Simon Yates (cyclist)

Yates in 2012

The brothers took up cycling after their father John was injured in a collision with a car while riding. During John's recovery he took the twins to Manchester Velodrome to track sessions run by his cycling club, Bury Clarion,[7] to keep in touch with the other members. Both brothers soon started riding on the road for Bury Clarion[8] and on the track for Eastlands Velo.

At the age of 18, Yates was selected by British Cycling for its Olympic Academy programme. He was also selected for the England team for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, where his room-mate was Chris Froome.[9]

He won the gold medal in the points race at the 2013 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.[10]

Yates made his breakthrough on the road in 2013 riding for the British national team. Along with brother Adam, he competed at the 2013 Tour de l'Avenir for the Great Britain national team, where Simon won the race's fifth stage, ahead of Adam.[11] Simon added another stage victory the following day,[12] and finished the race tenth overall.

He was then selected as part of the British national team to take part in the Tour of Britain. He competed well throughout the race and on stage six he took his biggest win to that point, on the summit finish at Haytor, sprinting clear of a nine-man group, which included Bradley Wiggins and Nairo Quintana.[13][14] Yates finished third overall in the race, and was the best rider in the under-23 classification.[15]

Yates at the 2014 Tour de France

Yates along with his brother joined the Australian UCI World Tour team Orica–GreenEDGE in 2014.[16] He finished 12th overall in one of his first World Tour races, the Tour of the Basque Country. Yates suffered a broken collarbone on Stage 3 of the Tour of Turkey.[17] He recovered to take seventh overall and the young rider classification in the Tour of Slovenia in June. He was a surprise selection for the Orica–GreenEDGE team for the 2014 Tour de France, with only 5 days' notice, and was one of only 4 British riders to take to the Grand Depart startline in Leeds.[18] Yates featured in two breakaways during his Grand Tour debut, before being withdrawn by his team on the second rest day.[19]

In April 2015 Yates finished fifth overall in the Tour of the Basque Country.[20] Later that month he rode the Tour de Romandie and placed sixth overall. In June, Yates finished fifth overall in the Critérium du Dauphiné after finishing second behind Chris Froome on the final stage, a summit finish at Modane. By doing so Yates also won the white jersey as best young rider.[21]

He was again selected for the Tour de France, this time alongside his brother Adam.[22] Simon placed eighth on Stage 3, which finished on the Mur de Huy, and eleventh on Stage 20, the queen stage of the race finishing on Alpe d'Huez.[23]

Yates at the 2016 Paris–Nice, where he initially finished seventh overall. His results from the race were expunged following a positive test for terbutaline.

In March, Yates finished seventh overall at Paris–Nice, however, in April it emerged that Yates had tested positive for the banned substance terbutaline in an in-competition test during the race.[24] Yates was disqualified from the race and served a four-month doping ban during 2016; his team took full responsibility for this blaming an "administrative error". The ban meant Yates missed the Tour de France, where his brother Adam finished fourth overall and won the young rider classification.

Following the expiry of his doping suspension, he was named in the startlist for the Vuelta a España.[25] In stage 6 Yates, seeing an opportunity, escaped from a breakaway group to win a solo stage victory – the first of the Yates brothers to take a Grand Tour stage victory.

Yates, wearing the white jersey of young rider classification leader, at the 2017 Tour de France

2017 saw Yates collect stage wins at two prestigious stage races, Paris–Nice and the Tour de Romandie. He placed second at the latter, his highest finish in a UCI World Tour stage-race at the time.[26] He finished 7th overall at the Tour de France and won the young rider classification, matching the feat achieved by his twin brother a year prior.

Yates confirmed his and the team's plans for him participating in the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España.[27] In March, Yates won Stage 7 of the Paris–Nice, a mountain top finish to Valdeblore La Colmiane, to take the overall race lead going into the final stage. However, Marc Soler of the Movistar Team, who started 37 seconds down on Yates in sixth place overall, attacked around halfway into the stage along with compatriot David de la Cruz (Team Sky); the duo joined Omar Fraile (Astana) at the head of the race, and the trio managed to stay clear of the rest of the field by the time they reached Nice. As de la Cruz and Fraile contested stage honours, Soler finished third – acquiring four bonus seconds on the finish in addition to three gained at an earlier intermediate sprint – and with a 35-second gap to Yates and the remaining general classification contenders, it was enough to give Soler victory over Yates by four seconds.[28] Later that month, Yates won stage 7 of the Volta a Catalunya after attacking multiple times on the 6.6-kilometre (4.1-mile)-long final circuit through the Montjuïc Park; he finished fourth overall.[29]

