Simon Yates out of Il Lombardia after training crash

Simon Yates has been forced to end his season and will thus miss Il Lombardia after crashing during training on Sunday. 

BikeExchange-Jayco announced on Monday that Yates “suffered a fall during training yesterday & sustained some minor injuries that will rule him out of racing Il Lombardia.” 

The Australia team said that Yates will now “end his 2022 racing season & focus on rest, recovery & building towards 2023.” 

Yates was forced to abandon the Vuelta due to COVID-19, but BikeExchange-Jayco said he had recovered and was motivated for the hilly Italian Classics. Yates was 12th in the Coppa Agostoni on his return to racing last week but failed to finish Saturday’s Giro dell’Emilia. 

BikeExchange-Jayco had been hoping that Yates would lead the team in the final hilly Classics and so score further UCI ranking points in the fight to avoid relegation from the WorldTour in 2023. 

Fortunately Michael Matthews scored a haul of points in the World Championships and other riders have continued to score points, lifting BikeExchange-Jayco above the relegation places. 

Israel-Premier Tech and Lotto Soudal now seem destined to be relegated from the WorldTour after failing to score significant points in recent weeks to overtake their rivals.