Double joy as Yates and Hirschi take big victories

After a disappointing 24 hours for the team, which saw the withdrawal  of João Almeida from the Vuelta España, Adam Yates bounced back in strong fashion to lift the team with a significant victory on the queen stage from Motril to Granada (178.5km).

Yates entered a sizeable breakaway which went away in the early stages as they left the port of Motril with teammates Marc Soler and Jay Vine joining him to reinforce the assault by the Emirati squad. The British climber took flight solo at -60km to the line on the Hazallanas climb and managed to extend his advantage on the steep gradients.

Arriving solo to the city of Granada Yates had plenty of time to celebrate as he took out a lead of 3’45” on most of his GC rivals to move himself back into the picture in the hunt for the red jersey which continues to be worn by Ben O’ Connor (Decathlon-AG2R) who leads with an advantage of 5’30” over Yates who jumps up to 7th place.

Yates: “I never suffered like this before. It was so hot out there. From the last climb I was cramping and I didn’t know if I could go. I’ve had a lot of bad luck in Grand Tours over the years and I really didn’t know if I could make it, but I’m just so happy I could finally win another Grand Tour stage. It was all about the stage. I was just going full gas. We really had nothing to lose. I just suffered all the way to the line.”

Meanwhile in France Marc Hirschi took another important victory at the Bretagne Classic, his second consecutive win in a one-day World Tour classic following his triumph at the San Sebastian Classic just two weeks ago.

The Swiss talent arrived solo to the line just metres ahead of the chasing peloton who could not close the gap to the flying puncheur.

Hirschi : “It was a super hard race in the last 60km. There was a lot of strong riders which made it hard to get away. On the last kick I knew I couldn’t arrive in the group as there were some strong sprinters there. In the end I was very happy to win by just a few seconds. I was so close I didn’t know if I would make it or not. I was on the limit and tried many attacks and went full gas. Now I’ll do some races in Italy and Luxembourg in preparation for the World Championships in Zurich.”

Stage 9 Vuelta España results

1.Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 4:42:28

2.Richard Carapaz (EF Education First) 1’39”

3.Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R) 3’45”

Bretagne Classic results

1.Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) 6:09:35

2.Paul Magnier (Soudal Quickstep) +1”

3.Magnus Cort (Uno X) s.t