Zonneveld and Knetemann rip into Simon Yates: “Now suddenly he acts tough in an interview”

Yates was clearly still running on emotion after the stage 19 finish when a microphone was thrust in front of him. “We had a completely different plan from what we actually did. We need to review this with the team. I won’t say more,” vented the usually calm climber. Sports director Marc Reef responded, “This was how we planned it. We wanted to make the race hard whenever possible, and the guys did a fantastic job.”

“I don’t know exactly what happened up front, but this was roughly the plan. Simon benefits from a hard and steady tempo, and that is what we delivered,” said Wilco Kelderman, who set a strong pace for much of the stage among the GC contenders. Ultimately, pink jersey Isaac Del Toro and second-placed Richard Carapaz broke away, gaining 24 seconds on Yates, who now trails Del Toro by 1:21 going into the final stages. Fourth-placed Derek Gee sits 1:06 behind Yates.

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As expected, cycling analysts in several daily podcasts reacted sharply to Yates’ post-stage remarks. Roxane Knetemann called it “typical” on In Het Wiel. “My first thought is, what exactly was this original plan that supposedly wasn’t executed? And come on, you’re right there in the group. If the plan wasn’t for Visma to set the tempo, then you say so. You communicate that it needs to stop. This shows very little respect for your teammates.”

AD journalist Marijn Abbenhuijs agreed. “The fact that Yates lost time to Del Toro and Carapaz is surely also down to Yates’ own level of performance. You can point fingers all you want, but that doesn’t strike me as very sporting.” Knetemann added, “All week Yates has been giving pre-stage interviews with a grim face, like he couldn’t be bothered. And on a day when things go wrong, you have to own that. Now suddenly he acts all tough in an interview.”

According to Abbenhuijs, Yates’ current GC position may not match his true form. “We haven’t really seen him. He’s quietly ended up high in the standings, which meant a team that thought they’d be free to race had to throw everything behind Yates. The whole team rode for him and gave up their own chances. Now that he hasn’t delivered, it’s suddenly the team’s fault. I find that incredibly weak.”

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What exactly Yates thought the team’s tactics should have been? He didn’t say, so it’s anyone’s guess. Abbenhuijs suspects the Brit may have wanted the entire team around him, with no riders up the road in the break. But according to Thijs Zonneveld on In De Waaier, the real issue is that Yates simply didn’t have the legs. “After all the work, it was really up to him. But he hasn’t had it this whole Giro. And all race long he’s been giving the press these grumpy interviews, now suddenly saying this wasn’t the plan.”

“That’s a team meeting I would’ve loved to sit in on,” Zonneveld laughed, trying to look at both sides of the story. “I think Visma did what they could. They couldn’t have made the race much harder. Maybe Yates didn’t want anyone in the break and wanted the whole team lined up around him. But you need to be extremely strong as a team to do that. That’s how Visma rides for Vingegaard in the Tour, with Kelderman often going all-out for several minutes. But this is not that Tour team.”

In Zonneveld’s view, Visma Lease a Bike may have even performed above expectations. “Lemmen and Kruijswijk whittled the peloton down to 20 riders, and then Kelderman down to 13 or 14. After that, it’s up to the GC leaders to fight it out. Yates needs to be honest and admit he is not one of the three best climbers in this Giro. So I give Visma the benefit of the doubt here. But of course, it’s not great when the team leader and the team aren’t on the same page. If I were Kelderman and saw that interview, I’d be pretty annoyed too.”