Simon Yates among the great British riders of all time as he bids sport farewell after shock retirement announcement
Updated 08/01/2026 at 10:42 GMT
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A career that reached magnificent highs and plummeted to terrible depths came to an abrupt end on Wednesday as Simon Yates announced his shock retirement from cycling aged 33. Cycling expert Felix Lowe looks at the outstanding legacy left behind by the reigning Giro d’Italia champion and 2018 Vuelta winner - a man of few words, who let his legs do the talking.
'What a moment!' - Yates reflects on 'unbelievable' and 'emotional' Giro d'Italia victory
Video credit: TNT Sports
In announcing his sudden retirement from the sport on Wednesday, it seems that Simon Yates listened to his brother, after all.
On the day of Yates’ last-gasp win in the Giro d’Italia in May, Adam Yates was asked by TNT Sports' Adam Blythe what he’d now do in his sibling’s shoes. The UAE Team Emirates climber – whose Mexican team-mate Isaac del Toro had dramatically missed out on a maiden Grand Tour win – replied without hesitation: "I’d be retiring now. Just won the Giro!"
But Yates did not heed the advice of his brother: both twins turned up at the Tour de France a month later, where Adam helped guide Tadej Pogacar to a fourth yellow jersey and Simon picked up a superb solo stage win in the Massif Central while riding in support of runner-up Jonas Vingegaard.
That win – an 11th in Grand Tours and the 36th of his career – will now be the last following an announcement that Yates himself admits "may come as a surprise to many".
Indeed, when the route of the 2026 Giro d’Italia was unveiled in December, Yates was in attendance and seemingly excited about the prospect of returning to defend the maglia rosa next May.
"How many people are able to come back and have the number one on their back at a Grand Tour?" Yates mused, adding: "It’s quite a unique thing to have."
But not as unique as becoming the first professional cyclist in the modern era – according to statistician Cillian Kelly – to retire as a reigning Grand Tour champion (apart from Lance Armstrong, who would emerge from his first retirement years later in a move that would eventually strip him of his titles).
Although Yates admitted in his statement that he had been thinking about retirement "for a long time, and it now feels like the right moment to step away from the sport," it seems that, just a week ago, his mind had not been made. Why else would he have posed for marketing photos in Visma-Lease a Bike’s new kit for the upcoming season?
Back at the Giro route launch, Yates did allude to a potential rift with his team superiors while discussing the potential defence of his crown, though. "There are still some decisions to be made behind the scenes with the team whether I’ll be here or not," he said. "But I would love to defend it, yes. But it’s not fully my decision."
For now, all we have to go by is Yates’ assertion that his departure "is not a decision I have made lightly", coupled with his gratitude towards his Visma team for their "understanding and support of my decision to stop now".
The news presumably came as a surprise and shock to Visma, who will now be scrambling for reinforcements to Vingegaard’s mountain train ahead of the new season. If only Derek Gee-West had not signed with Lidl-Trek last week…
The upshot is we might see an unlikely lifeline dished out to Yates’ fellow Lancastrian Hugh Carthy, whose future at EF Education-EasyPost remains uncertain. Or, more prosaically, an extension to Julien Vermote’s contract.
Yates’s hasty farewell means that, for the first time in 13 years, there will only be one Yates racing in the World Tour next season – with Adam, who recently signed an extension with UAE Team Emirates-XRG – flying the flag for Britain until 2028.
Selected by British Cycling for its Olympic Academy programme at the age of 18, Simon won a gold medal in the points race at the 2013 Track World Championships in Minsk before winning back-to-back stages in the Tour de l’Avenir alongside his brother as the twins showcased their promise on the road.
Three weeks later, Yates scooped his first pro win at the age of 21, soaring to success in Stage 6 of the Tour of Britain on his way to finishing third overall – and, in doing so, earning praise from one Bradley Wiggins, who topped the podium and questioned why Yates was not on Team Sky's books.
Until 2021, the brothers rode for the same Australian team – although they were largely kept apart in major races by following different programmes. Of the pair, Simon has been the most prolific to date – winning both the Vuelta and Giro during his illustrious career and notching nine more stage wins on cycling’s Grand Tours.
Alongside Chris Froome, Simon is the only British rider to win multiple Grand Tours – eclipsing even the likes of Wiggins and Geraint Thomas, as well as Tao Geoghegen Hart, in the scope of his road palmares.
It’s not a stretch to say that the current success enjoyed by Oscar Onley – the young Scot who has joined Ineos Grenadiers after finishing fourth at the Tour last July – owes a huge amount to the groundwork put in the only British Grand Tour winner not to have plied his trade with the British juggernaut.
