THE Yates twins will take plenty of positives from their Tour de France experience after the Bury brothers both finished cycling's blue riband event for the first time.

Simon, who was withdrawn from his debut race last year on the second rest day, struggled through despite suffering from an illness during the three-week event, eventually powering to an 11th-placed finish in the final climb up Alp D'Huez.

Adam was not too far behind on Saturday's penultimate stage, dropping back in the last few kilometres to come home in 22nd.

But both 22-year-olds showed enough promise to suggest they have the raw talent to carry on Great Britain's recent progress in the sport, following compatriot Chris Froome's second yellow jersey in the last three years.

“I think that I’ve been able to take a lot from last year that I’ve been able to use it this year,” Simon told Cyclingnews.

“It’s the Tour de France, it’s the hardest race we do all year. There’s a lot of suffering and I don’t think you learn to suffer, it’s just one of those things. Luckily I have a whole year to recover from it.”

The Yates brothers are being groomed as future General Classification challengers by their Australian team, Orica-GreenEdge, and they didn’t disappoint in France.

The pair were allowed the freedom to see how they fared, riding an aggressive strategy and getting into a number of breaks.

Simon struggled in the Pyrenees but by the time the race reached the iconic Alpe d’Huez he had the measure of several of the favourites, beating the likes of Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador up the climb.

“I got sick for a good week or so, I’ve only really started to come back around in the last couple of days.

“I’m still in pain from the effort so I don’t really know. I don’t think I was able to fully test myself as much as I would have liked to but I’m 22 so I’ve still got a few years ahead of me,” he said after coming 89th overall and gaining two top 10 stage finishes.

“It’s good because I did the recon for this climb (Alp D'Huez) and my brother wasn’t able to.

“I think it showed at the end. He really tried to dig deep and hold on to the favourites and, especially with the wind there was a big headwind up there, once he was dropped he was on his own, it takes its toll, whereas because I did the recon I knew the climb a bit more.

“I knew just to save it until the end.”

Adam managed three top-10 stage finishes in his first try at the Tour and crossed the line in Paris on Sunday to claim 50th place overall.

He understandably tired, but it was his performance at the start of the second week that impressed most with a seventh place on the first mountain stage to La Pierre-Saint-Martin, finishing just over two minutes down on Chris Froome, who won the stage.

He also began the Alps well with a 10th-place finish on Pra Loup.

“It’s been a great experience all the way through," said Adam.

"It was stressful in the first few stages (when his team lost three racers to bad crashes) but in general it’s been nice.

“I don’t really have a favourite moment but, for me, my best performance was on the first mountain stage where I came seventh. I went up against the big guys and I didn’t lose too much time so I guess I can be pretty happy with that.”

There’s not much time for either of the Yates brothers to sit back and absorb their success, with the Clásica San Sebastian this Saturday.