Simon Yates might be leaving Jayco AlUla but he's a winner who won't waste Tour de France opportunities
The Australian team head into the Tour de France with a squad stacked with options and experience, says Matt White in an exclusive interview
We’ve seen it countless times before in sport. When an athlete knows they’re heading for the exit door at a team or organisation, and all of a sudden their head drops, concentration wanes, and their hunger evaporates in the blink of an eye.
That won’t be the case this summer when it comes to Simon Yates, who although is moving from Jayco AlUla to Visma-Lease a Bike in 2025, still harbours ambitions of having a successful Tour de France.
This, afterall, might be his final chance to challenge for a podium in the biggest race in the world, and Jayco AlUla have form in bringing departing riders to the race and going out on a high together.
Way back in 2016 the team took Michael Matthews - who was heading to Sunweb at the end of the season - to the Tour and the Australian won his first Tour stage on the road between Escaldes-Engordany and Revel.
Fast forward to 2024, and around Yates is a team loaded in talent and experience. Dylan Groenewegen and Michael Matthews have nine Tour stages and a green jersey between them, while Luka Mezgec, Luke Durbridge and Christopher Juul-Jensen are three of the most no-nonsense, workmanlike and respected domestiques in the men’s peloton.
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Chris Harper will aid Yates in the mountains, and Elmar Reinders will help back up whichever sprinter needs his services on any given stage. It’s a team that may not have the frills of UAE Team Emirates or Visma but a top-five overall and a stage win should be the minimum target this time around.
“It’s basically the same team as last year, with Lawson Craddock out and Michael Matthews in, so it’s a team with a lot of experience,” Matt White tells us.
White has been with the team since their first season in 2011 and was instrumental in the team’s rider recruitment from day one. He’s worked with Tour de France stars throughout that period, and brought Simon Yates (and his brother Adam) to the team in 2014. Adam Yates has since left the squad, and although Simon is set to follow, White, the team’s Director of High Performance and Racing, believes that there will be no distractions once the Tour starts on Saturday.
“If the rumours are correct and he’s going to Visma, then yes,” White said when asked if this could potentially be Simon Yates’ final chance to target the GC in the Tour de France.
“He’s not going to get this opportunity with Jonas Vingegaard but if someone asks if he’s leaving, will he try as hard? 100 percent he’ll be trying. People like him are winners and they don’t want to waste opportunities. Everyone knows that in the blink of an eye you can be on the deck and out of any bike race, so when you’ve prepared as much as he has you want to make the most of it.”
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Yates hasn’t had the best of seasons so far. He won the AlUla Tour back in February but was then struck down with illness that wrecked his spring. His trajectory has improved over the last few weeks, with a solid, if not spectacular outing at the Tour de Suisse in June. He finished 11th there but his aspirations are a lot higher for the Tour - as he recently told Escape Collective in an exclusive interview. It’s not all about Yates at Jayco, however, with the team chasing success on several fronts.
“Last year we were fourth on GC with Simon and bopped around in a lot of stages. The plan is to do something similar this year. We’ve got Dylan for the pure sprint stages, and then Bling [Matthews] for the ones that Dylan doesn’t make. We should have a few opportunities covered. Then we have Simon in that wave of guys boxing for a podium,” said White.
“All the guys are under the same pressure. They all want to perform and they’re not kids anymore so they know that they’ve only got a number of times left at the Tour. And with Simon, who knows what his plans are next year, he might end up riding the Giro or the Vuelta, so he’s prepared just like he did last year. He did two months without competition, he did his block of training in the sun, and time at altitude. He was around the mark last year and we expect him to be around there again because the preparation has been as good, if not better this time around.”
Yates will be looking to get stuck in from stage 1 of this year’s Tour de France and that ambition could set the tone for the next three weeks at Jayco AlUla. There’s always a degree of uncertainty and trepidation on the eve of a Grand Tour, but one guarantee is that Simon Yates, and his entire team, won’t be letting opportunities slip through the fingers.
I’m Daniel Benson and I’m the former Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews, GCN, and VeloNews. I’ve recently set up a Substack with the aim of delivering you regular news, interviews, rider transfers and race analysis. To subscribe to my Substack please drop your email in the box below, and to find out more about what I’m doing please click here.