take it."
"So I wouldn't pinpoint getting a stage in all three Grand Tours as a super- objective. I need to aim higher than that next May and if I'm in my best condition then I'll go for GC over stages. Hopefully, though, a stage will be up for grabs along the way."
The idea of Yates fighting for GC never disappeared entirely during his time at Orica and then at Ineos. But when asked what has changed for him since leaving the British team in December 2022, his answer - "Everything" - reveals how different a place he finds himself in now.
"Sport also changed at this point," he adds. "Nutrition, training there's more focus on everything, even equipment, everything's more dialled in, there's a lot more focus on the little things, so - everything I guess."
Nor is it only the racing environment and his team that's different. Yates himself is now past the 'frontier' of 30, and as he says with a wry grin
"People keep saying I'm starting to look older, my hair's starting to get grey."
He insists that the motivation remains as high as ever, witness his determination to make inroads on next year's Giro d'Italia GC.
"It's getting tricky, I'm getting older and older, so it's getting harder and harder to be at this level. But I still feel young, I still feel like I have something to give every year."
"It's just little things now, I know my body, I know how it works, I know when I'm tired. So it's just tweaking things here and there to try and help."
The benefits of moving from Ineos Grenadiers to UAE Team Emirates
2023 Tour de France: the final podium (l-r)- Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, Adam Yates (Image credit: Getty Images)
Moving from Ineos to UAE in 2023 has clearly benefitted Yates, but it's logically been even longer since he left Orica-GreenEdge, a move his twin brother Simon is now set to follow after 11 seasons, moving from the Australian WorldTour team to Visma-Lease a Bike for a similar support and leadership role to Adam's at UAE.
While the odds of the two Yates brothers going head to head for their respective leaders of the climbs the Tour de France is a fascinating one, come what may Adam remains very close to Simon personally. The two are in contact every day and he says simply about his brother's decision that "I'm super-happy for him."
"He's been in the same team for his whole career. I've changed teams twice and it's not easy to always perform straightaway, so it's a big change for him. But I'm happy for him. As long as he keeps his focus, I'm sure he'll have a good season.
While it's all change for Simon, Adam Yates though, is looking increasingly settled with his own UAE squad, and at 32, the options of re-signing his contract for 2026 a year hence remain intact.
"Obviously, I'm performing well here, I get on with everybody and I'm enjoying it here so logically I would stay. But it depends on if they still want me or not. We'll think about that down the line."
That question in turns leads naturally into how long Yates thinks he can stay in the racing game as a whole. But he is, it seems, barely beginning to seriously consider retirement, even as a mid-term option.
"If you're at a high level and you're motivated, and you feel young you can keep going forever, can't you?" he asks rhetorically.
"Of course, there may come a point where you're not enjoying it so much and you're getting your head kicked in, and maybe you'd start thinking about shutting it down."
"But for now I feel young and ready to go, so I'm not crossing anything out."
At the 2025 Giro d'Italia next May, that could well mean he'll be going for the best possible outcome of them all.
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
