Tour de France: Simon Yates rues 'wasted energy' after missed opportunity on Stage 17 - Running out of legs'

Simon Yates rued his wasted energy as he missed out on a Stage 17 win at the Tour de France on Wednesday, with Richard Carapaz overhauling him at Col du Noyer to take the win. The Team Jayco AlUla rider had his best chance for a stage win, but admitted that he was "running out of legs by the end" of the ride when the Ecuadorian overtook him.

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Simon Yates pulled no punches when assessing his Stage 17 performances in the Tour de France on Wednesday.

Yates, who finished second behind Richard Carapaz, spoke about what he would do differently in the immediate aftermath of the stage, saying: “Not waste so much energy in the start.”

The Team Jayco AlUla rider crossed the line 37 seconds after the Ecuadorian star. The Brit had attempted to break from the pack at the day’s most challenging ascent, the Col du Noyer, only to be overtaken by Carapaz.

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The Ecuadorian took the stage just a month after suffering a horrible crash at the Tour de Suisse, for which he required five stitches for three cuts in his mouth and forced him to pull out of that race.

It was Yates' best chance at winning a stage in this year's Tour. He was succinct when asked what happened when Carapaz overhauled him, simply explaining: “I was running out of legs at the end".

“I was jumping around in the start a lot like everybody but it was not an easy stage, crosswinds at first and a lot of jumping around, flat roads… it wasn’t easy for me to be there. I did my best but I was running out of legs in the end,” he said.

“Chapeau to Richie, he did a great ride so that was all I could do."

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Yates' decision to attack at Col du Noyer was strategically right, his already-depleted energy levels defeated him.

“I followed Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich-PostNL) at the bottom there. I didn’t know if he was going to launch somebody else or do something himself. But I saw I had a gap and decided to go full gas, and once I got the gap, I preferred to be alone.

“So I tried to keep Richie and Stevie Williams [Israel-Premier Tech] away and maybe I paid for that a little bit in the end. But I didn’t really want them to catch me because you saw the end result.”

Col du Noyer was Yates’ best chance to capture a third stage win, adding to the two he picked up in the Pyrenees on the 2019 tour. After the loss, the 31-year-old was rather ominous on what the remainder of the Tour had in store for him.

“I don’t know what the GC guys want to do in next mountain stages. If there is a chance I’ll try,” he promised. “But the legs are not giving me what I need at the minute.”

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