Simon Yates is keen to get his racing season back on track at the British Cycling National Road Championships after injury wrecked the opening of his first season as a neo-professional at Orica GreenEdge.

Yates and brother Adam are among the challengers for the title but a collarbone break in the Tour of Turkey has meant two months of frustration and recovery for the 2013 world points race champion.

Yates signed to the Australian UCI World Tour team at the end of the 2013 season after some landmark results earlier in the year, the highlight beating Bradley Wiggins, Nairo Quintana and a host of other established stars on the Devon stage of the Tour of Britain.

The 21-year-old Yates twins from Bury were headhunted by Orica Greenedge and Simon went into the Tour of Turkey as a protected rider.

But disaster struck on stage three – Yates falling and breaking his collarbone, requiring surgery and two month hiatus in his race schedule.

“Recovery is going well at the minute,” said Yates. “A couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a setback really. I had a reaction to the staples I had keeping the wound together. I was down to race Bayern Rundfahrt but with this reaction coming up I couldn't so that postponed my comeback a few weeks.

Yates sat the German race out and focussed on training, “playing catch up” before his return to racing with the GP du Canton d'Argovie one-day race in Switzerland on 12 June, followed by the Tour of Slovenia on 19-22 June, just a week out from the nationals.

“It always takes a while to get back into racing if you've had a bit of a break so I think a few races before the nationals will obviously do me good,” said Yates, whose motivation has been spurred on by the success of his twin, who took over the mantle and won Tour of Turkey before an impressive debut performance at the Criterium du Dauphine.

"I enjoy training hard and catching up on what I've missed - I'm really motivated to get back to where I was and specially with Adam doing so well, I kind of want a piece of the action," said Yates.

Yates’ chance may come on 29 June, with the 2014 national road race course serving up a stiff challenge on the hilly Monmouthshire parcours. And while the hills are Yates’ natural stomping ground, Simon, who will race in the elite category due to his UCI World Tour team status, admits that the finishing circuit may not favour the pure climber.

“It looks quite hard, quite lumpy,” said Yates. ”For me it would have been better if it had finished at the top of a climb really. I've looked at the finishing circuits and the finish is at the bottom of the descent basically.”

With Adam the only other Orica GreenEdge rider, a lack of strength-in-numbers may also weigh against him. However Yates is keen to get amongst the action and take the race to the favourites and those with more team support.

"You've got to try haven't you?” he said. “If you don't try then you never know. If it is as hilly as we think it is I think 'why not have a go' and try and make the race a bit?

“With just me and Adam racing together as a team - I'm not sure how many guys Sky have but we could be outnumbered there.

“You can't really dismiss the British pro teams ,” Yates continued. “I've been looking at some of the results in some of the races and they're all good riders, especially with them having so many numbers it could go either way.”

With the national championships, like many one-day races tough to call, Yates is concentrating on his recovery and looking forward to racing again and six months into his first season as a pro, is enjoying the lack of pressure and expectation on him at present.

“I've got no complaints at all really,” said Yates. “There’s not much pressure on me to perform being a first year. I always go a lot better when there is no pressure and there's no expectation to do anything.”

With big names like defending champion Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh, David Millar and Ben Swift on the start list, Yates may be able to race under the radar and cause a few surprises.

“We'll just have to see when we get to the course really,” he said. “On paper it looks fairly good but I've been training quite hard so hopefully the form is there.”

The British Cycling National Road Championships take place on 26 and 29 June based in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, with the time-trials taking place on 26 June and the elite men’s and women’s road races on 29 June.