The opening stage of the Tour de France produced a fairytale result for the Yates family, even if one twin will head back to his team hotel slightly more disappointed than the other following their one-two finish in Bilbao.
It was Adam Yates of UAE Team Emirates who led the pair home on the uphill finish to close out a challenging, hilly stage in the Basque Country. He went clear of brother, Jayco-AlUla's Simon, in the closing metres after the pair escaped on the final climb of the day less than 10km earlier.
The result puts Adam in yellow 18 seconds clear of teammate Tadej Pogačar and 22 ahead of any other GC rival, while Simon lies second overall, eight seconds down. It's the first one-two finish for the pair as pros, though the Tour de l'Avenir witnessed a reversal at Morzine almost exactly a decade ago.
"I'm pretty pleased for him. It's his first Grand Tour stage, but I also wanted to win," Simon, who has a Vuelta a España title and 10 Grand Tour stages on his palmarès, reflected after the stage. "We're quite competitive; I'll try to get the better of him in the coming days."
Adam, meanwhile, said that his brother would be a "pain in the ass" over the next three weeks, also noting that the pair had raced as professionals rather than as family members on the run to the line in Bilbao.
"He showed he's in great shape and I'm sure he's going to be a pain in the ass for the next three weeks," Adam Yates said in the post-stage press conference. "When we got away together, I said, ‘I can't work, I can't work.’ He's professional, I'm professional. That's professional bike riding.
"At 4-5km to go, Tadej gave me the call to say that I could start to work because behind there was a bit of confusion. Then we went full gas to the finish. Obviously on the final climb I managed to have a bit more energy because he spent some on the descent and that's why I'm here in yellow."
The pair haven't raced a Grand Tour together since the 2019 Tour de France, when they were still at Mitchelton-Scott. Since then, Adam has moved to Ineos Grenadiers and this year to UAE Team Emirates, but they hadn't faced off on opposing teams at the Giro, Tour or Vuelta until Saturday's 182km stage.
After Adam had gone clear partway up the final climb of the day, the short but steep Pike, along with Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, and Victor Lafay, things came back together at the top. Simon was among the climbers getting back on, and soon made what turned out to be the winning move with his brother.
"It was a bit tricky getting into the top of the climb there. It wasn't easy with the numbers – Jumbo have four or five guys and it was difficult to position ourselves," he said later. "We did a good job. I was caught a little bit behind when UAE made the first push. I couldn't get around because the crowds are so big but that's how it goes.
"I sort of grovelled my way across just at the last. I managed to make the junction at the top with those fast boys and there was a bit of a cat and mouse at the top and Adam came back. He sort of rolled to the front and gave Pogačar the nod as in 'can I go? What's the situation?' So, he's gone and I got across to him.”
Adam Yates was able to sit on a little on the way into Bilbao before Pogačar gave him the nod to start work as their advantage grew out over 15 seconds, and that detail might have been what clinched it at the line.
Condition
Simon Yates later admitted that the warm, humid day saw him fall victim to a touch of cramp on the uphill run to the line, resulting in Adam upping the pace, going clear and taking the win by four seconds.
"I took a chance. It was pretty close," he said. "I had some cramps in the final because it's a really humid day. Unfortunately, he got the better of me but there are more chances coming up."
Jayco-AlUla general manager Brent Copeland told Cyclingnews that it was a great opening gambit from their GC man and the team even if it fell just short of the perfect start to the 2023 Tour.
"It would've been a fairytale ending for sure to see him take the yellow jersey. But there's no-one better than his brother to take it so it's a fantastic story," Copeland said.
"Over and above that it shows what good condition he's in. That's important for us. We'll see how it goes in the next few days, take it day by day. It's a good start for us. It would've been nice to be in yellow but that's the way it is.”
Simon Yates hadn’t raced since he abandoned the Tour de Romandie in late April.
"It was a big question mark because he hasn't raced since April," Copeland said of his rider’s form. "We knew that he was in good condition, but we didn't know what race condition he was in. We knew today that we'd go out there to protect him but we didn't know until what point and yeah, it shows his condition is good."
But it was Adam who came out on top in the end, just having slightly more in his legs at the end of one of the hardest Tour starts in recent memory.
He was named by UAE Team Emirates principal Mauro Gianetti as team co-leader heading into the Tour, but the man himself confirmed that he and the team is fully behind Pogačar this July, despite his yellow jersey.
"At the end of the day we're here for Tadej. I've said before that Tadej is the best rider in the world and has been for a couple of years now," Yates said. "We 100% back him and if I can play a part in that with tactics like today where I can chip off the front, cause a bit of pressure and cause a bit of carnage – if that's the best way to win the Tour de France then that's what we'll do.
"Today went perfectly. Depending on the race, we'll play this card over the next three weeks and see what happens. We tried to set him up on the final climb. The first stage of Tour is always a mess and this wasn't any different.
"Coming into the climbs, everyone was fresh, ready to go and motivated. We just tried to get Tadej to the climbs in a good position and the pull just to make it less stressful. I think we did a good job. Over the top when we turned off onto the descent it was a bit more headwind. I came from behind with a little bit of speed and chipped off the front."
