"It’s my first race back and I’m not yet at my best" - Adam Yates responds to claims of UAE Team Emirates embarrassment at Giro d'Abruzzo

Stage 3 of the 2024 Giro d'Abruzzo should by all intents and purposes, ended in a UAE Team Emirates win as the took on the final few kilometres of climbing dominant at the front. Sadly for them, it was Alexey Lutsenko who took the win and moved into the leaders jersey.

With the Kazakh National Champion being outnumbered three-to-one by UAE Team Emirates trio Adam Yates, Diego Ulissi and Pavel Sivakov, the fact Lutsenko still managed to triumph led some to call the result an embarrassment to UAE Team Emirates. Yates however, doesn't see things that way.

“Obviously we would have liked to take the win today after the team did so much work, but I think Lutsenko was just the strongest out there today," the Brit, who is making his first appearance since crashing hard out of the UAE Tour, assesses in conversation with the UAE Team Emirates website.

"It’s my first race back and I’m not yet at my best level so it’s just a matter of building back up to where I want to be," Yates concludes. "The team is riding really strong so we’ll try and do something tomorrow to take the win.”