It was not the best day in Simon Yates' career. The 31-year-old was already quite deep in the provisional standings, but after the gravel stage where he lost another 10 minutes, his GC ambition is officially as we enter the first rest day.
Before the stage, Yates shared his concerns about introduction of gravel to Tour de France in an interview with ITV Cycling. "Last time I checked we did road cycling. You could argue that gravel is also a road, but it's not something that I really enjoy. I think there's a place for it in the sport, you have that sort of things... you have Paris-Roubaix stages, you have cyclocross, ... but I think we should stick to road racing."
Yates believes that opinions about GC riders who should be able to excel on all types of terrains is outdated. "They'll say: 'Yeah back in the day... all the roads were cobbles...' and all this stuff, but we're in 2024 now. I'm not too sure, I think it creates a risk of punctures and crashes for not real reason but we got to deal with it."
With the general classification in the ruins, it's time for the Jayco AlUla rider to re-focus on stage success in second and third week. With the support of Chris Harper in the mountains, the two can surely achieve some nice results.
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