Less than a month after helping UAE Team Emirates teammate Tadey Pogachar win the Tour de France, Adam Yates took on the Vuelta a España, looking out for his own GC chances in Spain and being realistic about what he could achieve. He began to.

“There is less pressure in the Vuelta. Because we don't know what level we are at,” Yates, who leads UAE Team Emirates with home rider Joao Almeida, told Cycling News during the countdown to the start in Lisbon.

“We haven't had time to prepare or do a training camp. Sometimes you get good numbers in training, but you never know in a race.”

“There was an extra week between the Giro and the Tour, but not four weeks between the Tour and the Vuelta. Riders who didn't take part in the Tour and have a special training plan for here might have a bit of an advantage. So it's going to be tricky.”

”In any case, Saturday's time trial will give us a glimpse of how the riders are doing, and stage 4 will be the first summit finish of the 2024 edition.

With not much time left until the next Grand Tour, Yates took just a week off after finishing in Nice and trained for two weeks at his home in Andorra.

“The house in Andorra is not that high in altitude, but the roads and training were good. But we did the best we could, and we will see how well that shows here."

”I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that here, but I'm going to try.

Compared to the Tour de France, the first week of the Vuelta is relatively easy, which should allow the 32-year-old rider to return to more consistent top form without facing too many difficulties during that time. But aside from a summit finish on stage 4 and a tough trek through the southwestern Spanish Sierra on stage 6, “the main problem in this early part of the race may be the heat,” he said.

“It's boiling hot even now,” he told Cycling News on Friday afternoon as temperatures in Lisbon reached the mid to late 30s. 'I've looked at the forecast for the first week, and it's tough. So we're going to do our best, take it one day at a time, and try not to make any mistakes."

His best result in the Vuelta a España to date was in 2021, when he finished fourth, and Yates has won the Tour-Vuelta double once before, in 2018. However, the only similarity between his experience in the 2018 Tour-Vuelta and Adam Yates in 2024 would be that he helped his teammate win the overall in one of the two Grand Tours six years ago.

“It was when I was with GreenEdge. It was when Simon [Yates' brother and then GreenEdge teammate] won the Vuelta, so it was a little different."

”I rode in California and won a stage in the Dauphiné, but there was an equipment change right before the Tour and that downgrade had a big impact on the race. It affected me a lot."

”I was a bit of a downgrade.

“We then went back to our first sponsor and obviously Simon got the job done in the Vuelta. I took a bit of a break during the first week of the race and then helped him with some stages in Andorra during the third week to get the job done.”

Six years later, Adam Yates and Almeida helped Pogachar win the Grand Tour this July; instead of easing through the first week in Portugal and southern Spain as they did in 2018, this time Yates' Portuguese teammate and co-leader will be in the limelight along with.

“The Tour de Suisse (the race Yates won ahead of Almeida. Obviously we had different roles in the Tour, but we did a really good job there as well,” the Englishman said at a press conference on Friday.

“In general, we have different climbing styles but we complement each other. I like to attack early on, while Joanne goes at her own pace and squeezes in at the end. It depends a lot on who pulls on the climbs, but we have proven that we work well together.

“As far as expectations go, there's really no ranking we're aiming for, we just want to do our best. We want to do our best and results are results. So it would be great if one of us could get to the top and fight for the championship.”

“If there is a small question of which of us wins, I don't think it matters at all,” Almeida added at the same press conference. 'We just have to concentrate on the other contenders for the championship.' [The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader said he is still in pain after his crash and injury at the Tour de France. But neither Yates nor Almeida believes the Slovenian rider is being completely truthful about his underlying condition.

“He always says he's at 80%, and then he kills you in a minute or a minute and a half,” was Yates' response when asked about Logric's concerns.

“When I make small talk with Primosch during the race, he always says, ‘Oh, I'm not very good.’

Regardless of Roglic's condition, Almeida said, “This is probably the only time in my career that a Grand Tour will start in my home country. The support has already been great, so the next few days will be crazy. I am very grateful”

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The victory in the Vuelta will be Almeida's first career Grand Tour win.

“I'm not the best prepared, but I'm in good shape and confident. I will give it my all to win and I have a great team to support me. Anything can happen and we will control what we can control and push as hard as we can.

Of course, the most impressive outcome would be for Yates or Almeida to win the Vuelta a España outright and for UAE Team Emirates to follow in Visma's 2023 footsteps and win three Grand Tours in one season.

“I mean, that would be a great goal. If Taddeji were here, it would be a lot easier,” he added with a laugh.

“No, there is pressure to win, but in the end we will do our best. We'll do what we can do at every stage, and we'll try to be up there in Madrid.”

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