'He's given me a few tricks and tips' – Giro d'Italia GC contender Adam Yates garners advice and tactics from brother Simon's victory

Some time in the afternoon on Friday, May 15, for the first time in nine years Adam Yates and the rest of the Giro d'Italia peloton will ride past the exact spot at the foot of the Blockhaus climb where in 2017 his hopes of taking his first Grand Tour title went up in smoke when somebody collided with a badly parked police motorbike and several top GC names, including Yates, went down.

Of the three big names who came off the worst in that crash, Geraint Thomas retired at the end of 2025, and Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep), having fallen again in Itzulia Basque Country and fractured his pelvis, was unable to start the 2026 Giro. Yates, on the other hand, is back in the Giro GC fight again.

Given that Blockhaus experience, not to mention the way the 32-year-old crashed last year in the Giro's first week in his only other participation to date, it's perhaps not surprising that when Yates talks about his 2026 chances, he spends a lot of time mentioning the idea of "staying out of trouble."

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But there's been a lot of water under the bridge in other ways, too, since that fateful day in 2017. He's twice changed squads for one thing, first from Orica-GreenEdge to Sky and then on to UAE Team Emirates-XRG, where he's reached levels of success, including a Tour de France podium in 2023, much more consistently than ever before. On top of that, Yates has also seen how his brother Simon triumphed at the last minute in last year's Giro, something he reveals in this interview has served him as inspiration both on a general level and also on a very practical one, too.

As the sole leader of the UAE assault on the Giro d'Italia this year, after teammate João Almeida pulled out because he hadn’t achieved race condition, 2026 could be a great opportunity for the Briton to shine on his own account. But at 33, could this also be his last opportunity, too, to win a Grand Tour?

"You never know, yeah, obviously I'm getting older and older and the sport's getting faster and faster, so with every year it's getting harder to win," Yates told a small group of reporters, including Cyclingnews, on Thursday afternoon.

"But you never know, I think I arrived in good shape at the right moment. The competition's gonna be pretty tough, but we just hope to have no bad luck and you know, make no mistakes and then – we'll see."

Taking part in a Grand Tour as a sole leader is a comparative novelty for Yates in his time at UAE, partly given the wealth of talent in the squad even when Tadej Pogačar isn't racing. Last year, for example, he was their headline name in the Giro with Juan Ayuso and Isaac del Toro, while in the Tour de France, he's been mostly on domestique duty. (The one exception was in 2023, where Mauro Gianetti named him as pre-race co-leader for UAE alongside Tadej Pogačar, as the Slovenian was still recovering from his broken wrist caused by a crash in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Yates ended the race in third overall.)

But while that lone position as GC leader means an extra layer of heightened expectations, Yates said, starting without the top race favourite in their ranks for the Giro also gives him a bit more room for manoeuvre as well. And he plans on making the most of that.

"There's more pressure, but also at the same time, I think when you don't have the absolute favourite of the race, you kind of have a bit more freedom in the team to give opportunities to other guys.

"We've got a couple of young guys here with big ambitions, and we've also got some older guys with experience that can win stages here and there.

"So there's a bit of pressure for me. But at the same time, I'm not expecting the full support of the team in every single second of the race. That increases morale and motivation, and hopefully we can win a lot more all around."

It's not just that scenario that opens up greater options for Yates, either. The example of how his brother wrested the 2025 Giro lead at the last minute from Isaac del Toro at a point when Mexican had become the overwhelming favourite for victory is something that he fully agrees can act as inspiration for him in 2026 as well.

"We saw last year with my brother doing that sort of ambush at the end of the three weeks, and I think there are a lot of people, below Jonas [Vingegaard] and on the kind of the same level as me.

"So I think it's not just us, there's gonna be a lot of people with similar ambitions and, yeah, maybe we can also take advantage of that."

"First, though, we need to get through these first few tricky stages, and then with the Giro, there's always something going on in the third week. So hopefully we can get involved in that."

However, what Yates' brother achieved in May last year in the Giro will not just spur him on, in general. Rather, he says there are specific nuggets of information and advice en route to that victory that will be helping him, too. Even if Simon opted to quit the sport this January, it's not as if he's moved away from the sport completely, he says - and Adam is benefiting from that.

"I was training with him the other day, he just got a new bike, and he started training again," Yates said.

"So we had a really good chat the other day, and I speak to him every day anyway on the phone. I've said many, many times how we're super close and we talk all the time.

"We've talked about the race, the training leading up to it, his training from last year before he won, and what he did and things like that.

"So he's passed along a few tips and tricks and, like I said, I feel like I've arrived in good shape at the right moment. Hopefully, we can put everything together and pull out a good result."

Back to the Blockhaus

As for his other, more distant participation back in 2017, Yates doesn't exactly have a sense of unfinished business with the Blockhaus. Even so, he still recollects how the crash was so bad that his then team boss, Matt White, told him his front wheel had been completely destroyed by the impact. This suggests it has not been forgotten, either.

Above all, as Yates says, the lesson learned from that day forward is that it's crucial to try to avoid the bad luck that seemingly puts in far more regular appearances at the Giro than either of the other two Grand Tours. At the same time, his recent overall victory in O Gran Camiño stage race, as well as on its toughest summit finish, also confirms he's in a much better place than when he started the Giro in 2025.

"Last year just wasn't my best year. I just never really got started, I felt like, you know, a lot of fatigue, all year really. I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, but I just never really got going.

"Towards the end of the year, I managed to pick up a couple of wins, but I never really found my highest level. So, that was a tricky year to get through, but things are on the up now.

"I started the year a little bit slower, in Down Under and then the Middle East, so, yeah, I think everything's moving in the right direction.

"I just don't want to make any mistakes and hopefully stay out of trouble, and you know, get to the big mountains where I can kind of do my thing."

As for whether there could be a similar scenario to last year's last-minute pathway to victory for Simon on the final big climb of the Giro, Adam is adamant it is possible once again. When the idea is put to him, he responds simply: "Yes, of course."

"If I'm in my top shape, then the podium's not out of reach at all. So we'll start there, and then as I just keep saying, I'll just hope for no bad luck, no crashes, no sicknesses and then we'll see in the third week if we can do something bigger."

He sounds almost irritated when he's asked if by that he means he's not ruling out winning, as if the idea of just settling for the podium from the word go is almost anathema to him.

"I mean, if you rule out winning before you've even started, are you even, you know, where's the ambition, where's the motivation?" he asks rhetorically.

"Not just for me but for the guys as well. I mean, if I go into the race saying 'Oh, you know, it's not possible to win', then how can the team get behind me and, and, and support me, with that kind of ambition?

"So I think it's important that we be realistic, but at the same time, you can't put a limit on the result."

As for exactly where he could challenge Vingegaard to get that maximum result, Yates knows his best option is "going to be the high mountains, of course. That's where it suits me the best, although we also know Jonas is a super good climber.

"It's more about limiting my losses in the other stages first, especially this completely flat TT [in Tuscany on stage 10] where I'm gonna struggle for sure, and for sure I'll lose some time.

"But we need to try and be a bit creative with what we do. You need to think a little bit outside the box, go all in, take some risks, and hopefully it pays off big." And rather than the Blockhaus being where it all ended for Adam Yates like back in the 2017 Giro d'Italia, perhaps this time round it might be where it all begins.

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