Both the Yates brothers broke through the ranks at Orica-GreenEDGE, where Simon remained through the Mitchelton-Scott and Jayco-AlUla incarnations until finally spreading his wings in 2025. And while Adam’s decision to join Ineos-Grenadiers in 2021 and then UAE in 2023 has led to numerous successes as well as concessions, it was Simon whose single cathartic year at Visma-Lease a Bike saw him rewrite his personal history so emphatically to the point that retirement today makes total sense.
Seven years after his pained implosion on the Colle delle Finestre saw him concede the pink jersey to compatriot Froome in such a devastating manner, Yates rose from the ashes on the same mountain with one of those heart-warming storylines that it seems only sport can deliver.
If losing La Corsa Rosa in 2018 in such dramatic fashion represented one of the lowest points of Yates’ career – and something he could ultimately only put to bed by slaying his demons on the same gravel ascent to complete an astonishing turnaround and finally win the trofeo senza fine – it was a setback he nevertheless had the physical and mental strength to bounce back from in barnstorming fashion by winning the Vuelta just months later.
That Vuelta victory in 2018 showed Yates’ grit and determination while confirming his promise and writing his name in the history books – joining compatriots Froome and Thomas as British Grand Tour winners in a memorable clean sweep of cycling’s major races in the same calendar year.
It was a win that cemented the 26-year-old Yates’ position as one of the best all-rounders in the peloton in an era that had yet to be pulverised by the brilliance of Messrs Pogacar and Vingegaard.
Such was Yates’s confidence and ability that he turned up at the next Giro so confident of his condition that he was more forthcoming than usual and bullishly told the press that, if he were in his rivals’ position, "I would be scared, I’d be s***ing myself".
Alas, poor form saw the defence of his crown never materialise and those words ring hollow, with Yates soon describing his eighth-place overall as "heartbreaking". A year later, Covid put paid to his chances – the latest in a catalogue of career setbacks that also included a four-month doping ban in 2016 for the prohibited substance terbutaline, following what his team described as an "administrative error".
While Yates understandably glossed over this blot in his career copybook in his farewell message, he did allude to the positives he took from both the highs and the lows.
"I am deeply proud of what I have managed to achieve and equally grateful for the lessons that came with it," he said. "While the victories will always stand out, the harder days and setbacks were just as important. They taught me resilience and patience, and made the successes mean even more."
Many lesser riders would have thrown in the towel after his repeated inability to get the Giro monkey off his back – especially in a new golden era dominated by the likes of Pogacar, Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, Remco Evenepoel and swashbucklers in the mold of Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Mads Pedersen.
In fact, when Yates finally left Jayco-AlUla in 2025 to join Visma-Lease a Bike, it seemed as if he was prepared to put his own ambitions aside to support the likes of Vingegaard and Van Aert – in the same way his brother had done for Egan Bernal at Ineos and Pogacar at UAE.
But Yates still had one huge performance in him, and he masterminded one of the sport’s great comebacks on the Colle delle Finestre to achieve what he called "the pinnacle of my career" by finally winning the Giro at the sixth attempt.
He could – perhaps should – have called it a day then and there, just as Adam suggested. But he played a significant role in Vingegaard’s own bid to come back from oblivion in July, and was rewarded with a fine solo stage win on the Puy de Sancy for his troubles.
Two DNFs in his remaining races of the season in Canada at Montreal and Quebec, in hindsight, suggest that all was not perfect with Yates as the curtain closed on 2025. Not being able to defend his Giro crown in 2026 may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
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Highlights: Simon Yates detonates on Colle delle Finestre to take thrilling Giro win
Video credit: TNT Sports
Yates did address his family in his announcement, stressing the "sacrifices that came with this sport" and the difficulty of "missed birthdays" and long absences from home. With the way cycling is going – riding at such breakneck speed, with records being shattered on a daily basis – it has been suggested that the careers of its top protagonists may not last as long as they did in the past, owing to the huge pressure that they are under.
It could be that Yates simply wants an easier life and, perhaps, an opportunity to start his own family away from the media glare and goldfish bowl of the pro peloton.
Even so, bidding the sport farewell at the very top and at 33 years of age is not exactly an ignominious end to one’s career. In many respects, it is a very Simon Yatesy thing to do – lowkey, unexpected, authentic, devoid of all fanfare, and on his own terms.
Once the dust settles on his shock announcement, no one will blame Yates for deciding to walk away while still on the kind of prolonged high that may not be repeated in a very long time – and certainly not by one of the current crop of British talents following his tire tracks.
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