Simon Yates is ready to take on the mountains of the Tour de France. He is now officially the youngest rider in the race too, with Danny van Poppel of Trek abandoning yesterday. He hasn’t raced more than 8 days in a row as a pro but should he make it to Tuesday’s rest day then that will change.

"I'm looking forward to it (the Vosges)," he told Cyclingnews at the start of stage 7. "Hopefully I've got good legs and hopefully I can get in a break and do a good ride and hopefully I can get up there and have a go. I've been taking it easier the last couple of days and I'm feeling fresh so I'll give it a go." 

Now that he is away from the UK, he feels like there is less pressure on him and this is all to his advantage as he can relax a little more.

"There's been a lot less media wanting to talk to me and I've had a lot more time to get changed," he laughed. "It's been ok. The crowds are a lot less and the stress is a lot less, because of the sheer amount of people in the UK was 10 deep the whole way around."

Yates has arguably been thrown in at the deep end, riding what is arguably the hardest opening week of the Tour de France in a long time, with cobbles, mini Classic like stages and plenty of crashes. And all of this in addition to the Tour being his debut Grand Tour in his neo-pro year.

"I've ridden a couple of cobbled races. In the last couple of years, I've ridden the under-23 Flanders and Roubaix a couple of years ago. I did Gent-Wevelgem earlier this year, but none of them were in the wet, they were all in the dry. It was an experience, I can say that but I don't fancy doing it again soon," said Yates.

He is also fresh after Greenedge as a whole team enjoyed a fairly quiet opening week, but they will hope to come alive over the next few days.

“All these stages have not been for me and not for the team. I've just been chilling out in the back and staying out of trouble. I might end up being a little fresher than at the end of Paris-Nice or something like that," he said to Cyclingnews. "I've got to take it day-by-day. I might wake up in two days time and I’m absolutely knackered and on my deathbed. I'm going to take it day-by-day and I'm sure we'll see."