Reserved, resilient Simon Yates casts off Giro demons to crown career
Reserved Yates ended years of frustration when he rolled across the line in front of the Circus Maximus Rome wearing the pink jersey for the overall Giro leader, taken with an astonishing performance in Saturday's penultimate stage.
"To be honest, I think it's the peak of my career. I don't think anything will top this," said Yates on Saturday.
Other than being more guarded, veteran Yates is otherwise indistinguishable from his twin brother Adam, with whom he stood at the start of the 21st and final stage of the Italian Grand Tour.
Simon was born a few minutes before Adam 32 years ago in Bury, in northern England, and the pair began cycling together at the nearby Manchester velodrome at the behest of their father John who was himself a cyclist.
"I'm happy for him, he's my brother, he's done a good job. We'll celebrate together tonight," said Adam who is one of the leaders of UAE Team Emirates.
The brothers both made their professional debuts for the Australian team Orica, now known as Jayco-AlUla.
But their paths separated in 2021 when Adam moved to Ineos, while Simon stayed put until last winter when he made the switch to Visma-Lease a bike, a team big enough that he wouldn't have to be the sole leader.
Redemption
Simon Yates is a pure climber probably would never have thought he's had to wait seven years for his second Grand Tour win after taking the Vuelta a Espana title in 2018.
Between then and Sunday's victory he obtained some impressive results, like third in the 2021 Giro and fourth in the Tour de France last year, but he also had to deal with a host of setbacks.
One of those came just before this year's Giro when he was hit by a car during high-altitude training camp in Tenerife.
At the same time he was targeting the brutal Colle delle Finistre climb, the site of Saturday's decisive charge to overall victory and redemption for a harrowing defeat on the same ascent seven years before.
Yates lost the pink jersey the last time the Finistre featured in the Giro, on the 19th stage of the 2018 edition when he ended up finishing over an hour behind eventual victor Chris Froome in the overall standings.
It was a defeat which stayed with Yates right until Saturday's stunning solo attack which allowed him to do to Isaac Del Toro what fellow Briton Froome did to him all those years ago.
"I always had in the back of my mind to try something on this stage, on this climb that has, let's say, defined my career so far," said Yates on Saturday.
"I had some doubts today, this morning, to really try something on this climb but the team really believed in me. So, yeah, I tried and I pulled it off."