UAE Team Emirates (Spain) - Press Release: Yates wins queen stage of Vuelta España, 67 victories in 2024 for UAE

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.”