Mitchelton-Scott's Tour de France hope, Adam Yates, kept pace with the main contenders on stage 2 of the Critérium du Dauphiné on Monday, while teammate Jack Haig was able to infiltrate the day's main breakaway. Yates – who will lead the Australian WorldTour team at the Tour next month – was able to stay with the GC contenders on the final climb of the Côte-de-Saint-Victor-sur-Arlanc. Although the group couldn't catch the day's winner Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) and breakaway companion Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Gobert), Yates finished in the company of Chris Froome (Team Ineos), Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Groupama-FDJ's Thibaut Pinot to take 10th place on the stage and is also now 10th overall, 24 seconds behind current race leader Teuns. Haig, meanwhile – returning from a knee injury – was able to take the pressure off his teammates by featuring in the day's main breakaway, alongside such big names as Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and Astana's Gorka Izagirre.ADVERTISEMENT However, the presence of such danger men meant that the 13-rider group was never going to be allowed to succeed, and the race came back together with 35km to go of the 180km stage from Mauriac to Craponne-sur-Arzon. "'Haigy' managed to get into the break, which was the perfect situation for us with such a strong group going away," Yates said via his team's website. "Ultimately, the peloton didn't give them much room with such big names up there, but if it had stayed away, it could have been a nice opportunity for Haigy to try for the win. "It was a good day in general, but it was another tricky day, especially with the rain and technical roads. But the guys looked after me perfectly and set me up for that final steep climb," he continued.
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