10/06/2022

Team BikeExchange - Jayco have "to see how his knee recovers" before deciding on Simon Yates' presence at Tour de France

Simon Yates has in the past ridden the Giro-Tour double, with success, and he had been planning to ride the French race this summer but has no guarantees due to his nagging knee injury that has hindered him throughout the Italian race.

Team manager Brent Copeland told VeloNews that the decision is yet to be made: “It’s still an ongoing discussion. We have to see how his knee recovers and then make a decision from there. No final decision has been made. If his knee has recovered then he will go to the Tour but he needs to be convinced that it’s 100 percent and right now he’s not done a lot of training since he stopped in the Giro. If he goes it’s for stage wins and not GC so he could always ride himself into condition for the back-end of the Tour," he said.

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Copeland has also brought up an important topic as Team BikeExchange - Jayco face the risk of relegation and have to fight to guarrantee their presence at World Tour level for the coming seasons: "It’s difficult to say where things will go because on the one hand you’ve got the points system to weigh in and then you’ve got the visibility that you get at the Tour. At the Tour of Poland you get good points but by next week we will have decided."

The Briton has been a part of the Australian structure since 2014 and is looking to keep it going according to Copeland: “We’re still discussing Simon’s future. It seems that there’s a mutual interest in continuing. We just have to get down to the details and conditions. We’re looking at having that all wrapped up before the Tour de France. Once Simon is locked in we can work on the direction with the rest of the market. With us, and Simon, there’s a mutual interest to continue."

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Yates, besides having won a Vuelta a España, has been one of the most successful climbers of the past decade with stage wins in all Grand Tours and several other meaningful races. “We believe Simon has a very good future ahead of him and he has been a part of this team for years and we are interested to continue building that good relationship we have," he concluded.