PLANCHER-LES-MINES, France (AFP) — Simon Yates rode into the Tour de France young rider’s white jersey on Wednesday and then set his sights on emulating twin brother Adam.
Last year, Adam Yates won the white jersey after he ended a stunning Tour performance in fourth overall.
And this year, after the first mountaintop finish, Simon Yates took that same jersey after a sixth-place finish behind stage five winner Fabio Aru (Astana) moved the Briton up to sixth overall.
Frenchman Pierre Latour (Ag2r La Mondiale) is now second place in the young riders classification, 24 seconds behind. Another strong climber, Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) is third, 41 seconds behind.
“Of course there’s a lot of strong guys still not really that far behind me so it’s going to be difficult to try to keep a hold of it [the white jersey], but I’ll give it my best shot,” said Orica-Scott’s Yates, who took an impressive sixth place at last year’s Vuelta a España and was second to Australian Richie Porte at the Tour of Romandie earlier this year.
His brother Adam isn’t riding the Tour this year having finished ninth at May’s Giro d’Italia.
But if Simon Yates, 24, is to keep hold of the white jersey all the way to Paris, he says he will need to be careful on the flat or transitional hilly stages.
“I have to be cautious. Always on the front foot. Never try to get caught out,” he added. “There’s a lot of intermediate stages, maybe some wind and I’m only a small guy, so it’s difficult for me to be there with the big guys fighting it out in the crosswinds or whatever.”
But having showed on Wednesday he has good climbing legs, Yates should be able to stick with the overall contenders in the mountains. The climbing continues in stages 8 and 9, Saturday and Sunday. The latter stage is fearsome, with seven categorized climbs.
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