Two days before the Tour de France peloton hits Paris, 23-year-old Adam Yates currently sits third overall, trailing Sky’s Chris Froome by 4’16.

Yates has a confidence that Wilson says comes from a raw competitive drive. Evidently, the budding climbing specialist rarely responds to text messages from anyone and doesn’t give much away to the media.

“We can talk for hours with him and he won’t use 10 words if one word will do,” his Orica-BikeExchange sports director Matt Wilson told Cyclingweekly. “If you waffle on he’s like, ‘what the f**k are you talking about?’”

The owner of the white jersey of best young rider, Yates has taken it one day at a time during the Tour, largely keeping pace with the group containing Froome and protecting his general classification status.

“He’s just a competitor. He just wants to be left alone, race his bike and win. I don’t think he’s particularly interested in fame or fortune or anything like that,” Wilson says. “Most people think, ‘can he hang onto third, can he hang onto third?’ I think he’s up there thinking about, ‘how I can win.’ He’d never say that but that’s just the sort of person he is.”

“I’ve never met a GC guy like him,” Wilson observes. “He knows what he wants that’s for sure. He is a confident man. He’s only 23 years old so he’s so young, he’s still sort of finding his legs and obviously has a lot to learn but he’s different.”

Yates currently trails Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) by 24 seconds, rounding off the podium. However, both Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and a re-surgent Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) will be looking to separate Yates from the podium. But, barring any serious incident, 2016 should see Yates hugely improve on his 50th overall place last season.

“Everyone is a big fan of Adam. He’s a different sort of character but he’s himself,” Wilson says.