Adam beats twin brother Simon in Yates one-two on Tour's opening stage

BILBAO, Spain :Britain's Adam Yates pipped his own twin brother Simon to claim the opening stage of the Tour de France and don the first yellow jersey of this year's race at the end of a 182.5-km loop around Bilbao on Saturday.

Adam got the better of his identical twin to claim his first grand tour stage win, while his UAE Emirates team leader Tadej Pogacar finished third, also raising his arms in celebration.

Yates, who had set a devilish pace for Pogacar on the brutal climb shortly before the finish, pushed on in the descent to Bilbao, joined by his brother who is riding for the Jayco-AIUla team and already has two Tour de France stage wins to his name.

Adam was the stronger in the final uphill drag to prevail by four seconds, with Pogacar, who showed great legs in his first stage race since breaking a wrist in April, crossed the line 12 seconds off the pace.

"My brother came across to me and we started working together. At first, I didn't know if I should work with him, so I asked my team on the radio and they said 'Yeah, go for it'," said Yates, who wore the yellow jersey for four days in 2020.

"We're really close. To share this experience with him is really nice - but I wish he would pull a little bit easier because he almost dropped me one moment! I'm super happy, I just want to keep my feet on the ground."

Overall, Yates leads his brother by eight seconds after picking up 10 seconds for the stage win, while Pogacar is 18 seconds off the pace.

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Pogacar took a four-second bonus for his third place to take a slight advantage over defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, who was the only main contender to follow the Slovenian when he attacked fending off a sea of Basque flags on the Cote de Pike