Video | Simon Yates considers closure of Giro d'Italia pursuit after 2022, to focus on Tour de France

On the third video of the 'On the Wheel' series from Team BikeExchange - Jayco, we get an insight on Simon Yates' final preparations towards the Giro d'Italia - which he is set to start this coming week, as one of the main favourites.

The Briton is confident heading into the Italian race, in which he's won four stages over the years, finished on the podium last year and dominated the race in 2018 until the final week. "If you look at say Training Peaks and look at my files and numbers, I can win a Grand Tour - I mean I already won a Grant Tour [Vuelta a España 2018]. But that doesn't normally translate to winning a bike race, it's all got to fall in place: You got to have the correct team around you aswell to protect you, you have to make sure your nutrition is right," he said in the video.

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In 2019, Yates has said explained that the Tour de France was never much to his liking: "I simply don't feel the same passion for it. I go to the Giro and I’m anxious to win. I go to the Vuelta and the same things happens – I think ‘I can't wait to start the race and try to win. I don’t get that feeling when I ride the Tour.”

That has led him to target the Giro d'Italia every year since his debut in 2018 - where he dramatically lost the race after collapsing in the final week. In 2019 he struggled with form, 2020 he abandoned with Covid-19, and 2021 he finished third in what was his best result to date. He addmited that 2022 may be his final attempt at the Italian Grand Tour.

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"I've been back many times now to give it a really good shot, I've had a lot of success, a lot of failure. I've learnt a lot about the race, myself, the team. But I think I want to move on, and I want to try something else - but I still have a jersey to collect in my collection, I have a pink one and a red one, it's the yellow one that's missing," he said. "This is maybe the last time I'll be here. I've raced for a while anyway."

Yates is currently riding the Volta a Asturias, where he took a dominant win on the opening day, however he cracked in the queen stage to Cangas del Narcea to drop down in the overall classification. He bounced back however in the final day of the race to take another solo win.

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