Sean Yates
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Sean Yates | ||
| Born | 18 May 1960  United Kingdom |
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| Team information | |||
| Discipline | Road | ||
| Role | Rider | ||
| Amateur team(s) | |||
| East Grinstead CC Archer RC '34 Nomads ACBB |
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| Professional team(s) | |||
| 1982–1986 1987–1988 1989–1990 1991–1996 |
Peugeot Fagor 7-Eleven Motorola |
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| Managerial team(s) | |||
| 2005-2009 2010– |
Discovery Channel Team Sky |
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| Major wins | |||
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| Infobox last updated on 27 May 2008 |
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Sean Yates (born 18 May 1960 at Ewell in Surrey) is an English former professional cyclist and head Directeur Sportif at Team Sky.
Contents |
[edit] Career
Yates competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics, finishing sixth in the 4,000m individual pursuit. He also competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics. As an amateur in 1980, he won the British 25-mile individual time trial championship, and took the national record for 10-mile time trials with 19m 44s.
As an amateur Yates rode for ACBB in Paris with fellow British riders John Herety and Jeff Williams. Yates quickly became known for his incredible turn of speed and power. He turned professional in 1982 for Peugeot cycling team riding alongside Graham Jones, Robert Millar and Stephen Roche. He then moved to Fagor in 1988. In 1989 he then joined the American team, 7-Eleven and then in 1991 Motorola, where he rode with Lance Armstrong.
He was British professional individual pursuit champion in 1982 and 1983.
Yates spent much of his 15-year career as a domestique, but he won stages in the Tour de France (a time trial stage at Wasquehal, at Tour record speed) and the Vuelta a España in 1988. That year he also won a stage in Paris–Nice and Midi-Libre and finished fourth in the Tour of Britain. The following year (1989), he took two stages and overall victory in the Tour of Belgium, won the GP Eddy Merckx and finished second in Gent–Wevelgem.
Yates wore the maillot jaune in the 1994 Tour de France, the third Briton to do so. Yates rode 12 Tours, completing nine; 45th was his best placing. He was powerful on flat stages and noted as a descender of mountains. For a rouleur Yates climbed very well for his weight.
In 1989 Yates tested positive in a doping test in the first stage of Torhout-Werchter.
[edit] Management career
After retiring in 1996, Yates became manager of the Linda McCartney Racing Team, which competed at the Giro d'Italia. After the team's collapse in 2001, Yates helped set up the Australian iteamNova, but left after funds ran out. After six months out of cycling, he joined Team CSC-Tiscali before moving to Discovery in 2005 at the invitation of Lance Armstrong. In June 2007, Yates was manager of Team Discovery a USA team, and in 2008 went on to manage riders on the Astana cycling team. In 2009 he was signed up as director of the newly formed Team Sky, a British based team intent on providing Britain's first Tour De France winner.
[edit] Post-professional racing
In 1997, he won the British 50-mile time-trial championship, and he finished third in the same event in 2005. In May 2007, he said he would not compete as a veteran because of heart irregularities, but he still competes at regional events, primarily in the Southeast. Yates currently plays football for Old St Marys Football Club as a goalkeeper in Amateur Football Combination.[1]
In 2009, he was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.[2]
[edit] Palmarès
- 1980
- 1st Prologue, Sealink International
- 1982
- 1st Airedale
- 1st Stage 4 Circuit Cycliste de la Sarthe
- 1st Classic New Southsea
- 1st Great Yorkshire
- 1st Southsea
- 1st Stage 3 Tour d'Indre-et-Loire
- 1983
- 1st London
- 5th Overall, Milk Race
- 1984
- 1st Bristol
- 1st Prologue Four days of Dunkerque
- 1986
- 1st Stage 2 Milk Race
- 12th Overall Tour of Ireland
- 1987
- 1st GP de Cannes
- 1st Stage 3 Tour of Ireland
- 1988
- 1st Stage 5 GP du Midi-Libre
- 1st Stage Paris - Nice
- 1st Stage 6 Tour de France
- 1st Stage 12 Vuelta a España
- 1989
- 1st GP Eddy Merckx
- 1st Stage 1A Tour of Belgium
- 1st Stage 1B Tour of Belgium
- 1st Prologue Ronde van Nederland
- 1991
- 1st Stage 5 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
- 1st Stage 4 Tour of Ireland
- 1992
- 1st
British National Road Race Championships - 1994
- 1st USPRO Road Race
- Tour de France
- Wore yellow jersey for one day after stage 6
[edit] References
- ^ Old St Marys Football Club, Third Team match report, 10 October 2009. Accessed 2009-12-08.
- ^ "50 Cycling Heroes Named in British Cycling's Hall of Fame". British Cycling. 2009-12-17. http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/sport/article/bc20091216-Hall-of-fame-fifty.
[edit] External links
- Sean Yates profile at Cycling Archives
- Q&A: Sean Yates, Ben Moore, BBC, 2007.
