Yates won’t change his style despite Giro disappointment

SIMON Yates intends to ride La Vuelta with the same aggressive approach which saw him spend 13 days in the leader’s pink jersey at the Giro d’Italia in May.

The Bury rider won three stages in the Giro and took pink on stage six, holding it until he cracked badly on stage 19 as Chris Froome stormed into the lead.

Many questioned whether Yates was paying for being too aggressive earlier in the race, but it is unlikely he would have worn pink at all had he raced any other way.

“I don’t feel any difference in my approach of the racing after the Giro,” the 26-year-old said.

“Since the very beginning, I’ve always turned up to races trying to win.”

Yates said he finished the Giro ‘completely dead’ but he is pleased with his preparations for La Vuelta, which starts with an eight-kilometre time trial in Malaga today.

Yates is joined in the Mitchelton-Scott squad by his twin brother Adam, who has changed his race programme after a disappointing Tour de France.

The brothers rarely race together, and Simon admitted they needed to overcome something of a “curse” as they have not both performed well in the same race since their time on the under-23 circuit.

“I like to race with him,” he said. “I hope this is the first race we can do together at a very high level. There has always been a curse.

“Whenever we raced together, one of us always was not so good unfortunately, or unlucky.