Adam Yates rejects World Championships presence, focuses on Il Lombardia

Adam Yates has returned to his best form late into the 2022 season, and he is still in time to bring himself a serious set of results. After the GP de Montréal however, he revealed he also chose not to take part of the World Championships, as have several other riders.

“I was sick for a long time, it almost feels like the whole season. Then I got COVID-19 at the Tour de Suisse and then got a different illness in the Tour. That was all really bad luck but that’s life and you have to get on with it," Yates told Velonews. The Briton started off his season strongly with a second place at the UAE Tour and a fourth at Paris-Nice, but was unable to back those results up for the rest of the spring. Following that, he abandoned the Tour de Suisse and fell ill in the final week of the Tour de France, bringing him down to ninth place in the final week after a long battle for the Top5. 

Now I’m not sick and the results are there and I’m up there fighting for the win. The condition is good," he confirms. "Now I just hope to take it back to Europe, to keep racing and to keep trying to win.”

After the Tour Yates returned to competition at the Deutschland Tour, where he had a commanding win on the race's queen stage and won the overall classification. He flew to Canada as the leader of INEOS Grenadiers for the two classics, and at the GP de Montréal he dealt serious damage, leading the winning group over the final hills, however not having the legs to sprint into better than fourth place at the line. The sensations are very good however, but Yates has decided to opt out of the Wollongong World Championships, instead to focus on the Italian Autumn Classics.

“I’ll do all the hilly ones and then finish my season with Il Lombardia. Unfortunately there are not too many races that suit me. They moved Milan-Turin to the spring and made it flat, so there’s the Giro dell’Emilia and Il Lombardia," he concluded.