"I've been working hard but not going full gas yet" - Adam Yates believes he can fine-tune his form just in time for Giro d'Italia
Cycling
16th at Tirreno-Adriatico, 32nd at Volta a Catalunya... those are not results Adam Yates is used to, but as he points out calmly, there's no reason to panic yet. He's building steadily towards the Giro d'Italia. And there's still more than a month left until the Grande Partenza in Albania.
"I already said at the start of the year that I'd try to take a little bit easier in these first few races, but it's been good," Yates told Cyclingnews last weekend. He still won the GC of Tour of Oman and finished 4th at Milano-Torino while helping teammate Isaac del Toro on his way to victory.
Volta a Catalunya was, like many other races this year, struck by adverse weather which stripped the queen stage of its title as well as the royal jewels. Yates recognised that it has been hard, in any case, to get a real sense of his climbing form.
And then there was the illness that struck the UAE Team Emirates - XRG rider just after solid showing in Oman: "If you get a bit of illness, it takes a bit of the edge off, but that's how it is. These things happen."
"That was a shame because I was going quite well; also in Tirreno, there was only one mountain stage," he said. "So it's been a weird start to the season, but I'm not stressed about it. I'm in a good place, trying to stay out of trouble, and keeping building towards the Giro d'Italia."
Still he found a way to immerse himself in working for leader Juan Ayuso, even though mechanical problems of Yates on key stage in Barcelona may have helped Primoz Roglic's decisive attack.
The 32-year-old Brit feels that unlike some other GC riders, his form still has plenty room for improvement. That could be his greatest asset in the delicate process of fine-tuning the form for Giro. "Many guys have been preparing full gas at altitude, especially now," he pointed out, "but I've been at home, working hard but not going full gas. So I'll just have a short rest, and then I'll start getting ready."
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- Whatever happens tomorrow... it'll be a hell of a raceslappers6605-04-2025
- Exactly Tadej, the cancer of modern society. Full of good-for-nothing people who gain visibility and importance on social media mocking, humiliating (and worse things) to earn money. But it's the follower's fault, no followers, no "influencers".
maria2024202405-04-2025 - Great commentCaralladas05-04-2025
- i’m such a sucker for those group-hug, happy ending moments between competitors, largely because it’s so WASN’T that way in my younger, stronger days. (on that note, i have this hope that somewhere down the road, maybe fifteen or twenty years, a middle aged wout and mathieu will go for a pleasure ride together in flanders, and reminisce about the days when they were the young, strong monsters that stalked the cobbles.)OCexile05-04-2025
- Just like Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Ronde van Vlaanderen was/is NOT on MAX. Get your facts straight.Ben04-04-2025
- You might bounce more for the same power, but not the same speed. Sending 20 kgs over a jump at 20 kph will fly just as far as 10 kgs at the same speed. Again, Galileo demonstrated this.acem8204-04-2025
- So, you're saying that doing a bunch of small hops on a bike is easier if you're heavier? Why do people buy lighter bikes, then? Why do they generally feel better and faster? An appeal to "rhythm" is not helpful either, as the right "rhythm" might be on the lighter or heavier side of things, and as it varies, it's likely a wash either way. Then we are left with the physics truth that it takes less power to lift lighter things than heavier things.acem8204-04-2025
- No, weight doesn't affect the ability to go into the wind at all. It's all CdA vs power at that point. For example, it's "obvious" that a heavier object falls faster than a lighter one. But, absent wind resistance, it's not true (Galileo demonstrated this). An appeal to "obviousness" doesn't matter when the physics is clear. And yes, you have to be able to hold everything else constant, or you can't determine anything! So, imagine a 300 watt rider at 80 kgs with a CdA of 2.0, then imagine that same rider at 70 kgs with a CdA of 2.0. (Assume ideal tire pressure for both, same bike.) Which one can ride over a bumpy road fastest? The lighter one, as he doesn't have to lift as much. That's also why when they test bikes on 5 star cobbled sectors, the MTB goes faster than even a cobble-build road bike. Even though rolling resistance is higher on a flat road, and the CdA is junk, it smooths out the cobbles, allowing the person to not lift as much as they otherwise would.acem8204-04-2025
- I disagree. If you have lower weight, you will bounce more at the same speed, meaning that you will spend more time in the air and shorter time on the ground, as a consequence, when you are on the ground you have to produce more force for the same speedvappaxbipmv04-04-2025
- That’s not quite true, even steep climbs and sudden gradient changes can be considered as remaining tangential to the wheel whereas the occasional dip between cobbles a wheel drops into cannot, as such riding over cobbles can become like a permanent surmounting of small obstacles that hit back into your wheel slowing you drastically if you don’t have the right rhythm to “fly” on the mounds, here again the greater the momentum the less these obstacles reduce your speed. But, it is but one factor, you cannot decide on this alone. Like with natural surface ripple formation on desert tracks used by vehicles, there is an optimal speed range to efficiently pass over such surfaces, too fast or slow and your car gets shaken to pieces from the “harmonics” in the vibrations caused. Pretty sure the same applies to riding on cobbles.Mistermaumau04-04-2025