Simon Yates lifts lid on pay cut to make ‘exciting’ move to ‘super team’ Visma-Lease a Bike - ‘I would regret it’
Updated 14/09/2024 at 09:24 GMT+1
Simon Yates has defended his move to "super team" Visma-Lease a Bike, where he ended an 11-year stay at Australian team Jayco-AlUla. The 32-year-old also revealed that he took a pay cut to join Visma on a two-year deal. "It's an exciting opportunity and I think it was the right moment to make a change," he said. “I'm not getting any younger. But I still have the motivation."
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Simon Yates has revealed that he took a pay cut to join “super team” Visma-Lease a Bike, as he left Jayco-AlUla after 11 years.
The 32-year-old has had a successful career with the Australian outfit and has won multiple stages at the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana - winning the latter in 2018.
But Yates felt it was the “right moment to make a change” ahead of his final years at the top level, where he wanted the chance to compete in “the best team”.
“When the announcement was made that I was making a switch, I saw a lot of comments saying that there should be [salary] budget limits. But I took a pay cut to go to Visma,” Yates revealed.
“I was actively wanting to go there as well, because I want to be part of the best team. You have to think about it from the perspective of the rider and wanting to get the best out of himself.
“I've had 11 years of chances to do my own thing on this team and I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to now go to one of these teams. It's an exciting opportunity and I think it was the right moment to make a change.
“I'm not getting any younger. But I still have the motivation. I still have strong feelings in the legs. If I left it any later, you start to really decline, so now is the time to change."
He added: “At the end of the day, not going to one of these super teams, I think I would regret when I finish if I didn't know what it was really like to be in one of the best teams. The proposal came and I just couldn't really miss an opportunity like that.”
Yates explained that he has joined the team in an “open role”, similar to that of his twin brother Adam, who joined UAE Team Emirates from Ineos Grenadiers last year.
Although teams like Visma have come under fire in the past for favouring the success of star riders, including Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert, Yates has insisted that he will have the chance to ride for himself.
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The experienced rider could be used as a super domestique for the Tour de France and work to benefit the rest of the team.
“It was an open role,” he said. “It was to have chances, and also work sometimes for somebody else. I was completely happy with that. I'm still motivated to do well, and whether that's in a support role for those guys, or also winning myself, I am never against being in that role of helping somebody else, but I've just never really had the chance here to do that."
On his brother Adam, Yates added: “He's had a very successful change there when he left from Ineos. So I would not say it was my inspiration, but it gave me confidence in my decision that it would be a good one.
“We're close. We discuss pretty much everything together. And he had the same opinion as what I'm telling you guys, you know, that maybe a change would be good.”
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