ORTISEI, Italy (VN) — The pressure is on, but Adam Yates, 24, keeps pulling tricks out of his bag.
The Brit stuck with the Giro d’Italia’s top stars Thursday, fell behind, returned and attacked. The 137-kilometer stage 18 through the Dolomites challenged him, but he prevailed with a 12th place in Ortisei and enough time to move into the white jersey as best young rider.
“I mean it’s only my second time riding GC, there’s not loads of pressure from the team, but there’s quite a lot of pressure on myself to pull something out of the bag,” Yates said, dressed in white with the bill of his blue Orica-Scott team cap flipped up.
Yates, twin brother and teammate with Simon Yates, moved up two spots overall. He sits 7:06 behind leader Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) and 28 seconds ahead of Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) in the youth classification.
Much of Yates’s lost time came when he and others, including Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) and Sky’s Geraint Thomas and Mikel Landa, fell due to a parked police motorbike in stage 9 to Blockhaus.
“I’m up there,” added Yates. “I lost quite a lot of time on the day I crashed. We’re losing bits of time here and there, but in general we’re in a good position so all good.”
“He may not be the strongest rider, but if he didn’t crash in Blockhaus, lose four minutes, then for sure he would’ve been in better position,” said teammate Rubén Plaza. “He could’ve won the Giro without the crash? I don’t know, it’s hard to win a grand tour, so it’s hard to say. But he can win these races in the future.”
Plaza dedicated himself to Yates in Thursday’s stage. He made the escape and when he heard his team needed him, he dropped back to the GC group on the Gardena climb midway through the stage.
The duo attacked on the descent with Nairo Quintana (Movistar). Plaza wanted to “turn the race on its head” to see what Yates could do. Yates lost ground on the climb into Ortisei, but regained his strength and powered back.
The ride may not come as a surprise. Yates held second place behind Chris Froome (Sky) in the Tour de France. He managed himself through his second French grand tour, recovered when a one-kilometer inflatable arch fell on him. He placed fourth overall and took won the white jersey.
“He’s a young rider but he has the mentality of an experienced rider,” Plaza said. “He has clear ideas what he wants, and that’s good to ride with someone like that. I work much for him, but he’s appreciative.”
Yates will need to distance Jungels as much as possible over the next two mountain days to Piancavallo and Asiago. In the Luxembourger’s favor, the race ends with a 29.3-kilometer time trial.
“He’s [Jungels] shown that he’s climbed really well. It’s only today where I put quite a bit of time in to him,” Yates said. “In general it’s not really about white it’s about trying to move up the GC in general.
“He’s [Jungels] pretty good. How much time needed? A fair bit — I don’t want to put a number on it, but I definitely need to take some more time.”
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