'Rusty' Simon Yates surprises himself with Tour de France stage win
The Giro d'Italia winner was in the early break on stage 10 with a view to helping Visma | Lease a Bike leader Jonas Vingegaard but he ended up helping himself to victory at Le Mont-Dore.
Simon Yates arrived at this Tour de France expressly to work for Jonas Vingegaard, but when the Visma | Lease a Bike rider found himself in the winning move at the foot of Le Mont-Dore on stage 10, he figured that he might as well win.
Yates had been posted in the day-long break as something of an out-rider for Vingegaard, but while Visma | Lease a Bike were aggressive in the yellow jersey group, the break stayed clear to fight out the stage honours.
After Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) drove the break to the foot of Le Mont-Dore as he rode himself into the yellow jersey, Yates sensed his opportunity, attacking before the base of the short, sharp climb. He did enough to hold off the chase of Thymen Arensman (Ineos) to win his first Tour stage win since 2019.
“I didn’t feel that good out there,” Yates said. “It was a hard start and there were a lot of strong guys, so that’s why I took an advantage into the final corners before the climb started because I was looking for a bit of a head start.”
It was Yates’ first Tour stage win since 2019, and he confessed that the chance to chase was not planned.
“It’s been a long time,” he said. “But actually, I was not really expecting any opportunities here. We came here fully focused on Jonas and the GC, but the stage played out in a way where I could be there for the stage, and I took it with both hands.”
Yates knows that his primary duty from here to Paris will be helping Vingegaard beat Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) to yellow. Vingegaard is currently fourth overall, 1:46 behind the new leader Healy and 1:17 behind Pogacar.
“From the start, I’m under no illusion of what we’re here for,” Yates said. “Even today, the main plan was to be there in case there was something happening from behind, but the gap was too big, so I cracked on and went for the stage.”
Yates had a subdued start to the Tour, losing ground on the opening stage as he felt his way back into action after his Giro victory.
“It’s not easy. I’m still a bit tired from there,” he said. “But I’ve been getting better every day since I’ve been here. I was a bit rusty, I like to say, at the start. It was quite demanding, but I’ve really been growing into the race. Now I’m looking forward to the rest day and to the rest of the race.”
Yates' teammate Victor Campenaerts was also in the break, but the Belgian dropped back to help pace his GC leaders Vingegaard and Matteo Jorgenson into the final climb, though they were ultimately unable to trouble Pogacar.
“We tried to attack, but the problem is we have a very strong opponent and we try to put him under pressure every day," Campenaerts told TNT Sports afterwards.
“Sometimes I have the impression that he gets irritated or his team gets irritated that we try so hard, but we have to be honest, he’s the best rider in the peloton and the best rider maybe of all-time, who knows, so it’s very hard to counter him.
“We try as hard as possible and we think with Jonas we have the best chance to beat him to first spot. It will be extremely challenging but we still have 11 days to come and we will try a lot more.”
