After Simon Yates emulated his brother Adam’s feat by taking the white jersey of best young rider in the Tour de France, finishing seventh
E.J. Gaines Womens Jersey overall to his twin’s fourth last year, the Orica-Scott directeur sportif, Matt White, has an intriguing conundrum on his hands: whether to unleash the brothers in tandem on the Tour de France and, if so, when. Chris Froome: ‘I’d like to be here for the next five years, trying to win’ Read more For twins to take the same classification jersey in the Tour in successive years is unprecedented while it is rare indeed for brothers to make the top 10 two years running. But Simon showed similar talent to Adam in the world’s biggest bike race, which means the brothers have now posted two top-10 finishes in two Grand Tours in the space of two years. “It’s been incredible,” White said. “We came in with the goals of winning the white jersey and finishing top, those are pretty lofty goals for a kid who’s never ridden the Tour de France for the general classification. “But Simon has ticked those boxes and he is going to take a lot out of these three weeks.” Yates’s verdict on the three weeks was that it was good to keep the jersey in the family but he had further reason to be satisfied. Not only did he attack at Foix and Le Puy-en-Velay, attempting to find openings, but
http://www.ramsofficialsonline.com/Eric_Dickerson_Jersey_Cheapin the mountains he had shown patience and intelligence in the harder moments, refusing to make the classic mistake of trying to stay with the pace when the climbers were making it hard, instead time after time setting a rhythm that suited him and limiting his lossesThat comes with maturity,” White said. He recalled that Yates was riding his third Tour, having been brought to the start at short notice in 2014 when his race was cut short by the team to his initial displeasure. Advertisement “The most pleasing aspect is to show that maturity under pressure. This is the biggest race of the year and the most pressured environment and he’s handled that very, very well. It’s in his personality; he’s quite a calm character.” Asked to compare his two protégés, White believes that behind their near-identical looks are “two very different people”. He added: “Adam is naturally a little bit more aggressive, which is why he’s won the one-day races, Simon is a bit more conservative and I think that bodes well for his character as a GC racer. They both handle pressure very well. “Last year with Adam it wasn’t planned that he would ride GC, we just planned to support him and it evolved into general classification. He was second or third for the vast majority of the Tour and for those three weeks the pressure with the media, the fans, control, arriving to the hotel
Dale Weise Womens Jersey last – that intensifies the environment we’re already on in the Tour. Both of them have handled that pressure very well. The great fascination with the twins is just how far they will improve given they are only 24 and have perhaps three or four seasons ahead of them in which their bodies will mature, White says. “Some things are numbers and you have to put out a certain number to time-trial and climb with the best. We’re not there yet. No reason to say there shouldn’t be [improvement] but, how much, is the million-dollar question? We don’t know what the cap is for those guys.” Five reasons why Chris Froome and Team Sky dominated the Tour de France Read more In 2015 the twins were brought to the Tour together to gain experience and in the next few years White is likely to put them both back in the race to provide a two-pronged attack on Froome. “I’ve got some ideas for next year. We will look at the profile of the Giro, Tour and Vuelta and make a call after that. “We’re not
http://www.officialoriolestore.com/Jj_Hardy_Jersey ready to beat Chris Froome, so maybe we have to try another avenue – the Giro or the Vuelta. We’ll come back to challenge next year and hopefully it will be closer,” White said
