19/04/2024

Simon Yates returns to racing and leads Team Jayco AlUla alongside Michael Matthews at Liege-Bastogne-Liege

With Liege-Bastogne-Liege bringing an end to the Spring Classics season this weekend, Team Jayco AlUla head to the Ardennes with a two-pronged attack of Michael Matthews and the returning Simon Yates.

“Liege is always a great race to be on the start line at, it’s an iconic race and I have only raced in two times in my career. The weather has turned quite wet and cold as we saw in Fleche Wallonne, so that can affect the race quite a lot," Yates previews to the team's website as he gets back to action for the first time since a DNF at GP Miguel Indurain. "I’m looking forward to getting back into racing, it is a long and hard race, and we know it is going to be tough. The team we have is good, these guys have been racing a lot recently. We are motivated and so we will see what we can do on Sunday.”

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With support from the likes of Anders Foldager, David de Pretto, Jan Maas, Mauro Schmid and a potential wildcard in Filippo Zana, there is plenty of optimism for Team Jayco AlUla. “Liege is of course always a hard race, that is why it is one of the classic cycling Monuments. It is good for us to have Simon Yates coming in, he has a lot of experience and if he has good legs on the day we know it’s a race he could do well in. We also know that Matthews has been in good form the last weeks and is a strong option for us on Sunday," assesses sports director, Valerio Piva.

"For the other riders like young De Pretto, has been racing very well all season, he’s very young and motivated and will learn a lot in the race with the other guys we have in the team," he concludes. "The course is similar to previous years, those final climbs are decisive and as we saw with Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday, the weather can really affect the race, so we will see on Sunday how epic it will be."