Visma | Lease a Bike suffers major quality loss after Simon Yates departure
For many, it came as a bolt from the blue: Simon Yates has torn up his contract with Visma | Lease a Bike and is immediately retiring from racing. The 33-year-old Brit leaves his former team with a huge problem, as he was one of the strategic key figures of the Dutch WorldTeam while the competition was getting stronger. This is shown by our data from Cyclingflash.
With the surprising arrival of Yates last winter, Visma | Lease a Bike managed to replace Primož Roglič, who left a year earlier. The Brit then had a stellar season, which included winning the overall victory at the Giro d'Italia and riding the Tour de France in support of Jonas Vingegaard. Yates himself also secured a win on stage ten at the Tour. In total, the experienced Brit raced only six events for the Dutch squad. Besides the Giro and the Tour, these were Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of Catalonia in the early season. In the autumn, he registered two DNFs in the Canadian double-header.
According to insiders, Yates had long been having doubts about continuing as a pro cyclist. Now that the decision is final, the Dutch team has lost one of its best riders barely two weeks before the start of the new cycling season. As seen on his Cyclingflash passport above, Yates ranks among the top five climbers and top five GC contenders of the past year. In both categories, only Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard, João Almeida, and Roglič rank above him. Matteo Jorgenson is just below Yates in both.
The Brit’s departure is therefore a heavy blow for the team. When we compare Visma | Lease a Bike’s roster at the start of 2025 with that of 2026 (without Yates) using the data from Cyclingflash in the overview below, we see the team taking a significant hit. This is all the more notable since in an earlier article, we already concluded that Lidl-Trek is very likely to overtake Visma | Lease a Bike next year based on the same Cyclingflash data. Due to the loss of Yates, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe will also sense opportunities to perform better than Visma | Lease a Bike in 2026.
Article continues below this overview.
Visma | Lease a Bike's climbing core is depleting.
Looking at the incoming and outgoing transfers during last winter’s transfer window, we see that two strong assets, Cian Uijtdebroeks and Attila Valter, have left the team. Also, fit riders Tom Gloag, Tiesj Benoot, and Dylan van Baarle add value uphill for a GC team. Nevertheless, according to our Cyclingflash data, the team has actually improved with the incoming riders when it comes to their Mountain and GC ratings. This is mainly due to the arrival of Italian talent Davide Piganzoli and, to a lesser extent, Bruno Armirail.
Tim Rex also showed promising performances as a climbing domestique in the development ranks last year, while Anton Schiffer is also considered a climber. However, both are still inexperienced at WorldTour level. Filippo Fiorelli, despite his fast legs, brings some climbing qualities, which may explain the improvement. The fact remains that with Simon Yates’s abrupt retirement, Visma | Lease a Bike’s Mountain and GC ratings will sharply decline. Finding a worthy replacement for the Brit will be a task for 2027, although the search could start today.
