After a strong opening few days of the Tour de France, the Yates brothers are starting to lose time to allow them to go stage hunting for Orica-Greenedge later in the Tour de France. But DS Matt White was pleased with how they have ridden so far, especially Simon’s eighth place on the Mur de Huy on stage three.

“This is the Tour de France, isn’t it? Both of them are no frills guys, they get on with the job. The kid has some form, it’s very exciting for us. Hopefully over the net two days, we can get through scot-free,” White told Cycling Weekly.

Simon’s stage three ride was even better when you consider the bad crash he suffered. White explained what happened to the on form Brit.

“It was a hectic moment, when we did get to the guys, we had bike changes and helmet changes. Simon had really jarred his shoulder, landed on the back of his head, cracked his helmet,” White said.

“He had a bad knock with his shoulder and leg, he was holding his wrist.”

Simon himself was delighted with the result considering the circumstances.

“It could’ve been better. Well, I was unhappy with the result, if you said I’d get eighth in a Tour stage, I’d be happy, but I just think that it could’ve been better without the crash. Then, I was a bit scared coming into the final, a bit bad positioning, stuff like this. If anything, I’ve taken the positive out of it because I know I have good legs and there are so many stages to come yet.”

Simon says his ride at the Tour last year has really helped him this year when it comes to relaxing and saving energy.

“My experience from last year is paying off. I’m saving energy, just cruising at the back, staying out of trouble, it doesn’t matter if I lose 20 or five minutes,” Yates said.

“There’s a lot going on, there’s a lot of stress. It’s the same as last year, there’s a lot of crashes, a lot of stress.”