Simon Yates will be participating in Giro d’Italia but before that, he will be testing out his skills and form at the Vuelta Asturias. This will be a three-day event in northern Spain and will start commencing on Friday, this will be a very good opportunity to ready each’s form before the Grand Tour.
Yates is one of the key favorites for this year’s event, seemingly so because he finished third overall last year in Milan. He has been training in a high altitude camp with his teammates which are set to take a jab at the Giro.
Simon Yates said in a BikeExchange-Jayco team statement:
Asturias is the last challenge before the start of the Giro in Hungary. Compared to the previous year, I wanted to change my racing calendar, and these three stages will help me refine my preparation.
A few days ago, we concluded the training camp in Andorra, we worked hard, and I think it went well. It will be a good opportunity to test the legs and tactics.
The Vuelta Asturias is one of the venerable Spanish stage races, it is also one of the oldest as its first edition dates back to 1925. The Asturias has a ranking of 2.1 and will be opening this Friday, the first stage will be between regional capital Oviedo and the mining town of Pola de Lena.
Stage two on the other hand will be very difficult, it will feature an ascent of the Alto de Acebo, the overall distance of the stage will be 202km. This race event has been named after Julio Alvarez Mendo, after the longstanding race director who passed away in 2008. The Asturias is a formidable testing ground for anyone that wants to participate in the Giro.
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The last race Yates participated in was Volta a Catalunya, and BikeExchange-Jayco stacked plenty wins in that event. Alas, Yates had to abandon the event due to sickness. Yates also won the second place at Paris-Nice, with an amazing show of power. This will be Yates’ first Asturias, but with only Movistar at the competition for now, he is still among the favorites for victory.
Sports Director Matt White gave a sneak-peak of his plan for the Asturias:
The plan for us at Vuelta Asturias is a simple one: it is to win. We are taking the vast majority of our Giro d’Italia team, it’s like a dress rehearsal before our main goal of this spring.
Last year we did the same at the Tour of Alps but this season we did things a little bit differently. But we are going to this race and afterwards to the Giro with the same mentality.
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Featured Image Via Instagram/simonyatess
