Sean Yates

Sean Yates (born 18 May 1960 at Ewell in Surrey) is an English former professional cyclist and head Directeur Sportif at Team Sky.

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.

As an amateur Yates rode for ACBB in Paris with fellow British riders John Herety and Jeff Williams. Yates quickly became known for his incredible turn of speed and power. He turned professional in 1982 for Peugeot cycling team riding alongside Graham Jones, Robert Millar and Stephen Roche. He then moved to Fagor in 1988. In 1989 he then joined the American team, 7-Eleven and then in 1991 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...
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