Tour de Yorkshire: Adam Yates expecting 'very unpredictable' race

Britain's Adam Yates expects this weekend's Tour de Yorkshire to be "very unpredictable" and has played down his chances of overall victory.

The second edition of the three-day race starts with two stages on Friday and Saturday that will most likely end in sprints and then concludes with a hilly third stage on Sunday.

Yates had been hoping to challenge in the general classification, but he is still recovering from illness picked up last month and admits he is unsure how competitive he will be.

The 23-year-old from Bury told skysports.com: "It's a very unpredictable race and you never know what could happen if you're willing to take a chance. You have to be switched on and 100 per cent from day one.

"Because of the small teams, there is not a lot of control in the peloton, so if you can get an early advantage, it will make life difficult for other teams. Equally, if you go on the attack towards the end of the race and teams have lost one or two riders, it will be tough for them to chase you down.

"My plan initially was to ride for the general classification, but I was sick after the Tour of the Basque Country and I was going pretty poorly in both Amstel Gold and La Fleche Wallonne last week.

"I was feeling a little better towards the end of last week for Liege-Bastogne-Liege, so hopefully I'm on the way back up and hopefully I can be fully fit for the Tour de Yorkshire."

Yates is a climbing specialist and had intended to use Sunday's third stage from Middlesbrough to Scarborough, which contains six categorised climbs and 2,593m of vertical ascent, as a platform for a bid for the overall title.

However, if his challenge does not materialise, he is happy to drop down into a supporting role for Orica-GreenEdge team-mates, such as up-and-coming sprinter Caleb Ewan.

Yates added: "The course is pretty tough. It's not an out-and-out climbers' course, so it doesn't suit me down to the ground, but there are stages that I could do well on.

"We have also got Caleb in the team, and not only is he a fast sprinter, but he has shown in the past that he can get over the little steep climbs, so he could do well this weekend.

"We also have another sprinter in Luka Mezgec, so we have got good options for both sprints and the overall."

Adam Yates was speaking at a Yorkshire Bank Bike Library in Doncaster. For more information on Yorkshire Bank Bike Libraries, visit www.ybonline.co.uk/bikelibraries