Team News: Yates Punctures in Basque Country

Britain’s Adam Yates (Michelton Scott) punctured out of contention on stage 2 of the Tour of the Basque Country (Itzulia Pais Vasco)

Team News: Yates Punctures in Basque Country

Britain’s Adam Yates (Michelton Scott) punctured out of contention on stage 2 of the Tour of the Basque Country (Itzulia Pais Vasco). Adam suffered an untimely puncture today during a tough second stage in Itzulia Pais Vasco, which subsequently saw him lose time overall, despite a huge effort from his Mitchelton-SCOTT teammates with their hard chase.

Local Basque rider Mikel Nieve was the highest finisher for the team in 20th place after maintaining his position in the front group, with the rest of the team sent back to help Yates in his attempt to return to the front of the race.

In the opening stages of the 149km day, three-riders jumped away to form the day’s breakaway, before shortly being joined by one other to make the front of the race four riders strong. The group rode out to over three minutes before the peloton picked up the chase, and made the catch as the riders began a series of gravel road sections inside 60kilometres to go. As predicted, with the nature of gravel roads and technical narrow, twisty sections, the peloton split into several groups but with Mitchelton-SCOTT always present at the front with numbers to their advantage.
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Things all looked to be going well until Yates suffered a puncture at a crucial moment, mid-way through the final gravel road, and despite a fairly fast wheel change from teammate Damien Howson, it proved to be the defining moment of the race for Yates and the team. Nieve remained in the front group and in contention as the rest of the team dropped back to help chase in an attempt to bring Yates back into contention.

However, occuring with less than 20kilometres to go and with a hard pace being set at the front by Team Sky and Astana Pro Team, Yates eventually finished the stage one minute and 11 seconds down on the eventual winner Julian Alaphillipe (Deceuninck-Quickstep).

Adam Yates: “I couldn’t have punctured at a worse moment. We rode well as a team all day, stayed in good position and out of trouble on the gravel sections but unfortunately all that can disappear when you have some bad luck. As of right now it’s a pretty frustrating situation but as a team we’re in good shape and motivated to do something. We just have to wait for an opportunity to present itself and then we will be going on the offensive.”