This feature first appeared in Procycling magazine. To subscribe, click here.
The comparisons simply never stop for Adam and Simon Yates. Ever since they were juniors racing on the Manchester track, the cycling world has been fascinated by the prospect of twins competing at the highest level. Now they are riding in the WorldTour and standing on the edge of greatness. They can boast top finishes in Classics, stage races and the hardest Tour de France stages, and they’re still only 23 years old. Procycling asks what makes them different – from everyone else and from each other. And how far can this unique family go?
Grane Road, otherwise known as the B6232, rises gently west out of the Lancashire town of Haslingden towards Blackburn, past terraces of sandstone brick houses. The road follows the River Ogden before climbing to skirt the bleak heights of Oswaldtwistle Moor to the north; to the south, the scenic Musbury Heights, popular with walkers, overlook three reservoirs in the valley which are fed by the river.
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On the left side of the road just outside the town, opposite a small cemetery and marking the boundary between moorland and civilisation, stands the former church of St Stephen, now the Holden Wood tea shop and antique centre. It’s an imposing building, with a tall, square tower topped by an octagonal spire. This is Adam and Simon Yates’ favourite tea shop, a regular waypoint on their training rides, just a 30-minute spin from their childhood home in Bury. It’s where they’ve arranged to meet Procycling. It’s also a small window through which we can get a glimpse of their cycling background, their roots and who they are.
The weather is typically Lancastrian: gunmetal clouds blow low across the sky, obscuring the moor above us. Rain gusts across the landscape in billowing sheets. It’s easy to imagine the Yates twins, when they were younger, racing each other along Grane Road to the shelter of the tea stop.
“We’d get home from school. Get something to eat. Go out round here with lights on in the pitch black,” says Adam. “Two hours, in the freezing cold.” Seeing the doubt on my face, he adds, “Well, you have to, don’t you?”
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