A pre-Giro d'Italia catch-up with Simon and Adam Yates 🇬🇧 🇮🇹
We talk Giro d'Italia race route, form, leadership, contract news and more
Good morning subscribers,
The Giro d’Italia starts today, and we’ll have race analysis this evening following stage 1, but before all that, we have two features for you.
The first is a Q&A with Simon and Adam Yates. I caught up with both riders yesterday to discuss their GC chances, rivals, Simon’s recovery from a collision with a driver earlier this year, and Adam’s recent contract extension.
Later on today, I’ll have an exclusive on what’s going down in Albania on the transfer front as all the rider agents descend on the Giro for some critical transfer negotiations. For now, though, it’s over to Simon and Adam - and a big thank you to their respective teams for setting up the calls at such short notice.
Remember, all the latest transfer news, updates, and analysis are on the Transfer Index Page. To coincide with the Giro d’Italia, I’ve set up a special 20% sale on annual subscriptions. Just click on the link below to sign up. For roughly £1 a week, you get all the stories on my Substack, including all the transfer exclusives.
Have a great day
Daniel 🫶
Daniel Benson: Let’s dive right in. Simon, how’s the form coming into the Giro d’Italia? You looked like you were on track with a solid 9th in Catalunya.
Simon Yates: I’ve been getting better throughout the Spring, let's say, and then I went back to altitude after Cataluyna and really dialled in the preparation. I feel good, but you never know how that translates into a race. We’ll hope for the best.
Daniel Benson: Was it a difficult winter and early spring for you? I think I reported that you had a crash just before Tirreno and were sick.
Simon Yates: On my first training camp, I had an unfortunate incident with a car, which I had to go to the hospital for. That interrupted my altitude camp. Then, when I arrived home, I had food poisoning. So it wasn’t the best preparation at the start of the year, especially ahead of Tirreno because there wasn’t much time to recover, but I still did okay there, considering. In Catalunya, I was getting better every day, so hopefully, I’m on track with the Giro.
Daniel Benson: I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what happened with the accident?
Simon Yates: A car pulled out in front of me, I hit the car, and I had to get some stitches close to my collarbone for a big wound. Otherwise, I was quite lucky because nothing was broken. It was a lucky escape.
Daniel Benson: Adam, we’ve got three days in Albania to kick off the Giro, what do you think it will be like?
Adam Yates: Actually, it’s going to be tricky. Some stages are hard on paper, but nothing really stands out in terms of breaking up the bunch. I think it’s going to be quite stressful, and everyone is going to be fresh. The roads aren’t too bad. They were busy when we were training, but the quality isn’t too bad. Some of the guys were expecting them to be a bit worse, but so far they’ve been okay.
Daniel Benson: So what’s your role for the first three days? Is it to simply stay out of trouble, and will the team put some protection around you?
Adam Yates: It’s not just the first three days, it’s the first two weeks really where you need to stay out of trouble. The Giro is really backloaded this year. So for me, it’s about saving energy, staying out of trouble, and not losing too much time. Then I’ll just wait for the mountains, and hopefully it all goes to plan.