Visma move enabled Yates to achieve Giro dream

Former coach believes 32-year-old had grown stale in former surroundings at Jayco-AlUla

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Moving team was crucial for Simon Yates's change in fortunes at the Giro d'Italia, his first coach at British Cycling said on Sunday, after his victory was confirmed in Rome.

The 32-year-old won his second Grand Tour last weekend, after the 2018 Vuelta a España, in what was his first three-week race for Visma-Lease a Bike.

After a 10-year spell with Jayco-AlUla (formerly Orica-GreenEdge), his only professional team, Yates took a pay cut to sign for Visma which Keith Lambert believes reinvigorated his career at the right time.

“Moving on was absolutely the best thing he could have done,” the former under-23 head coach at BC told Cycling Weekly. “It was getting so stale there, that was obvious, so moving to Visma was the best thing for him and he’s shown that now.”

It was a change which let him escape memories of his collapse at the Giro in 2018. Then, he blew up and lost a chance of overall victory on the Colle delle Finestre - the now-famous site of his redemptive ride that sealed the win, seven years on.