"You cannot have just one leader all the time" - Adam Yates looks to thrive in UAE despite strong internal competition

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.

“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.