"This is the Roglic group" - How perceived disrespect from race radio helped fuel Simon Yates' Giro d'Italia comeback

Throughout the 2025 Giro d'Italia, Team Visma | Lease a Bike's GC hopeful Simon Yates quietly went about his business, allowing his rivals to headlines. That was at least, until stage 20, where the Brit launched an incredible comeback win on the Colle delle Finestre, claiming the Maglia Rosa and taking a second Grand Tour win of his career.

Whilst going under the radar was all part of the plan for Yates and Visma, team sports director Jesper Morkov has revealed on the Cafe Eddy podcast his and the team's surprise at just how invisible Yates was during the Grand Tour. Even race radio wasn't safe from this, with one such example of perceived disrespect helping fuel the fires of motivation.

“On Radio Tour, when they name and group riders — ‘this is the Roglic group’ and so on — Simon Yates was never mentioned. Not even once," Morkov begins his recounting. "And this was while he was sitting third in the GC. It was almost funny how invisible he was. It was absolutely mad."

As mentioned though, in the third and final week, Yates began to force his way into the minds of viewers and experts. "He only started getting mentioned towards the end, but right up until the middle of last week, no one was talking about Simon Yates," continues Morkov, revealing how the fact even became a bit of an inside joke within Team Visma | Lease a Bike. "Among us sports directors, we even joked, ‘Is Simon here?’”

On stage 20 though, everything changed with a brutal acceleration on the same climb that had haunted Yates' Giro story since 2018. "We thought: ‘Okay, this might actually swing our way.’ If they’re going to pull a move like that and only focus on each other…” Morkov says of the much-discussed tactics by Yates' rivals Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz. “And then it worked — he created a gap and broke free from their battle. They kept attacking one another, and he could just sit back and pick his moment.”