Sean Yates, new Head of Performance for the EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team project
The Englishman Sean Yates joins the Pro Team project promoted by the Contador Foundation. Yates (Ewell, United Kingdom; 1960) will take on the role of Head Of Performance for the new EOLO-KOMETA Cycling Team. This year Yates was working for the French team Nippo Delko One Provence. Yates has extensive experience in the world of cycling.
As a rider, he was a professional for fifteen seasons (1982-1996) in which he achieved notable stage wins in races such as the Tour de France, the Tour of Spain, Paris-Nice and the Dauphine. Yates wore the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France and was a British National Champion. As a Sports Director, he began his career in 1999 with the Linda McCartney Racing Team and since then has worked in teams such as Team CSC, Astana, Discovery Channel, Team Sky, Tinkoff-Saxo, Tinkoff and Delko.
“I’m very excited about this new adventure,” says Yates. “It all happened very quickly. A couple of weeks ago Ivan rang me and asked me what I was up to. I told him I had just left Delko and was thinking about my next steps. Ivan instantly made me a proposal and I accepted. It was too good an opportunity to refuse. I have known Ivan since 2004 when he was a rider at CSC and I was a Sports Director there. Since then I have worked with him at Discovery Channel and Tinkoff-Saxo and Tinkoff and we have always had a good relationship. A few times since the demise of Tinkoff we have talked about possibly working together again, but things haven’t quite come to fruition for various reasons. Now things are really happening and I’m pleased to be working with Ivan, Alberto (Contador) and Jesus (Hernandez) as I have worked with them all before and I have a very good relationship with all of them. Friendship is always a great addition to a good working environment”.
“To shape the team, there are some intense days of work ahead” continues Yates, who has been living in Spain for some time. “The team is moving up a level and the range of races in which the riders will compete is much greater. We will be racing in the big races against the best riders. It is without a doubt a big step. Obviously at this point in time we can’t be thinking about winning the general classification of a race like the Giro, Vuelta or Tour de France, but we can talk about presenting a good team image, showing great commitment and being as good as we can be. This is initially a three-year project, which allows us to develop in a controlled but progressive way, growing day by day to be a bigger and better team”.
Regarding the creation of the new EOLO-KOMETA Cycling team, he added: “I’m a new face in the team and want to become more familiar with the existing members who I don’t yet know. I´m also going to be introducing new riders to the team to complete our roster for 2021. We already have many young riders here, riders for sure who will shine in the future. In 2021 they will have the possibility of gaining experience, but we also need some more experienced riders who will allow us to be at the races with more certainty of our competitiveness. Experience is always important. For many of the youngsters it is going to be a very big step, but for sure it will be very good for them. Another interesting aspect for me is the exciting race programme that is evolving that looks like it could include WorldTour races”.
