"The rest day has come at a good time" claims Simon Yates after brutal Puy de Dôme climb

A solid opening 9 stages has seen Team Jayco AlUla's Simon Yates ride to a 6th placed position in the general classification at the first rest day, just two minutes off a place on the podium.

A former Vuelta a Espana winner, Yates knows all about the rigours of a three-week Grand Tour. These races are very rarely won before the first rest day but they can certainly be lost. 4:44 down on overall leader Jonas Vingegaard, the Maillot Jaune is probably a lost cause for Yates. Just 2:04 behind third-placed Jai Hindley however the battle for the final spot on the podium is very much alive.

"I still had a lot of pain throughout the stage," Yates said after finishing best of the rest in terms of the general classification riders, behind Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar on the stage 9 summit finish atop Puy de Dome, referencing his stage 8 crash. "It wasn't so bad when I was standing out of the saddle, which is how I like riding most of the time and on a steep climb like this it's not so bad. That was quite lucky, but like I said a lot of discomfort throughout the day. The rest day has come at a good time, so I'll try and recover as best as possible and then we'll go from there."

"I think you've seen the difference in level between those two guys and the guys behind. I think it's quite close between the rest of us," Yates continues, admitting that third is now his main goal for the race. "I unfortunately crashed and lost almost a minute so that's not great for myself. But in terms of climbing and how we've been riding, I think it's quite close. I got some time on Jai today and a little bit of Rodríguez as well. We'll see how that plays out over the coming weeks but who knows?"