Visma | Lease a Bike seduces Simon Yates to join the Dutch team

If we are to believe the usually reliable HLN , Simon Yates will become one of Visma | Lease a Bike's grand tour leaders starting next cycling season. The 31-year-old British cyclist is moving from the Australian-Saudi team, Jayco AlUla, which plans to feature Ben O'Connor as its main grand tour rider moving forward.

Yates, of course, has already earned his stripes in cycling. He won the Vuelta in 2018 and also seemed on his way to winning the Giro that year after numerous stage wins, but a major slump thwarted those plans. In 2021, he finished on the podium of the Tour of Italy once more, while last season he finished fourth in the Tour de France.

Having raced for years alongside his twin brother Adam at what is now Jayco AlUla, Simon watched his brother abandon ship and move to INEOS Grenadiers in 2021 and then to UAE-Team Emirates, where Adam plays a crucial role supporting Tadej Pogacar. Just last week, Adam clinched an impressive victory in the Tour of Switzerland and secured third place in the previous year's Tour de France.

According to HLN, Simon Yates is on the hunt for a team that boasts several grand tour leaders, allowing the pressure to be shared among multiple shoulders. The climber from Bury seems to have found this ideal setup at Visma | Lease a Bike, where he would share the role of deputy leader to Jonas Vingegaard with several other riders.

Cycling transfers can be confirmed from August 1st, but Visma | Lease a Bike seems well on its way to making impressive signings. The acquisition of Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) and Axel Zingle (Cofidis) also appears to be almost finalized, while Tijmen Graat, Menno Huising, Jorgen Nordhagen, and Matthew Brennan are set to move up from the training squad.