"I feel sorry for Canal": Adam Yates wins Coppa Agostoni after intervention of mechanical gods

Coppa Agostoni was not the biggest race to take place this Sunday, but it still delivered an entertaining race with UAE Team Emirates - XRG as protagonists of the stage. At the decisive moments, it was Ivo Oliveira leading out Adam Yates towards what proved to be a decisive move. Only one other rider could keep up with this acceleration, however luck was on the side of Yates who added UAE's 90th victory of the season.

With an spiky circuit at the outskirts of Milano and a relatively long flat section at the end of the day, this Italian 1.1 race might've been cut out for a more explosive rider than Yates, but ultimately Yates didn't need to sprint for the victory anyways. "I didn’t think it was a race that suited me perfectly, but we raced with a lot of guys in the front and we came with a good team and made it count," he said afterwards.

The only rider capable of sticking to the wheel of Yates was Movistar's Carlos Canal who would have been the favourite in a sprint among the two men. However a puncture with 18 kilometers to go costed the 24-year-old Spaniard a breakthrough victory as Yates was not going to look back.

"I feel sorry for Canal as we were working well together. We went on the climb quite far from the finish and we were working well but obviously he had his puncture so it was some bad luck for him. It would have been a good fight to the line, but I’m sure he’ll bounce back. Full support for Tadej now in Lombardia and we’ll head into the off-season happy.”

For Canal, this was already his third second place of 2025 and that means that the versatile Spaniard is still waiting for his first professional victory. As there won't be many other opportunities this year for Canal, the breakthrough result might have to wait until 2026.

"It's a shame that with such good legs when a puncture is what puts you out of the race," he told Eurosport afterwards. "I knew I had a good chance in the sprint; I was already thinking about the finish. The puncture put me out of the fight for the win. We have to stay positive; I had very good legs. I'll keep fighting for it throughout the rest of the week."