Adam Yates is putting a brave face on his latest spell of misfortune in the Volta a Catalunya after his bad crash on stage 1, and the Briton says he hopes he can fight back on the two remaining major mountain stages.
Yates is currently lying 82nd overall after hitting at high speed late on Monday’s opening stage, suffering abrasions across his body and losing over ten minutes to the other GC contenders, but then finishing an encouraging – given the circumstances – fifth place at Vallter summit finish on Tuesday.
Speaking to Cyclingpro.net and other reporters at Wednesday morning’s stage 3 start, Yates pointed out that he still has two UAE teammates well-placed overall, with Joao Almeida currently running fifth and Marc Soler in tenth.
But he did not rule out his own chances either for the two big mountain stages which remain, pointing out that “as I’m off GC, maybe if I attack they won’t chase me.”
The UAE Team Emirates racer’s relationship with the Volta a Catalunya has been a wildly uneven one, with Monday’s setback and Tuesday’s more encouraging result at Vallter just the latest episodes.
In 2018, Yates crashed out with a broken pelvis on a stage that was supposed to finish at Vallter but which was reduced in length due to bad weather in the Pyrenees.
However, Yates subsequently won on the same climb of Vallter twice, in 2019 and again in 2021 when he won the Volta a Catalunya outright.
Yates has also had a rollercoaster season start to 2023, which kicked off with his losing nearly all hope of GC success in the UAE Tour when he lost time to Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) in echelons on stage 1. However his fortune improved considerably by the end of the race with a victory on Jebel Hafeet summit finish pushing him back into third place overall.
Referring to his serial swings of fate, Yates said that he felt that “for my whole career, I feel like I’ve had a lot of bad luck, so we’ll keep plugging away and hopefully one day I’ll get some good luck.”
“Obviously I’m off GC, but we still have Joao and Marc up there on the classification.”
Today’s 180 kilometre stage to La Molina, one of the Volta’s most frequently visited summit finishes and a notoriously tricky climb to handle with multiple changes of gradient and even a lengthy spell of downhill half way up, could offer Yates a chance to bounce back.
As the Briton pointed out, the stage finale itself on Wednesday is not so tricky, but with two first category climbs,…
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