Simon Yates

Simon Yates is one of the few pro riders who has won stages at all three Grand Tours, including an overall title at the 2018 Vuelta a España. He was born in Bury, Great Britain on August 7, 1992 and has progressed in professional cycling alongside his twin brother Adam. Simon Yates joined the British Cycling Academy programme in 2010 at the age of 18, finding success that year on the track, winning a gold in the Madison with Daniel McLay at the 2010 UCI Junior Track World Championships.

Simon began his professional road cycling career with the GreenEDGE WorldTour programme in 2014, with his brother on the team and the two raced together at the top level for seven years. Simon continued as a key leader of the Australian-based team, now Team Jayco-AlUla, through 2024. 

It was in 2018 that Simon Yates punctuated his stage racing efforts in a number of races, including an overall Grand Tour victory at the Vuelta a España. That spring Yates won a stage for a second time in his career at Paris-Nice, this one carrying him to second overall. He followed that in 2019 with a stage win and fourth overall in the GC at Volta Catalunya, then five podiums at the Giro d’Italia, including three victories to carry the pink jersey for 13 days and faded in the final mountain stages. He then won two stages at the Tour de France.

In 2020 he was in top Giro form with a GC victory at Tirreno-Adriatico, and had initially targeted the 2020 Giro d'Italia with an eye to competing at the Tokyo Olympics, but the coronavirus pandemic forced the postponement of the Games and the rearrangement of the cycling calendar. A positive test for COVID-19 took him out of the Giro early that fall and his season was over. The next season he was refocused and won the GC at the Tour of the Alps, which helped him take third overall at the Giro.

Yates has an explosive climbing style and has shown improvements in the race against the clock that have seen him win major time trials, including stage 2 of the 2022 Giro d’Italia. He won a pair of Giro stages before knee issues forced him to abandon the race. After two months away from racing, he returned with a win at the one day Prueba Villafranca-Ordiziako and won the GC at Vuelta a Castilla y Leon.

2023 was marked with a flurry of success, with seven stage top 10s and finishing just one spot off the GC podium at the Tour de France as well as fourth overall at Paris-Nice. He also scored four top 10s in one-day races in the fall, including third at Giro dell’Emilia and fifth at Il Lombardia.

Yates' 2024 season was mostly a bust except for the final stage and overall win at the AlUla Tour in Saudi Arabia. He signed a two-year contract with Visma-Lease a Bike, leaving Jayco-AlUla after racing his entire career with the Australian team. His move to Visma was one of the most high-profile transfers of the off-season, with a sixth trip to the Giro a target. In 2025 he claimed a second overall title at the Giro in a hard-fought battle against Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

Key Results

2025

🥇 GC at Giro d'Italia

🥉 One stage at Giro d'Italia

2024

🥇 One stage and GC win at AlUla Tour

🥈 One stage at Tour de France

2023

🥇 One stage win at Tour Down Under

🥈 GC and points classification at tour Down Under

🥈 Two stages at Tour de France 

2022

🥇 Two stages at Giro d’Italia

🥇 GC at Vuelta a Castilla y Leon

🥇 One stage at Paris-Nice

🥈 GC at Paris-Nice

2021

🥇  One stage at Giro d’Italia

🥇  One stage and GC at Tour of the Alps 

🥉  GC at Giro d’Italia

2020

🥇 One stage and GC at Tirreno-Adriatico

🥉 GC at Tour de Pologne

2019

🥇 Two stages at Tour de France

🥇 One stage and mountains classification at Paris-Nice

🥇 One stage and mountains classification at Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Del Sol

2018

🥇 One stage and GC at Vuelta a España

🥇 One stage at Tour de Pologne

🥇 Three stages at Giro d’Italia

🥇 One stage at Paris-Nice

🥈 GC at Paris-Nice

🥈 GC at Tour de Pologne