Adam Yates to join twin Simon Yates at Vuelta a Espana for Mitchelton-SCOTT

A change in programs will see Adam Yates line up next to twin Simon Yates for Mitchelton-SCOTT at the Vuelta a Espana later this month.

Whilst the final Grand Tour of the season was an identified target for Simon, Adam’s inclusion was a decision of recent weeks and one with a long-term focus.

“We discussed post Tour de France the idea to race Adam as well,” sport director Julian Dean said. “Obviously the Tour de France wasn’t what we’d hoped for Adam, but what it did highlight is that there are some things to work on, with him but also for the whole team in general.”

“The idea is to continue the development of Adam and Simon by taking them both to the Vuelta, giving them another Grand Tour experience and trying to target the areas that we haven't got right, including getting some consistency across the three weeks.”

The pair, who recently extended their contracts with the Australian WorldTour team for another two years, will have different roles at the three-week race but one key performance indicator - progression.

“The objective still stays the same,” Dean said. “Simon will be our designated leader and Adam will be going purely in a support role of Simon in the big picture.”

“We want to get them through the first week as well as possible and look at the back end of the race; the stages in Asturias and Andorra are really going to be where the results are made.

“Obviously we'd still like to aim for a podium at the Vuelta. That would be a great outcome for us, but if we look back at the past Grand Tours we’ve done these last two years, we’ve got some work to do and our overall objective is to make a good progression throughout the whole race.

“Our key performance indicator will be that we have come into the key period and Simon is able to maintain or if not gain position in those last ten days, whether that be from 15th to eighth or eighth to fifth. As long as we get that progression, that’s really what we are aiming for.

“I think if we do that, the results will come for themselves, it’s just a matter of being patient and learning from what we have done in the past couple of years.”

Adam Yates:

“The Vuelta a Espana wasn’t originally on my program but together with the management we came to the decision that doing the Vuelta after the Tour would be another good chance to get some experience in riding multiple Grand Tours in one year.

“It’s pretty difficult to replicate the fatigue of a Grand Tour in training so the opportunity of riding the Vuelta without the stress of riding GC will be a good step towards gaining more experience not just in racing over three weeks but also in following all the routines and day-to-day stuff that goes on in a Grand Tour.

“So far the recovery after the Tour has been going really well and things are looking good. I took a few days away from the bike and since then I’ve been slowly getting back into the routine.”

Simon Yates:

“I’m looking forward to racing the Vuelta this year. I have been slowly building towards this for the second part of the year and I hope to arrive in great shape. At Poland last week I was getting better with each stage so I’m looking forward to starting.”

“My preparation has been very different to the Giro d’Italia because like a few guys that will line up in Spain, I have one eye on the world championships later this year so it will be interesting to see how my body responses but as always I’ll give it my all to achieve a great result.”

Photo courtesy of Kristof Ramon.