PROFESSIONALS | 06/17/2024 | 08:24
by Giorgia Monguzzi
Adam Yates is the king of the Tour de Suisse: yesterday in Villars Sur Ollon put the icing on the cake in a magical week for UAE Team Emirates which dominated the last 4 days. Yet only in the penultimate stage did the Briton who had won alongside Joao Almeida turn the odds for the final success over his teammate. On the eve of the final time trial of just over 15km, there were 31″ between them, too many to take the victory away from Adam Yates.
«This week of the Tour de Suisse was very beautiful, but also very hard – explained Adam Yates immediately after the awards ceremony -: I must admit that even yesterday morning at the start I was convinced that Joao Almeida would win the overall, he is stronger than me in the time trial and I believed that the initial kilometers on flat ground would make the difference. The only way to keep the leader’s jersey was to win the challenge against myself and so I did. For all 16 kilometers of the time trial I remained focused thinking about giving everything in the final climb, we had already tackled it on Saturday so I knew it and I knew well where I could push. As soon as I crossed the finish line I threw myself on the ground, I was destroyed and I was surprised that I only lost 8”. I leave this week in Switzerland satisfied and grateful with my team, Uae was crazy, together we brought home 4 victories. It was a great race and I’m very happy to have been able to share the podium with Almeida who is a very strong guy.»
For Adam Yates, however, there is little time to celebrate, the Tour is approaching and in the French stage race and as the Briton himself explains to us, it will be essential to have an excellent state of form to be alongside Tadej Pogacar who will attempt the Giro – Tour combination. «At the Tour d France I will be fully supporting Tadej Pogacar, my role will be to set the pace uphill and prepare the ground for his attack. We present ourselves with a very strong team that will certainly make the difference, besides me there will be Joao Almeida who is in incredible form and also Joao Ayuso who is recovering from the Tour of the Dauphiné.”
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