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Adam Yates joins Ineos Grenadiers, twin Simon stays with Mitchelton-Scott

29 year olds who turned pro in 2014 will be on separate teams next year for first time

Adam Yates has signed for Ineos Grenadiers on a two-year deal starting in January, with the announcement made the day after it was confirmed that his twin brother Simon had extended his contract with Mitchelton Scott.

The twins from Bury, aged 29, both turned pro with the Australian UCI WorldTour team in 2014.

Adam – fourth overall in the 2016 Tour de France – took his biggest professional victory the previous year at the Clasica Ciclistica de San Sebastian.

His brother Simon has emerged as the stronger of the two, winning multiple stages in all three Grand Tours and the overall victory at the 2018 Vuelta.

Ineos Grenadiers team principal Sir Dave Brailsford said: “I’m really delighted that Adam is finally joining the team. It feels like the timing is just right as he enters the prime of his career and we embark on a new era as the Ineos Grenadiers.

“As a global team with a British heart, Adam’s no-nonsense British character is a perfect fit. He knows how to win and his gritty, determined and resilient approach are exactly the attributes we are looking to foster as we assemble the new INEOS Grenadiers to be built on purpose.”

Yates, who began the year by winning the UAE Tour before racing was suspended, said: “The prospect of riding for a British team is one that I am extremely excited about.

“I’ve witnessed the rise of cycling in the UK during my career and I think this has been spurred on by success of British riders and this team.

“It is an exciting opportunity and one that I feel has come at the right time.

“My results in week-long races and one day races have been really solid but I would like to take that consistency to Grand Tour racing with the Ineos Grenadiers and see where it takes me.”

After Simon Yates won the Vuelta in 2018 – completing an unprecedented hat-trick of victories that year by riders from one country in all three Grand Tours – Sir Bradley Wiggins suggested that he would not have won the race had he and his brother joined Team Sky earlier in their careers.

“If he’d gone to Sky, I don’t think he’d have won the Vuelta,” Wiggins said. “It was sliding doors moment, whether his career would have gone down this path.

“By nature of the fact that Sky wouldn’t take Adam as well in one package, he’s ended up finding a great team and won a grand tour at 26,” 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

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darnac | 4 years ago
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Given the usual desperate business model of pro cycling ANY sponsorship is better than none, I suppose - apart from authoritarian Arab regimes. All the people exercising their green consciousness and occupying the moral high ground in criticising companies like INEOS getting involved in the  cycling they want to watch would probably be better doing what they could to try and persuade the ecologically conscious sponsors they want to see involved to actually put some money in.

Avatar
jova54 | 4 years ago
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"Adam – fourth overall in the 2016 Tour de France – took his biggest professional victory the previous year at the Clasica Ciclistica de San Sebastian.

His brother Simon has emerged as the stronger of the two, winning multiple stages in all three Grand Tours and the overall victory at the 2018 Vuelta."

Think Mitchelton-Scott might have got the better deal on this one. You hear less about Simon Yates but he appears to have achieved more.

 

Didn't G sign a new contract after TdF 2018 victory?

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quiff | 4 years ago
1 like

Well, that should make things easier for commentators and interviewers.

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Rapha Nadal | 4 years ago
1 like

"Ineos Grenadiers" sounds like a group who'd be associated with Britain First or similar. 

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kil0ran replied to Rapha Nadal | 4 years ago
1 like

I was never a huge fan of Sky for a bunch of reasons but the whole Ineos thing doesn't fit with cycling. Nor does the fact that they're named after a wankpanzer that'll be used to intimidate cyclists and pedestrians. Despite what Dave says about them having a British heart I can't really agree. Hopefully G will find a new home sooner rather than later. Lotto Jumbo, Lotto Soudal, and EF Education First will be getting my attention from now on. Oh and Cofidis just for giggles.

Avatar
Glov Zaroff replied to kil0ran | 4 years ago
3 likes

kil0ran wrote:

I was never a huge fan of Sky for a bunch of reasons but the whole Ineos thing doesn't fit with cycling. Nor does the fact that they're named after a wankpanzer that'll be used to intimidate cyclists and pedestrians. Despite what Dave says about them having a British heart I can't really agree. Hopefully G will find a new home sooner rather than later. Lotto Jumbo, Lotto Soudal, and EF Education First will be getting my attention from now on. Oh and Cofidis just for giggles.

 

You won't support Ineos because of the pollution, but you'll support a team sponsored by one of the worlds biggest producers of sealants, acrylics and adhesives. Get a grip. The vast majority of the UCI teams are headline sponsored by a company that's actively involved in environmentally damaging products. Add in the sub sponsors and it's a mess. 

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kil0ran replied to Glov Zaroff | 4 years ago
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Gotta love Soudal for the beer and frites. Plus the kit is the best in the peloton

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Rich_cb replied to Glov Zaroff | 4 years ago
1 like
Jimmy Walnuts wrote:

You won't support Ineos because of the pollution, but you'll support a team sponsored by one of the worlds biggest producers of sealants, acrylics and adhesives. Get a grip. The vast majority of the UCI teams are headline sponsored by a company that's actively involved in environmentally damaging products. Add in the sub sponsors and it's a mess. 

Bravo.

I also think you're completely right about the Ineos fuss. Given that headline sponsors include repressive autocracies it seems a bit strange to get so het up about a chemical company.

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HarrogateSpa | 4 years ago
1 like

Boo.

'I'm really committed to fracking, plastic production, and making the planet inhospitable for human life,' Adam Yates didn't say.

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Glov Zaroff replied to HarrogateSpa | 4 years ago
2 likes

See above. Don't be so niave. 

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rjfrussell replied to Glov Zaroff | 4 years ago
0 likes

"...adhesives. Get a grip"

Love it.  And the way the post gets stuck in to the original commentator

 

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