On a day that started so badly for UAE Team Emirates with the abandonment of Joao Almeida through Covid, Adam Yates returned both the smiles and the hopes of winning the Red Jersey to the team with a stunning stage 9 win at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana.
Having forced himself into the day's breakaway, Yates had teammates Marc Soler and Jay Vine rip things up on the climbs, before attacking solo himself with 58km still to go. Simply no one could match the Brit however, and with his stage win, he gain nearly 4 minutes on the Red Jersey group, moving back up to 7th overall thanks to his efforts.
"I have never suffered like this before! It was so hot out there and I mean, from the last climb I was just cramping," the UAE Team Emirates star tells reporters in his post-stage interview afterwards. "I've had a lot of bad luck over the years in Grand Tours and I really didn't know if I could make it, but I'm just so happy I could finally win another Grand Tour stage."
Visibly emotional, it was clear to see how much this success meant to Yates. "We did a super good team effort with Marc and Jay in the break and they set me up perfectly," he recaps of the stage. "It was just me and David Gaudu and I saw he was suffering in the heat so I knew I had to take the moment from then on it was just suffering, suffering all the way to the finish line."
"I honestly didn't give a shit about GC today, it was all about the stage," Yates concludes. "I just went full gas. We really had nothing to lose so yeah, I just suffered all the way to the line."
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