Simon Yates: I’m expecting a crazy first couple of days at the Tour de France

It has been two years since Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) last lined up for the Tour de France in 2021, but really we haven't seen a fully focused Yates at the Tour since his seventh place in the 2017 race. Even with two stage wins in 2019, the Giro d’Italia has been his Grand Tour of choice and he has built his season around May.

This year, however, things are different. Yates is back at the Tour with a full spring campaign built around success in July.

“It’s been a couple of years, a long time really, that I’ve not come to the Tour de France to try for the general,” Yates told the media on Thursday. “Of course it’s going to be difficult, but I don’t see why not. I’ve given it a good crack as always.”

For Yates, focusing on the Tour this year is not simply a change in which three week race he tackles. It was an effort to fundamentally change how the intensity and focus of his entire season comes together.

“I just wanted the change. I’ve been going back to the Giro for so many years. It’s still a race that I love and I wouldn’t mind going back to the future, but I just needed a change in the way that my season is structured,” Yates said. “I was also missing some races that I wanted to do in the early part of the year - Tour of the Basque Country, Romandie although I didn’t get to finish it - and with those races normally I wouldn’t be able to do those races and the Giro. So it was not just about the Grand Tours, it was also just the whole season in general.”

Simon Yates has come to this year's Tour off the back of a strong spring, but an early summer without any real racing to speak of. Yates has not raced since he pulled out of stage 1 of the Tour de Romandie in late April due to stomach issues. Instead, he and his team decided to stay at altitude and focus on training instead of the racing dress rehearsals in the French Alps, Switzerland, Slovenia or British nationals.

Nonetheless, this season Yates had sparkling form. At the Tour Down Under, Paris-Nice and the Tour of the Basque Country, he finished in the GC top 10, with a stage win to boot on the final day of the Tour Down Under. The Brit hopes that, while he remains a below the radar favourite, he can hit that early season form, especially as the race kicks off from the Basque Country, where he came in second to Jonas Vingegaard at Itzulia in April.

“I’m excited about this hard start here in the Basque Country, I think that’s going to settle things down a bit,” Yates said about the Grand Départ. “It’s always going to be a stressful start to the Tour, but I think maybe it can be a bit more selective than, say, starting in Normandy or Bretagne or somewhere.”

“I really enjoy racing here. It’s always hard, aggressive racing which I enjoy as well, getting stuck in. And of course we always talk about the fans here in the Basque Country. I’m expecting a crazy first few days here with the fans. They really love the sport, and it’s so good to see. I’m expecting huge crowds.”

Split ambitions at Jayco AlUla

© Velo Collection / Getty Images

Luka Mezgec and Dylan Groenewegen celebrate after a win at the 2023 UAE Tour.

The other half of Jayco AlUla’s Tour de France ambition is built around Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen. Groenewegen took his fifth stage win last year on stage 3 in Denmark and hopes to return to winning ways after taking wins in each of his last four Tour starts.

Nevertheless, the sprinting field is getting deeper. Jasper Phillipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal - Quick Step) and Sam Welsford (Team dsm-firmenich) continue to stake their claim as the top of the sprinting field, while Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Destiny), Alexander Kristoff (Uno-X Pro Cycling) and Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) all bring stage-winning experience to the race. Those riders, paired with the likes of Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) will make sprint wins a very hot commodity.

“I think we’re close to each other and there’s not one favourite,” Groenewegen told the media. “With Philipsen, Jakobsen, me maybe, we are the fastest, and you never know. Cavendish is also there and with Caleb Ewan you have a lot of sprinters here. It will be crazy in the final, but it will be nice to hopefully beat them.”

“It’s a different start than normal in the Tour, but I like it,” he said of the Basque start. “Maybe it makes the sprint stages less hectic. The first two stages are really hard, hopefully on the third day we have a small chance. We will see in the race. Then the fourth stage is normally a bunch sprint. So it will be a survival race in the first few days.”

While Groenewegen will have a deep sprinting field to contend with, he comes into the race off of a commanding display of form at the Tour of Slovenia. At the week-long stage race, the Dutchman had the help of his strong lead-out, with his final man, Luka Mezgec, hitting his stride in the sprint team’s Tour rehearsal. The form shown in Slovenia will certainly give Jayco-AlUla the confidence that splitting their squad won’t necessarily dampen their ambition in either objective.

“I think the lead-outs are really important, maybe not a whole sprint train, but three or four guys,” Groenewegen said. ”It’s really nice to save a little bit of energy. With Luka [Mezgec] we have really good preparation, he is in really good shape. We saw in Slovenia that he is one of the best lead-outs in the world, so we are really motivated to show that now in the Tour.”