"You cannot have just one leader all the time" - Adam Yates looks to thrive in UAE despite strong internal competition
Cycling
Adam Yates has spent his last seasons aboard INEOS Grenadiers with quite some success in an environment full of leaders, and he's looking to replicate that formula at UAE Team Emirates with whom he signed with for the next three seasons.
“When I race, I race to contend for the win. Maybe it hasn’t gone 100 percent at the grand tours, I am among the best when I am at my best," Yates shared in an interview with VeloNews. "Last year, I had some illness in some key moments of the calendar.”
An illness saw Yates fall from fifth to ninth in the final mountain stages of the Tour de France. The Briton also abandoned Itzulia Basque Country and the Tour de Suisse due to illness, casting a dark cloud over his typical stage-race results. His move to UAE was a surprising one, but one that he's well aware of how to perform.
“You got one superstar with Tadej, but behind him, there are a lot of other guys. You cannot have just one leader all the time. These days you need a backup. If they need me to do something, I can step in," he says.
With the likes of João Almeida, Juan Ayuso, Brandon McNulty and Jay Vine however it will be no easy feat for Yates to get his chances at leadership. However the picture will become clearer as the season starts and the riders present different goals and form.
“I am happy to get stuck in and race. I’d like to go to the big races to show myself. That’s what we train for. Growing up as a young kid, you’re only thinking about putting your arms in the air," Yates continued. His last wins came at this year's Deutschland Tour where he won the queen stage and overall classification.
“I am not young anymore and I am getting older. I know what I need to do to get the best out of me. I am not fussy. If I am going well and I am in good shape, I like to get stuck in, it doesn’t matter what race it is," he says. Working on behalf of other leaders is a very realistic possibility, and his presence at the Tour de France aside Pogacar is likely.
“More stuff can go wrong in a Grand Tour. When you get to this level, it’s about not trying to make any silly mistakes. We did that this year at the Tour, and we didn’t make any mistakes, but there were some guys who were better than us," he says. Now he will be on the side of a team that has performed better over the last summer.
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“Just because I changed teams doesn’t mean I come down a level. Just like at Ineos, there were a lot of good riders at a high level, and we often went to a race with two or three leaders. People can get sick, crash. It’s silly these days not to go to a race without more than one leader," he concluded.
Rúben SilvaEditor-in-Chief
A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
Beyond editorial work, he has been closely involved in the expansion and coordination of CyclingUpToDate’s wider network, helping establish and support sister platforms across multiple languages. This includes ongoing collaboration with CiclismoAlDia (Spanish), CiclismoAtual (Portuguese), WielrennenUpToDate (Dutch), and RadsportAktuell (German), contributing to a shared editorial vision and consistent international coverage.
He also helps oversee editorial governance across the network, setting standards for accuracy and consistency and coordinating updates or corrections when needed.
Originally from the Porto metropolitan area in Portugal, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography. His path into cycling journalism was shaped not through formal media training, but through independent reporting, community engagement, and sustained on-the-ground involvement in the sport.
Over the course of his career, he has conducted approximately 100 interviews across road cycling and cyclocross, ranging from one-to-one conversations and online formats to press conferences and on-site pre- and post-race coverage. His interviews include leading riders, team managers, and prominent figures within cycling media: Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Mathieu van der Poel, Primoz Roglic, Wout van Aert, Joao Almeida and Tom Pidcock; managers like Patrick Lefevere and Joxean Matxin; and YouTube personality Bryan Kennedy (BKXC)...
Within 18 months of launch, he helped grow CyclingUpToDate’s English-language platform into one of the most-read cycling news websites, built entirely from the ground up. As both a professional journalist and lifelong cycling enthusiast, his focus remains on delivering accurate, timely, and well-contextualized coverage.
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