NO HOLDING BACK

Simon Yates pledges to once again go on the attack at theGiro, after coming tantalisingly close in the 2018 edition

- Chris Marshall-Bell

Simon Yates deviated from his reserved and temperate personality in the media 16 months ago. The quiet, I-do-my-talking-on-the-bike Brit claimed that had he been his own rival at the 2019 Giro d’Italia, he “would be scared, I’d be s***ting myself,” such was his apparent form. It backfired. A year after almost spectacularly winning the maglia rosa, he finished eighth. “That would be a good performance, depending on who you are,” he tells CW. “But I like to win.”

Ahead of the delayed 2020 edition, there are no bullish comments this time around – at least not yet – but there is, you feel, a smarter, more mature Yates. He admits it himself. “I’ve matured as a person as well as a rider [since 2018],” he says. “I’ve gained a lot of experience in lots of different situations and it counts for a lot.”