"I'm obviously feeling the pressure a bit more today" - Adam Yates admits João Almeida's absence makes him key to Tadej Pogacar's Tour de France

Although UAE Team Emirates - XRG have looked relatively in control over the course of the first 9 stages at the 2025 Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar's team were rocked on stage 9 by the abandon of João Almeida. Ahead of the first mountain day of the race on stage 10, Adam Yates admits Almeida's absence changes the plan for UAE.

"I mean yeah, it definitely makes it a little bit more difficult for us," explains the Brit, who will now be expected to be the last man in the mountains for Pogacar in the remainder of this Tour, in a pre-stage 10 interview with ITV Sport. "He was a really key piece of the puzzle, especially on the climbs. We've not done too many climbs so far, so it wouldn't have been bad, but now the climbs really start. He's going to be a big loss."

"We'll see today if we can keep everything under control," Yates adds, himself a former podium finisher at the Tour de France, hinting at more important roles for the likes of Marc Soler and Pavel Sivakov in the coming days. "Like I say, we've not really done any mountains so far, it's been a bit of a balancing act, managing who is working where and doing what, but for me personally it's quite difficult to work on the flat when we're averaging 50k an hour."

"So it's been quite difficult to save the legs and save energy, but, hopefully on a stage like today I can do a good job and help the team as much as possible," he concludes. "I'm obviously feeling the pressure a bit more today. I've not done much the last nine stages on purpose, but we always had Joao to back me up. So yeah, a little bit more pressure, but we'll do our best and hopefully it'll be all good."