"Hopefully I will be ready for the Giro d'Italia" - Simon Yates heads to altitude after quiet Volta a Catalunya

The move of Simon Yates to Team Visma | Lease a Bike was one of the biggest transfers of the recent off-season. Although the Brit does depart the 2025 Volta a Catalunya with a top-10 on GC, Yates himself admits there is work to be done ahead of his Maglia Rosa challenge at the upcoming Giro d'Italia.

“That was all I could do for now. I did what I could and we have to be satisfied with that," assesses Yates honestly in his post-stage 7 comments to Team Visma | Lease a Bike's official website, having moved up to 9th overall. "Because of yesterday's shortened stage I didn't really have a chance to move up in the general classification."

Whilst it perhaps wasn't the dream performance in the Catalan region for Yates, there are some reasons for optimism. "I did enjoy the short and powerful stage here in Barcelona today," he concludes his assessment. "Now it is time to go on altitude training and hopefully I will be ready for the Giro d'Italia, one of my biggest goals this cycling year.”

For Team Visma | Lease a Bike as a whole however, the 2025 Volta a Catalunya will go down as a success, thanks mostly to some brilliant work from Yates' teenage compatriot, Matthew Brennan. “Our set goal in advance - to win a stage and to finish in the top ten in the general classification - has been more than achieved. We can be proud of that. Matthew won two stages here in a fantastic way and really showed that we have a special rider in the team. In addition, he rode in the leader’s jersey for two days and also finished second in a stage once. He really took every opportunity this week. That’s impressive”, sports director Marc Reef comments.

“Simon's ninth place in the final classification is partly due to the good efforts of the team in the fifth stage full of echelons where we had five riders in the front. Our good team performance is ultimately confirmed by winning the team classification. All in all, we can look back on a great week here," the sports director concludes.