Sean Yates

Infobox Cyclist
ridername = Sean Yates


fullname = Sean Yates
nickname =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1960|05|18
country = GBR
height =
weight =
currentteam =
discipline = Road
role = Rider
ridertype =
amateurteams =
amateuryears =
proyears = 1982–1986 1987–1988 1989–1990 1991–1996
proteams = Peugeot Fagor 7-Eleven Motorola
majorwins =
updated = May 27, 2008

Sean Yates (born 18 May 1960 at Ewell in Surrey) is an English former professional cyclist and a team official.

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.

He turned professional in 1982 for Peugeot cycling team, moving to Fagor in 1988. A team-mate in this period was Scot, Robert Millar). He joined the American team, 7-Eleven, (1989) and then 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. He was too heavy to climb with the best however.

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 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.

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.

Palmarès

;1982:Airedale:4th stage Circuit Cycliste de la Sarthe:Classic New Southsea:Great Yorkshire:Southsea:3rd stage Tour d'Indre-et-Loire;1983:London;1984:Bristol:Prologue Four days of Dunkerque;1986:2nd stage Milk Race;1987:GP de Cannes:3rd stage Tour of Ireland;1988:5th stage GP du Midi-Libre:1st stage Paris - Nice:Tour de France::Winner stage 6:Vuelta a España::Winner stage 12;1989:GP Eddy Merckx:Tour of Belgium (including stages 1A and 1B:Prologue Ronde van Nederland;1991:5th stage Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré:4th stage Tour of Ireland;1992:GBR national road race championship;1994:USPro:Tour de France::Wore yellow jersey for one day after stage 6

External links

*cyclingwebsite|406
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/content/articles/2007/05/18/tour_de_france_sean_yates_feature.shtml] , "Q&A: Sean Yates", Ben Moore, BBC, 2007.