Simon Yates is stepping away from professional cycling, calling time on a career that ended with one of its most resonant moments: a Grand Tour victory with Team Visma | Lease a Bike, followed by a Tour de France stage win in the same season.
The 33-year-old Brit announced his decision in a personal message released today, describing retirement as something he has “been thinking about for a long time”, and saying it now feels like the right moment to stop.
“It now feels like the right moment to step away”
Yates’ statement is notable for its calm certainty, and for the way it frames cycling as a lifetime chapter rather than a job.
“This may come as a surprise to many, but it is not a decision I have made lightly,” Yates wrote. “I have been thinking about it for a long time, and it now feels like the right moment to step away from the sport.”
He traced the line from his early years on the track in Manchester to the biggest races on the road.
“From racing on the track at the Manchester Velodrome, to competing and winning on the biggest stage and representing my country at the Olympic Games, it has shaped every chapter of my life,” he wrote.
Photo Credit: LaPresseThe final season, a career rewritten
Team Visma | Lease a Bike framed Yates’ retirement as a decision taken at a high point, after a season that delivered results few riders ever reach.
In the team’s announcement, Head of Racing Grischa Niermann pointed to the Giro as both a sporting achievement and a personal turning point.
“With Simon, we won the Giro d’Italia last year, an incredibly special achievement for both him and the team,” Niermann said. “It is a shame that he is stopping now, but he does so at an absolute high point.”
Niermann also highlighted a defining trait of Yates’ career: timing, and the ability to rise when expectations shift.
“Simon was an exceptional climber and general classification rider who always delivered when it mattered most,” he said. “In the Giro, he peaked at a moment when almost no one expected him to be able to win anymore, which truly characterises him as a rider.”
Yates, in his own words, placed as much weight on difficult periods as on the victories.
“While the victories will always stand out, the harder days and setbacks were just as important,” he wrote. “They taught me resilience and patience, and made the successes mean even more.”
A career defined by Grand Tours and selective brilliance
Yates’ palmarès spans more than a decade at the top level and sits heavily in stage racing.
Key milestones include:
- Vuelta a España overall victory (2018), the defining Grand Tour success of his early peak
- Giro d’Italia overall victory (2025), achieved late in his career and described by his final team as a moment of reinvention
- Tirreno-Adriatico overall victory (2020), confirming his status beyond Grand Tours
- Multiple Grand Tour stage wins, including mountain stages in the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia
He also carried a track background into his professional identity. Before his road career fully took shape, Yates won a world title on the track, and represented Great Britain at Olympic level.
The hard chapter that shaped the rest
Any full account of Yates’ career also includes 2016, when he served a four-month suspension after testing positive for terbutaline at Paris-Nice. The episode was publicly framed at the time as a therapeutic use exemption failure rather than a performance programme, but it was still a rupture.
What followed was, in typical Yates fashion, a return defined by riding rather than talk. He rebuilt his reputation through results, then through consistency, then through a second peak that arrived later than most would have predicted.
That arc is part of why his retirement statement reads as it does: proud, but not romantic, and quietly aware of the full cost of a career.
“You gave me the opportunity to rewrite my history”
Yates reserved specific gratitude for his final team, framing his move to Team Visma | Lease a Bike as a turning point that allowed him to finish on his own terms.
“To my team, Team Visma–Lease a Bike, thank you for your understanding and support of my decision to stop now,” he wrote. “You gave me the opportunity to rewrite my history, and through trust and belief, we did it together.”
He also addressed the people behind the scenes and at home, acknowledging the emotional economy of elite sport, where support often shows itself in time missed rather than time shared.
“To my family, you shared the sacrifices that came with this sport,” he wrote. “The absences and missed birthdays were never easy.”
What comes next
Yates did not outline a next role or career plan in his message. Instead, he framed retirement as a decision made with clarity, not uncertainty.
“I step away from professional cycling with deep pride and a sense of peace,” he wrote. “This chapter has given me more than I ever imagined.”
The rider who made a habit of late attacks and long-range decisions has chosen a final one that fits his character: considered, understated, and complete.
