Simon and Adam Yates extend for two years with Orica-BikeExchange

Adam and Simon Yates have agreed to contract extensions with Orica-BikeExchange that will see them stay at the Australian team until at least the end of the 2018 season.

The pair have flourished since first joining the WorldTour squad at the start of the 2014 season, but have suffered very different fortunes this year.

Simon's season has been marred by an administration error over the use of an inhaler than meant he was banned from racing for four months after a positive test at Paris-Nice. That ruled him out of the Tour de France, but he returned to winning ways as soon as he was cleared to ride.

Adam on the other hand was the breakthrough performer of the Tour, sitting in a podium position until stage 19. He still finished in fourth overall and in the white jersey of best young rider, the first Brit to win that classification.

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“I'm really happy to extend my contract with the team and take the next, important steps in my career here,” Adam Yates said.

“I'm ready to target a podium spot in the Grand Tours and with the support and environment the team gives me, I think we can achieve it.”

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The young British riders are getting the kind of opportunities that might not be afforded to them at other teams where they'd be put to work on the front of the peloton for hours on end.

“They have showed their faith in me from the start and I've been able to benefit from the experience of riding key races as a protected leader" Simon Yates said.

"That's an opportunity that doesn't exist too often in your first years as a professional.”

Moving forward, the Yates brothers will bolster the general classification chances of a team that had previously concentrated on team time trials and stage wins. Orica have also signed Carlos Verona and Roman Kreuzinger as it looks to support its lead riders in the mountains at Grand Tours.