After clinging to the Tour de France yellow jersey for four days, Adam Yates returned to his pre-race plan of going for a stage win as the race entered its second week.

Yates let go of the yellow on day two in the Pyrenees and enters the first rest day 1:02 behind Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma), but for the future Ineos Grenadiers rider to realistically start targeting stage wins, he will need to lose more time and drop down the overall standings The next two days are relatively flat. The next two days are relatively flat, but the crosswinds will be a threat, especially on stage 10. Yates may sit out the next mountain stage to try to reduce his time before the next stage. Guyon-Puy-Marie on stage 13 is suitable for a breakaway, which could start an attack by riders trying to steal the stage win from the yellow jersey contenders.

"He attacked aggressively on stage 2 to take the yellow jersey.

"To get into the break, we probably need to be 10 minutes behind. Yesterday it took me 60km to break. You have to drop back a lot before they give you freedom; you're only down about three minutes and if you try to go up the road, they'll shut you down."

"A lot of teams are organized and going well. The next few days are flat and the forecast is not too windy, so we won't lose too much time, but if we have to, we'll go from the back and lose time here and there before the big stages in the Alps," Yates said.

Yates finished third on the second stage to Nice and clearly has the form needed to contend for a stage win late in the race, but he is not the only one with a shot at victory in Mitchelton-Scott.

Yates believes that a period of time in the yellow jersey will help instill confidence in the rest of the team. He said, "Everyone would love to wear the yellow jersey, and when I watched the Tour as a kid, I adored the yellow jersey. It's a great honor to wear the yellow jersey and it's great for the team. There are still a lot of opportunities for the team in the coming weeks. Time is on my side and I can go into the next two weeks with confidence."