Tour de France: Tadej Pogacar and Adam Yates to be UAE co-leaders - 'The injury isn’t completely behind him'
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Published 28/06/2023 at 13:27 GMT
You don't normally expect a two-time winner of the Tour de France to be named co-leader on the eve of the race, but UAE Team Emirates' decision to badge Tadej Pogacar and Adam Yates as equals would seem to be an indicator of the Slovenian's condition as he continues his recovery to full fitness after a broken wrist. “We really don’t have the choice," UAE boss Mauro Gianetti said.
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Tadej Pogacar and Adam Yates will be co-leaders for UAE Team Emirates at the Tour de France, general manager Mauro Gianetti has revealed.
In a surprising move, Pogacar - a two-time winner of the Tour and arguably cycling's standout all-round performer - has been given equal status with Yates, in a decision that has its roots in the Slovenian's crash at Liege-Bastogne-Liege back in April, which has seen him miss large swathes of training ahead of the Tour.
Yates, who has a best of fourth at the Tour in 2016, joined UAE from Ineos Grenadiers last September.
“Adam will not just be there to support Tadej, he will be our co-leader this summer,” Gianetti told L'Equipe.
“We really don’t have the choice. Tadej spent five weeks without being able to train on the road. There are no miracles in cycling. You have to get the miles in.
“He has worked hard, we have a lot of faith in him, but we’re not certain of anything.
“He won Slovenian Nationals [both road and time trial] and they were won in fine style. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be 100 per cent ready come Saturday.
“The injury isn’t completely behind him. We have to be careful because his preparation has been curtailed. A month ago we still weren’t sure of anything.
“If we look at the glass being half full, we can say he’ll be coming into the Tour a lot fresher. But the opposition this year is very deep.”
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Tadej Pogacar
Image credit: Getty Images
Yates joined UAE clear in the knowledge that Pogacar was to continue as the team's bona fide General Classification leader, but - in what has turned out to be quite a piece of foresight - the Briton, speaking back in December, said that teams now "need backup" in case of illness or injury.
The 30-year-old said: “There’s one big superstar and after that a lot of young guys with a lot of potential and a lot of results. But you can’t just have one leader all the time.
“These days you need your backup, and who knows if somebody gets injured or sick and they need me to do something then I can step up.
"There are a lot of good riders here. So, like in Ineos where we always went into the Grand Tours with two or three options because someone can get sick or injured, [maybe] get Covid-19.
"It’d be silly these days to invest that much money in riders and not have a second option.”
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