Sean Yates
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Sean Yates (born 18 May 1960 at Ewell in Surrey) is an English former professional cyclist and a sporting director of the Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.
Prior to his professional career, Yates competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics, finishing 6th in the 4,000m individual pursuit (he also later competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics); in 1980 he also won the British 25-mile individual time trial championship.
He turned professional in 1982, joining the Peugeot cycling team, before moving on to Fagor in 1988 (one team-mate throughout this period was Scot Robert Millar). He then joined the American team 7-Eleven (1989) and later team 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 professional cycling career as a domestique, but won stages in the Tour de France (a time trial stage at Wasquehal, won at a Tour record speed) and the Vuelta a España in 1988. That year he also won a stage in both the Paris-Nice and Midi-Libre stage races and finished fourth in the Kellogg's 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 - at the time only the third Briton to have done so. Yates rode in 12 Tours de France, completing nine.
After retiring as a professional cyclist in 1996, Yates became team manager of the Linda McCartney Pro Cycling Team, which competed at the Giro d'Italia. After the collapse of the Linda McCartney team 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.
While no longer a professional, Yates has continued to train and race, fitting cycling around his various team management roles. In 1997, he won the British 50-mile individual time trial championship, and he finished third in the same event in 2005.
