After prepping hard for the Vuelta Asturias, Simon Yates rounded out his amazing performance with two stage wins at the Asturias. This is a very good update as Yates suffered a very hard and hectic day in the heat on Saturday. In light of this terrific win, Simon will now be leading BikeExchange-Jayco for the Giro.
His solo wins at the hilly stages proved that he is more than worthy to lead for the Giro. During the opening stage of Vuelta Asturias, Yates attacked head on solo with 6km remaining to the finish line, his performance earned him a stage win and the leader’s jersey. Same thing happened with the chase group in Oviedo, Yates attacked the group during the last 5km of the race.
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Overwhelmed with his success, Yates said in an interview after the stage:
It was a good race today in the end. I had a little bit of a bad day yesterday, just with the heat. It was the first really hot race that I had done all year but today I bounced back very well, the legs felt good, and the team rode really well again.
They controlled all day, set me up well for the final attack on the last climb, so it all went to plan and now we are looking forward to the Giro, which starts already in five days.
Matt White, the team’s sport’s director also explained how they had controlled the stage. They also explained what their strategy was for the final day of the Asturias.
Today was a short, intense and relatively flat day. We had a really crucial and very, very tough climb to the finish. As we have been for the last couple of days, we continued our process of preparing for the Giro, we controlled the day and brought the break back and the boys put Simon in a very good position at the bottom of the climb.
Callum Scotson slipped away on the bottom slopes of the climb and Simon went across to him. He rode a tempo that nobody could follow, then he was in the safest place to be, ahead solo, on a very tricky descent where there was a crash in the main group behind.
Simon Yates is more than qualified to lead the team for the Giro. He has raced the Giro four times in the past and has even won four stages and came third last year, his experience will prove to be very valuable. Yates will be leading a super team for the Giro which will include Lawson Craddock, Lucas Hamilton, Michael Hepburn, Tanel Kangert, Damien Howson, Callum Scotson, and Matteo Sobrero.
We walk away with two wins from this race, the team is in a really good place, and we built some really good cohesiveness. Now it’s legs up, recover, and then focus on getting across to Budapest to start the Giro d’Italia next week.
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Also Read: Simon Yates To Warm Up For Giro D’Italia At Vuelta Asturias
Featured Image Via YouTube/Sigma Sports
