While his brother Adam has been in the spotlight by virtue of strong performances in Turkey, California and the Dauphiné, Simon Yates has been recovering from a broken collarbone. This week he is doing his first stage race since his crash at the Tour de Slovenie and yesterday he proved that he is already back at a high level when he finished 5th in the queen stage.

Simon Yates continues to demonstrate that he’s recovered well from a broken collarbone sustained at the Tour of Turkey in April with strong performances in his first stage race since surgery to repair the break. The neo-pro climbed to fifth place on the third stage of the Tour de Slovénie on the mountain finish in Trije Kralji. The result is enough to keep Yates in the best young rider jersey and leapfrog up the general classification into seventh overall. Michael Matthews suffered up the final ascent and tumbled down to 59th place overall as Tiago Machado (NetApp – Endura) moved into the race lead.

"Six riders got away early. Lampre-Merida and Cannondale controlled things from the start. We didn’t have to do any work, which is unusual when you have the leader’s jersey. It worked well for us.

"We knew it was all going to come down to the final climb. At the start of the climb, we had Bling and Simon, but Bling wasn’t on a good day. He got dropped fairly early, leaving just Simon in the front.

"Simon was actually quite aggressive. He tried to get away from the front group multiple times. Tiago counter-attacked one of Simon’s move, and Simon was under the pump at the moment. A few other guys were able to respond, and the gap began to grow. From there it was a race for fourth place. 

"Simon managed to get a jump on a couple guys toward the finish and steal a few seconds from guys ahead of him on the general classification. It was a great ride. It’s only his second race back since the collarbone break – and only the first stage race. He still has the white young rider’s jersey.

"Although Matthews lost the yellow jersey, he still has the red sprint jersey. We’re expecting tomorrow to be a sprint, and Matthews is our guy for the finish."