Adam Yates has managed to survive the first three days of Tirreno-Adriatico and, provided he can get through today, he wants to eradicate his 25-second deficit to the best place GC man, BMC’s Tejay van Garderen on tomorrow’s queen stage.

“This has always been my first big goal of the season,” the 23-year-old from Bury said to Cycling Weekly. “In training, I had some of the best power of my life a couple of weeks ago.

“I think I showed over the last two years that I can be up there when I’m going good. Last year, I won my first WorldTour race in San Sebastián, so why not go one step more?”

He has the benefit of a teammate too, with Colombian Esteban Chaves sitting on the same time as Yates, giving Orica-GreenEDGE a two-pronged attack.