Simon Yates

Simon Philip Yates (born 7 August 1992) is a British professional road and track racing cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam.

His twin brother is Adam Yates, who is also a professional cyclist.

He was also selected for the England team for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, where his room-mate was Chris Froome.

He finished 12th overall in one of his first World Tour races, the Tour of the Basque Country.

Yates suffered a broken collarbone on Stage 3 of the Tour of Turkey.

He recovered to take seventh overall and the young rider classification in the Tour of Slovenia in June.

He won the gold medal in the points race at the 2013 Track Cycling World Championships.

He won the gold medal in the points race at the 2013 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

Yates made his breakthrough on the road in 2013 riding for the British national team.

Along with brother Adam, he competed at the 2013 Tour de l'Avenir for the Great Britain national team, where Simon won the race's fifth stage, ahead of Adam.

Simon added another stage victory the following day, and finished the race tenth overall.

He was then selected as part of the British national team to take part in the Tour of Britain.

He competed well throughout the race and on stage six he took his biggest win to that point, on the summit finish at Haytor, sprinting clear of a nine-man group, which included Bradley Wiggins and Nairo Quintana.

Yates finished third overall in the race, and was the best rider in the under-23 classification.

Yates along with his brother joined the Australian UCI World Tour team in 2014.

He was a surprise selection for the team for the 2014 Tour de France, with only 5 days' notice, and was one of only 4 British riders to take to the Grand Départ startline in Leeds.

Yates featured in two breakaways during his Grand Tour debut, before being withdrawn by his team on the second rest day.

In April 2015 Yates finished fifth overall in the Tour of the Basque Country.

Later that month he rode the Tour de Romandie and placed sixth overall.

In June, Yates finished fifth overall in the Critérium du Dauphiné after finishing second behind Chris Froome on the final stage, a summit finish at Modane.

By doing so Yates also won the white jersey as best young rider.

He was again selected for the Tour de France, this time alongside his brother Adam.

Simon placed eighth on Stage 3, which finished on the Mur de Huy, and eleventh on Stage 20, the queen stage of the race finishing on Alpe d'Huez.

In March, Yates finished seventh overall at Paris–Nice, however, in April it emerged that Yates had tested positive for the banned substance terbutaline in an in-competition test during the race.

Following a doping ban in 2016, he won the young rider classification in the 2017 Tour de France and the general classification in the 2018 Vuelta a España.

Yates has taken more than thirty professional victories, including ten Grand Tour stage victories – six at the Giro d'Italia and two each at the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España.

The brothers took up cycling after their father John was injured in a collision with a car while riding.

During John's recovery he took the twins to Manchester Velodrome to track sessions run by his cycling club, Bury Clarion, to keep in touch with the other members.

Both brothers soon started riding on the road for Bury Clarion and on the track for Eastlands Velo.

At the age of 18, Yates was selected by British Cycling for its Olympic Academy programme.

Yates was disqualified from the race and served a four-month doping ban during 2016; his team took full responsibility for this blaming an "administrative error".

The ban meant Yates missed the Tour de France, where his brother Adam finished fourth overall and won the young rider classification.

Following the expiry of his doping suspension, he was named in the startlist for the Vuelta a España.

In stage 6 Yates, seeing an opportunity, escaped from a breakaway group to win a solo stage victory – the first of the Yates brothers to take a Grand Tour stage victory.

2017 saw Yates collect stage wins at two prestigious stage races, Paris–Nice and the Tour de Romandie.

He placed second at the latter, his highest finish in a UCI World Tour stage-race at the time.

He finished 7th overall at the Tour de France and won the young rider classification, matching the feat achieved by his twin brother a year prior.

Yates confirmed his and the team's plans for him participating in the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España.

In March, Yates won Stage 7 of the Paris–Nice, a mountain top finish to Valdeblore La Colmiane, to take the overall race lead going into the final stage.

However, Marc Soler of the, who started 37 seconds down on Yates in sixth place overall, attacked around halfway into the stage along with compatriot David de la Cruz ; the duo joined Omar Fraile at the head of the race, and the trio managed to stay clear of the rest of the field by the time they reached Nice.