That moment duly arrived in 2018, when Froome’s form never fully recovered from his victory at the Giro. Sky said that Thomas had always been their Plan B, but the truth was that there’d never been any properly considered strategy other than that Froome should win a fifth Tour title to equal the extraordinary record of cycling greats Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin. Plan G was that he’d be Froome’s wingman. That all changed when the leader got dropped.
G’s victory was incredibly popular and restored a bit of faith in professional cycling. Unlike many of the other riders, he’s never been tainted by any insinuations of drug-taking. He’s never considered applying for a Therapeutic Use Exemption, for example. He’s clean in a way that must surely disappoint many rabid story-hunters.
In all my time around the peloton and press rooms, I can’t recall that anyone has ever had a bad word to say about G. Which is not to say he’s boring or squeaky clean. He’s his own man and that takes belief. Belief in himself. It’s this mindset that really counts.
Henry Ford once said: ‘Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t . . . you’re right.’
So, believe.
‘Just dream big,’ G said after his Tour de France win. ‘Go for it. There’s nothing holding you back. You can have ups and downs, but if you believe in something, keep the faith, keep fighting. And don’t let people put you down.’
I’ll drink to that!
Simon Yates
Interviewer: ‘Tell me about your plans today.’
Simon Yates: ‘I’ll get on the bike and try and win. What do you want me to say?’
Ever had the feeling you’ve seen somebody before? Simon is half of the Yates phenomenon. Like his near-identical twin brother, Adam, he speaks as fast as his legs go round. And that … is about all we know. ‘I’m not one of your cycling mega stars, OK? I just ride my bike.’ Reluctant he may be, but he is a cycling mega star, having won La Vuelta in 2018.
When the Yates twins opted to sign with Orica–GreenEDGE (now Mitchelton–Scott) rather than Sky back in 2014, manager Dave Brailsford knew at the time that he’d missed a trick. Simon was already a World Champion gold medal winner on the track, who’d roomed with Chris Froome at the Commonwealth Games at the tender age of 18, while his brother, Adam, was making a name for himself both at home and on the continent as a road racer. Four years later, Sir Dave, the architect of Britain’s cycling success on the track and road, was probably really annoyed he’d failed to add yet another winning rider to his roster. He made the mistake of making an offer just for Simon. Fed up with being separated, Adam and Simon decided to sign up for the Australian team instead, because its offer was for both riders and not just one.
Adam and Simon’s decision to move to the smaller, less well-paid team from the southern hemisphere has been a good one for the boys from Bury. Team boss Matt White has nurtured and groomed them for great things. If they’d gone to Sky, they could have ended up as another pair of super-domestiques in the mould of Peter Kennaugh, Luke Rowe or Ben Swift. Geraint Thomas spent 10 years riding alongside Froome – two seasons at Barloworld and eight at Sky – before he was truly let off the leash in a Grand Tour race that involved them both. Even then, it came down to circumstance at the 2018 Tour rather than design on the part of his team. It was only when Froome’s amazing run of consecutive Grand Tour wins finally crept up on him and his form suffered that Thomas was allowed to fly. Two unclipped pairs of wings were handed to the Yates brothers at Mitchelton–Scott. They flew.
Simon and Adam began their bike racing careers as kids when their father introduced them to the track at Manchester velodrome. They trained on the moors outside their home in Bury, each brother pushing the other on with a similar sibling rivalry to that displayed by the Brownlee brothers in triathlon – sibling rivalry is a powerful thing. Being one and two in the pecking order is nice for the family. But nicest of all is being Number One at the dinner table.
The Yates brothers’ talent was spotted early, but it was only Simon who secured an Olympic Academy draft. Adam went off to France to work his way through the junior team system on the continent while Simon had a more structured beginning in the academy. Both developed well, emerging from their differing approaches to the pro ranks with parallel success at the Tour de France in the white jersey competition. In 2016 Adam was first to win the Young Rider Classification, finishing a remarkable fourth in the full overall ranking. The following year Simon also took the white jersey and finished seventh in the general classification. So the race was on for them to take a full Grand Tour title. Nobody could figure out who would cross that line first. It was a tight call, but in 2018 attention focused on Simon. He went very close at the Giro d’Italia, leading the race before he went too deep and faltered. He finally made it home with victory at the Vuelta a España where, appropriately, brother Adam was his main domestique.
For Simon, success began on the track, but it wasn’t long before he was making a name for himself on the road as well. With his diminutive build, he was a born climber, but that heritage of track cycling reveals an inner strength and power that means he can sprint and time trial too, as proven in the 2019 Paris–Nice.
