Simon Yates, despite not being sure, got his chance at Visma and reveals end goal of his career

The climax of the year: surely we can call stage 20 of this year's Giro d'Italia that. Simon Yates won the Tour of Italy in an amazing fashion, Richard Carapaz and Isaac Del Toro gambled and lost. The 33-year-old Englishman from Visma | Lease a Bike thus won his second grand tour, although he was not sure of his chances after his transfer to the Dutch team.

From 2014 to 2024, Yates raced for what is now known as Jayco AlUla and there he enjoyed great successes, including winning the Vuelta a España. Nevertheless, it was time for something else at the end of 2024, when the then 32-year-old rider from Bury signed a contract with Visma | Lease a Bike.

"I wasn't sure if I would get my chance at Visma," Yates told Rouleur Live honestly. Still, the transfer was well discussed beforehand, including with his new team. "If you give me a chance at the Giro, I will try and take it. And then I’d still go to the Tour as a domestique for Jonas," the Englishman told Visma | Lease a Bike.

And so it happened. The veteran rider went to the Giro for the eighth time in his career and, through a coup in stage 20, pulled off a gigantic stunt. Yates miraculously won the Tour of Italy, which the Englishman still likes to look back on. "My only chance was that Isaac Del Toro and Richard Carapaz would look at each other," Yates remembers.

"I’d tried to drop them earlier in the race, and if anything they were stronger than me," the veteran continued about that amazing climax in the stage to Sestrière. "I needed that moment of hesitation. I knew Carapaz had already won the Giro and so a second or third place doesn’t matter to him. So, it all fell into place for me."

"When I was initiating the attacks, there wasn’t much chat from the car," Yates remembers. "But when I had the gap, I needed to know if they were together because if they were together they would be riding slower. I was screaming down the radio." Not much later, Wout van Aert joined his leader. "That Wout was there I think it cracked the other two."

And Yates doesn't just mean that because of Van Aert's physical qualities. "It was the mental aspect. Them hearing 'Simon’s joined Wout’. Those two are already fighting, they were already not friends,” the Englishman recalls that amazing turnaround on May 31, 2025.

With that, Yates managed to take revenge on the Giro and the Colle de Finestre, where he gave away the overall victory in 2018 through a huge offday. "The Giro is a race I fell in love with. In 2018, I fell famously apart. In the coming years, I came back and tried again, but it never worked," said Yates.

Whereas this season, he said he couldn’t have wished for a better run at the race: "This year was so smooth, not one puncture or crash. That’s where it starts. It's a relief, where you say ‘I cannot believe it’s gone so smoothly’.”

"This year was so smooth, not one puncture or crash," Yates continued. "That’s where it starts. It's a relief, where you say ‘I cannot believe it’s gone so smoothly’." So did that Giro victory change him? "I don’t think I have changed. Nothing will ever beat that, not even just in cycling, my whole life. The high that I got from the race, I can't imagine that I'll ever have that again."

In August, Yates turned 33 and so the question slowly arises as to what the career of the rider from Bury still has in store. Or at least: what does Visma | Lease a Bike still have in store for him? "The Tour podium on this team might be difficult. But I knew that, when I signed for the team. It would be something that would motivate me," the Englishman seems to mention a final goal.