"I don't ride my bike to train, I like to race," is how Adam Yates bluntly but clearly describes his feelings at why, after nearly two months away from competition, the Orica-Scott rider is so pleased to be getting back into the action again at the Tour de Pologne this week.
Yates already showed he is determined to hit the ground running on his mid-season return when he took ninth in the Basque Country's one-day Prueba Villafranca last Tuesday.
"I came pretty close," Yates told Cyclingnews during the Tour de Pologne, "I got within 10, maybe 20 metres of winning that one. I hadn't raced for a long time, and it's not a big race, but it was good to get out there, try some things, test the condition and be aggressive."
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Yates last stage race, though, was the Giro d'Italia, where he took ninth overall and second in the young rider's competition. That was being caught up in the same crash that did for Geraint Thomas and Mikel Landa's chances overall at the foot of the Blockhaus and losing well over four minutes half way through the Giro, through no fault of his own.
Asked if he was hungry to return to racing after two months away, Yates answered simply "I don't ride my bike to train, I like to race. I've come here now and I'll hopefully be aggressive in the mountains. Then it will be good to take that form to the Vuelta and do the same thing there."
It will be the first time that Adam Yates has done two Grand Tours in one year, and as he notes, with no points of comparison from previous years, he'll only really know how beneficial the build-up has been once he's there. "We'll see what we can do. I've been feeling good training, Poland's not a massive objective but I always want to get up there and get some confidence, before the next big objective, which is the Vuelta. Come here, try my best, test the condition."
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