Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 7, 2026
1 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleSimon Yates, a two-time grand tour champion, retires from professional cycling, ending a successful career with major wins in the Vuelta and Giro d'Italia.
PARIS, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Briton Simon Yates, a two-time grand tour champion, has decided to end his professional career, his Visma-Lease a Bike team said on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old, who won the Vuelta in 2018, retires on a high after claiming the Giro d'Italia title last May to add to his six career stage wins in the three-week race.
Yates, the twin brother of Adam Yates, also grabbed two stage wins on the Spanish grand tour as well as three on the Tour de France, where his best general classification result was fourth in 2023.
"I am deeply proud of what I have managed to achieve and equally grateful for the lessons that came with it. While the victories will always stand out, the harder days and setbacks were just as important," Yates, who served a four-month doping ban in 2016, said in a team statement.
"They taught me resilience and patience, and made the successes mean even more."
Yates started his career on the track, winning the points race gold medal at the world championships in Minsk in 2013.
(Reporting by Julien PretotEditing by Christian Radnedge)
A grand tour champion is a cyclist who has won one of the three major cycling tours: the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, or Vuelta a España. These events are prestigious and require exceptional endurance and skill.
A doping ban is a suspension from competition imposed on an athlete who has violated anti-doping regulations, typically due to the use of prohibited substances or methods to enhance performance.
Resilience in sports refers to an athlete's ability to recover from setbacks, challenges, or failures. It involves mental toughness, perseverance, and the capacity to maintain focus and motivation despite difficulties.
A stage win refers to a victory in a single segment of a multi-stage race, such as the Tour de France or Giro d'Italia. Each stage is a separate competition, and winning a stage is a significant achievement.
A general classification result in cycling refers to the overall ranking of riders based on their cumulative time across all stages of a race. It determines the winner of the entire event.
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