Tour de France: Tadej Pogacar and Adam Yates to be UAE co-leaders - 'The injury isn’t completely behind him'

Tadej Pogacar and Adam Yates will be co-leaders for UAE Team Emirates at the Tour de France, general manager Mauro Gianetti has revealed. In a surprising move, Pogacar — a two-time winner of the Tour and arguably cycling's standout all-round performer — has been given equal status with Yates, in a decision that has its roots in the Slovenian's crash at Liege-Bastogne-Liege back in April, which has seen him miss large swathes of training ahead of the Tour. Ad Yates, who has a best of fourth at the Tour in 2016, joined UAE from Ineos Grenadiers last September.

Tour de France'I would go full on from Day 1' – Gilbert thinks Jumbo should attack Pogacar earlyYESTERDAY AT 16:16 “Adam will not just be there to support Tadej, he will be our co-leader this summer,” Gianetti told L'Equipe. “We really don’t have the choice. Tadej spent five weeks without being able to train on the road.

There are no miracles in cycling. You have to get the miles in. “He has worked hard, we have a lot of faith in him, but we’re not certain of anything.

“He won Slovenian Nationals [both road and time trial] and they were won in fine style. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be 100 per cent ready come Saturday. “The injury isn’t completely behind him.

We have to be careful because his preparation has been curtailed. A month ago we still weren’t sure of anything. “If we look at the glass being half full, we can say he’ll be coming into the Tour a lot fresher.