Yates wearing the Maglia rosa at the 2018 Giro d'Italia

Yates entered the Giro d'Italia as joint leader of Mitchelton–Scott with Esteban Chaves, supported by a strong climbing focused team including Roman Kreuziger, Mikel Nieve and Jack Haig.[30] Yates placed seventh in the opening 9.7-kilometre (6.0-mile) individual time trial in Jerusalem, 20 seconds down on defending race winner Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb).[31] On Stage 6 to Mount Etna, Yates took the race lead after finishing second behind teammate Chaves; Yates attacked from the group of favourites 1.5 kilometres (0.93 miles) from the summit and caught Chaves, who had been part of the day's breakaway, in sight of the line, but allowed Chaves to take the stage honours.[32] The result meant Yates held the Maglia rosa over Dumoulin in second, and Chaves in third place. Yates won stage 9 after accelerating away with 100 metres (330 feet) to go on the summit finish to Gran Sasso d'Italia, extending his lead over Chaves and Dumoulin.[33] Yates extended his lead further on Stage 10, but teammate Chaves lost 25 minutes after being dropped on the first climb.[34] Yates claimed his second stage victory on Stage 11, attacking with 1.5 kilometres (0.93 miles) to go and holding off the pursuit of Dumoulin to win on a hill top finish in Osimo, increasing his lead.[35]

On Stage 14, Yates finished second behind Chris Froome (Team Sky) on Monte Zoncolan. With six bonus seconds for finishing second, Yates extended his overall advantage over Dumoulin, whilst his gap over Froome was 3 minutes, 10 seconds.[36] Yates pedaled to a solo win on stage 15 to Sappada, attacking with 18 kilometres (11 miles) remaining, increasing his lead over Dumoulin.[37] After holding his lead through the 34.2-kilometre (21.3-mile) individual time trial held as stage 17,[38] Yates cracked on the final climb to Prato Nevoso on stage 18, losing 28 seconds to all of his other general classification rivals.[39] Stage 19 had been classified as the 'queen stage' of the race, with three focussed climbs in the latter half of the stage: the half paved-half gravel climb of the Colle delle Finestre, followed by the climb to Sestriere and the final uphill finish to Bardonecchia. Yates cracked on the lower slopes of the Finestre, before Froome launched a solo attack with 80 kilometres (50 miles) left of the stage. Froome's advantage grew throughout the second half of the stage, culminating in him taking a stage victory of more than three minutes and thereby also taking the overall race lead, 40 seconds ahead of Dumoulin.[40] Yates lost over 38 minutes to Froome and dropped to 17th overall.[41] He eventually finished the race 21st overall, 1 hour and 15 minutes behind the winner Froome.[42]

Yates (centre) on the podium at the 2018 Vuelta a España.

After the Giro, Yates made his return to racing at the Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia, where he finished second behind team-mate Robert Power. He subsequently returned to WorldTour competition at the Tour de Pologne in August, where he won the race's closing stage with a solo attack and finished second overall behind Michał Kwiatkowski.[43] Yates was Mitchelton–Scott's team leader for the Vuelta a España, with support from his brother.[43] Yates moved into third place on the general classification after stage 4, the first mountain stage, ten seconds behind leader Kwiatkowski. On the ninth stage, Yates took the leader's red jersey from Rudy Molard going into the first rest day.[44] However he lost the lead on stage 12, when Mitchelton–Scott elected not to close down a large breakaway, with the red jersey being taken by Jesús Herrada with Yates in second and Alejandro Valverde in third.[45] The following day, Yates cut nearly two minutes from Herrada's lead,[46] and he then took victory on the fourteenth stage, reclaiming the overall lead. He extended his lead during stages 16 (an individual time trial) and 19,[44] and on the last mountain stage, Yates attacked his rivals on the penultimate climb, joining Miguel Ángel López and Nairo Quintana alongside Enric Mas at the head of the race. He eventually finishing third on the stage behind Mas and López, who moved up into second and third overall after Valverde and Steven Kruijswijk lost significant time.[47] He went on to safely cross the finish line in Madrid to secure his overall victory.[48]

Yates previously considered time-trialling to be a weakness,[49] and slowly improved since his junior years.[50] He had improved in 2019, with his first win in the discipline coming on a hilly course at Paris–Nice.[51][52] Yates returned to the Giro d'Italia aiming for the general classification. He entered the race, publicly stating that he considered himself as "the number one favourite" for the race.[53] He started, showing superb form on the opening stage, an individual time-trial in Bologna, where he finished second behind Primož Roglič.[54] Yates' hopes of the overall win looked all but over after a disastrous stage 9 time-trial that saw him lose over 3 minutes, dropping to 24th overall. He lost further time on stage 13 up to Serrù Lake. Despite a second-place finish on stage 19, he finished 8th overall and described it as heartbreaking.[55]

Yates at the 2019 Tour de France

He rode the Tour de France, in support of his brother's general classification ambition, but Simon was allowed a day off domestique duty, and won stage 12 into Bagnères-de-Bigorre in a 3 up sprint against Pello Bilbao and Gregor Mühlberger.[56] Unfortunately for Adam, his general classification hopes faded after losing time on the individual time-trial and the climb to Col du Tourmalet.[57] These general classification losses freed up Simon as the team refocused on stage wins,[58] and he added another mountain stage win after a ferocious solo attack on stage 15,[59] taking Mitchelton–Scott's tally to 3 before the second rest day.[60]

In September 2020, Yates won the 2020 Tirreno-Adriatico beating Geraint Thomas and becoming the first British winner of the race.[61] In the following month, Yates started the 2020 Giro d'Italia. However, he had to abandon the race before the start of stage 8, after he tested positive for COVID-19.[62]