Simon Yates confirmed his love for Italy and the Giro d'Italia at the presentation of the 2026 race route, making a special effort to travel to Rome and confirming his desire to target another maglia rosa in 2026.
The Visma-Lease a Bike rider told Cyclingnews how he savoured his 2025 win during the winter by watching extended highlights with his family and celebratory bottle of Italian red wine.
"For me to win and to be here in Rome again is amazing. My victory will live with me for the rest of my life," Yates said after studying the 2026 route on stage during the presentation and spending a day visiting Rome with his wife.
His Visma-Lease a Bike team leader Jonas Vingegaard could decide to ride the 2026 Giro to complete a triple crown of Grand Tour victories and so Yates has to wait for final indications from the team about his 2026 goals. However his desire to defend his 2025 victory was clear.
"It'd be hard to dissuade anyone from going for the Grand Tour triple crown, so we'll see what Jonas and team decide," Yates told Cyclingnews.
"I'd love to come back. Not many people are able to race a Grand Tour with a number one race number. There's still a lot of discussions going on behind the scenes in the team about which riders will target the different races. We'l find out soon.
"We were in Amsterdam last week and there were a lot of meetings, which were pretty exhausting. It's a complex puzzle that also includes my role in the Tour de France and other riders."
Yates fell in love with Italy and the Giro d'Italia in 2018 when he first targeted the magia rosa. He wore the iconic leader's jersey for two weeks, only to crack on the Colle delle Finestre on stage 19, with Chris Froome attacking him and going on to win the Giro.
Yates took revenge for that defeat by taking the magia rosa from Isaac del Toro this year on the stage over the Colle delle Finestre to Sestriere. It was an emotional moment for the Briton which only deepened his love for the Giro.
"My feelings for the Giro are much different to the other Grand Tours," Yates revealed to Cyclingnews.
"If you ask riders to choose a Grand Tour based on the pure racing aspects, I'm sure that most would say the Giro. For me it goes back to my first ride in 2018. The way everyone reacted with such support to the aggressive way I raced that year was special. I liked that and my feelings for the Giro have never changed.
"I've found that if you treat the Giro with respect, it's a really rewarding race to take part in. Some other races just feel like they're a business, the Giro feels like a real race.
"I love Italian culture and how friendly the people are. They really embrace you if you get to know them. I think there's a shared passion. I love all the Italian races. They feel different from other races."
Yates had a chance to see the 2026 Giro route unfold before his eyes during the drawn-out presentation in Rome. He immediately noticed how it is significantly different to the 2025 race route.
"This year's Giro was so hard that we had to build into it, the 2026 route seems more balanced," he said.
"There's the early mountain finish on the Blockhaus and then the long time trial. There could be some significant time gaps after just two weeks. Then there are stages 19 and 20 in the high mountains, which will be difficult and so decisive.
"The 40-kilometre time trial is not great for me. I can do a good technical time trial with some climbs but a flat and straight time trial along the coast could be challenging for me. I also suffered on the Blockhaus in the 2022 Giro, my race virtually ended that day, it's a climb that can change the race.
"After seeing the video of the race during the presentation and especially how emotional I was in Sestriere in the maglia rosa. I'd love to be here again in 2026."
