It came as a huge surprise to many, the announcement by Simon Yates that he is immediately retiring from professional cycling. Visma | Lease a Bike loses one of its key riders in stage racing with the 33-year-old Brit. The team is disappointed that the climber is ending his career but they have praise for his achievements.
"With Simon, we won the Giro d’Italia last year, an incredibly special accomplishment for both him and the team," responded Grischa Niermann, Head of Racing at Visma | Lease a Bike, in a team press release on Yates' decision. "That was one of the main targets of the season, for us as a team and for Simon personally. The fact that he also won a stage in the Tour de France afterwards underlines his class."
"It's a shame that he’s stopping now, but he’s doing so at an absolute peak. Simon was an exceptional climber and GC contender who always showed up when it mattered. In the Giro, he peaked at a moment when hardly anyone expected him to win anymore, which really defines him as a rider.”
Overall victory in the Giro and stage win in the Tour
Yates made the move to Visma | Lease a Bike in the winter of 2024 to 2025, after spending eleven years with Jayco AlUla. With the Dutch squad, he claimed a historic Giro d’Italia victory. On the final mountain stage over the Colle delle Finestre, where he had a similarly historic collapse in 2018, he rode Isaac Del Toro out of the pink leader’s jersey. In the subsequent Tour de France, he also took a stage win for Visma | Lease a Bike from an early breakaway.
