Simon Yates says it wasn’t the offer of a huge payday that convinced him to join Visma-Lease a Bike at the end of the season. The British climber will ride for the Dutch superteam alongside Jonas Vingegaard from 2025, but he says he has actually taken a pay cut to do so.
Ahead of the Grand Prix Cyclistes de Québec and Montréal in Canada this weekend, Yates spoke for the first time after agreeing a move to his new team. The 32-year-old explained that he had sought advice from his brother, Adam, after receiving the transfer proposal and said it was not a decision he had taken lightly.
"I never really have had a serious opportunity to move teams actually," Yates said in Québec. "I have had some offers before, but nowhere was really that interesting like the Visma offer. So that's why I've taken it. When the announcement was made that I was making a switch, I saw a lot of comments saying that there should be salary caps. But actually, I took a pay cut to go to Visma."
"I was actively wanting to go there," Yates said as he explained that the lower salary on offer didn’t put him off. "I wanted to be part of one of the best teams. I've had 11 years of chances to do my own thing on this team. So I don't think there's anything wrong now with wanting to move on."
"I think it's an exciting opportunity," he added. "I think it was the right moment to make a change. I'm not getting any younger, I'm getting old now, but I still have motivation and I still have strong feelings in my legs so now was the time to change.
"I think I would regret it when I finish if I didn't know what it was really like to be in one of the best teams. The proposal came and I just couldn't really miss an opportunity like that. If I stay here for another two years, three years, I'll be 35 or 36 and then it's too late."
Brotherly advice
Yates is likely to come up against his UAE Emirates twin as a super mountain domestique for the likes of Vingegaard in the months ahead. After racing each other into Bilbao on the opening day of the 2023 Tour de France, coming up against his twin on the biggest of stages will be nothing new. Adam took the victory and the race's first yellow jersey in the Basque Country, but the brothers celebrated together as they crossed the line to complete a Yates family 1-2.
Simon said that Adam backing him to take the plunge and sign on the Visma dotted line had been one of the final things he needed in order to make the decision to move on from Jayco.
"It gave me confidence that it would be a good decision," he said. "We discuss pretty much everything together. He had the same opinion and said that maybe a change would be good.
"I was joking with him, saying it's just like training. We train together every day when we're at home, and we stick it to each other there for multiple hours a day. So it'll all just be like another training day."
Yates explained that he’d already been told by the Visma hierarchy that his new role would be "a free one" meaning he is likely to be given his own chance to race in week long stage races before he then switches to a support role on other occasions.
The huge strength in depth on his new team will also mean that a place in a Grand Tour lineup next year may not be guaranteed. Yates said this didn’t faze him in the slightest and, if anything, it provided him with yet more inspiration to raise his level to an even higher place.
He said: "If I'm not good enough to make the selection for a race, it's completely fine. If there's a logical reason, hard facts on a piece of paper, then I'll just prove myself for the next time. But that's sport in general. You've got to really believe in yourself and get amongst it so hopefully this pays off."
Yates has won ten Grand Tour stages across his time with Jayco, as well as Tirreno-Adriatico in 2021. His crowning achievement though was overall victory at the 2018 Vuelta a España. After a difficult final year with the team, impacted by several bouts of illness, he said that he was determined to end it on a high note, particularly at Sunday’s GP Montréal.
"I've only put my arms in the air once this year, and I would like to do it again one final time at least, to do it for the team. So I'm motivated for the end of the season, but it's not easy to win these days anymore."
