Team Ineos have announced the signing of Adam Yates from next season, bolstering their British contingent in a week when Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas were left out of the squad for the upcoming Tour de France.
The selection of a Tour squad built around Colombian Egan Bernal, the defending champion, and the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz was seen as a watershed moment for a team which has won seven of the past eight Tours – six with British riders – but the signing of Yates will keep the British influence strong on the team bus.
“As a global team with a British heart, Adam’s no-nonsense British character is a perfect fit,” said Ineos team principal Sir Dave Brailsford, whose team will race as the Ineos Grenadiers at the Tour when it starts in Nice next weekend.
The INEOS Grenadiers are excited to announce the signing of @AdamYates7 on a two-year deal.
Welcome Adam!
— Team INEOS (@TeamINEOS) August 21, 2020
The 28-year-old Yates will join on a two-year deal from Mitchelton-Scott, the Australian-registered team where he has raced alongside his twin brother Simon since the pair turned professional in 2014.
“The prospect of riding for a British team is one that I am extremely excited about,” Yates said.
“I’ve witnessed the rise of cycling in the UK during my career and I think this has been spurred on by success of British riders and this team.”
Simon, the 2018 Vuelta a Espana winner, committed his future to Mitchelton-Scott earlier this week, signing a two-year deal of his own, though the brothers have emphasised throughout their careers that they were never a package deal.
Adam is due to race this year’s Tour, though the rider that finished fourth overall back in 2016 will not target the yellow jersey but instead pursue stage victories after seeing his general classification hopes frustrated in each of the past two editions.
Yates has two top-10 finishes in Grand Tours to his name, having come home ninth in the 2017 Giro d’Italia, while he has won a number of week-long stage races and one-day events.
He was declared the winner of the UAE Tour in February this year after the race was aborted with two stages to go due to a suspected coronavirus outbreak.
By joining a team which has made winning Grand Tours its business, however, Yates will now look to build on the potential over three weeks shown earlier in his career.
“It is an exciting opportunity and one that I feel has come at the right time,” he added.
“My results in week-long races and one-day races have been really solid but I would like to take that consistency to Grand Tour racing with the INEOS Grenadiers and see where it takes me.”
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