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news
Simon Yates on Vuelta 2018 final podium.JPGSir Bradley Wiggins: Simon Yates may not have won the Vuelta if he’d gone to Team Sky
Sir Bradley Wiggins says that Simon Yates, crowned winner of the Vuelta in Madrid yesterday evening, may not have won the Spanish Grand Tour had he signed for Team Sky.
The British WorldTour team were keen on signing Yates, now 26, when he turned professional in 2014 – but not his twin brother, Adam.
Instead, the pair joined Orica-GreenEdge, now named Mitchelton-Scott, where both signed two-year contract extensions earlier this season which will keep them there until 2020.
Speaking on his Eurosport vodcast The Bradley Wiggins Show, Wiggins said: "Had he gone to Sky … I don’t think he would’ve won the Vuelta.
“It was a sliding doors moment – whether his career would’ve gone this path.
"By nature of the fact that Sky wouldn’t take Adam on as well – they come as one package – he’s found a great team and won a Grand Tour at 26."
Besides not wanting to be separated from his brother, Yates believed he would have more opportunities at Orica-GreenEdge to challenge for the overall at Grand Tours and at an earlier age.
His first chance to do just that came at the 2016 Vuelta, where he finished sixth overall.
He entered the race after missing that year’s Tour de France due to his four-month suspension for an anti-doping rule violation that the UCI accepted was due to a mistake by the team doctor.
By that time he had already raced the Tour twice, in 2014 and 2015, when the team was led by Simon Gerrans and not focused on the overall.
On his return to the race last year, however, Yates was team leader and finished seventh overall and won the best young rider classification – as his brother had 12 months earlier.
In May this year, he spent a fortnight in the lead of the Giro d’Italia until he lost it to Team Sky’s Chris Froome on Stage 19, eventually finishing 21st overall.
However, Wiggins believes that Yates’s experience in Italy helped prepare him for his successful assault on the Vuelta, where he curbed his attacking instincts to focus on defending his lead.
"That was the huge learning curve for him," Wiggins said. "In some ways that was the best thing that ever happened to him.”
“He’s learnt from it and now he’s won La Vuelta and, at 26, he’s got chances to win more Giros, more [Grand] Tours down the line.”
Wiggins himself experienced huge disappointment at the Tour de France in the first two editions he rode for Team Sky following his breakthrough performance with Garmin in 2009, finishing 23rd the following year then crashing out during the first week in 2011.
"There’s only one way to learn and that’s by mass failures like that which must have been hugely disappointing for him," he added.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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11 comments
And you wouldn't have won without all the drugs and the fact that Froome didn't drop you easily like he could have multiple times.
Why even give this fake any coverage. I doubt he won the TT Worlds or any of his Olympic medals clean, what a disappointment.
If Yates hadn't ridden for SKY cutting his teeth he probably wouldn't have won La Vuelta.
It's all ifs and buts, no-one really knows how things might pan out.
If team orders hadn't have come into play Wiggins wouldn't have won the TdF.
"Yates may not have won the Vuelta if he'd gone to Sky."
And if my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle.
but the important question is would he have a supply of used jiffy bags?
We know what he's getting at though. If Froome had still been on form then no TDF for Thomas given the pecking order.
Or, he's spent enough time riding with Froome to know that he's unlikely to beat him racing for another team when Froome has the full support of sky and concentrating on the tour. If I were him, i'd target the Giro with Sky and leave the Tour to Froome.
Yeah, hard to argue with that. Yates made the right decision by going to MS - he has the talent, hunger and ambition to be a true great. This is why I really don't like G anymore...just happy to settle for the scraps at Sky.
If 'scraps' are winning a grand tour then I think there are plenty of riders who would take that.
The "scraps" being a TdF win. Sorry, but the Vuelta and Giro just aren't as prestigious.
And if Thomas had been in a different team, Tom Dumoulin would have won.
I'd usually agree about the Sky team making a huge difference, but looking at the form Thomas had in that race (and considering Dumoulin had ridden the Giro) I don't think it would have made much difference, yes they were riding in support at the front as usual (kwiatkowski in particular was incredible) but they weren't completely dominating the race as in some years, and most of the time that Thomas took on the others was at the end of the climbs which he likely would have done anyway.
Definitely seems to be the right team for Yates, hopefully Adam will have some success too, I can't see him wanting to always be his brother's super domestique. I just wish they hadn't started to pick up the Australian accent, it doesn't mix well with the Bury accent at all.
[/quote]
Definitely seems to be the right team for Yates, hopefully Adam will have some success too, I can't see him wanting to always be his brother's super domestique. I just wish they hadn't started to pick up the Australian accent, it doesn't mix well with the Bury accent at all.
[/quote]
That's not an Australian accent, it's a Girona accent that comes from living and training in Spain with cyclists from a wide range of countries.