When talking to most Grand Tour contenders, past and present, the Tour de France almost invariably appears somewhere in the conversation as their big dream race – the event that drives them on in training and racing. After all, the Tour's the race that everyone – riders and public alike – considers the centrepiece of the cycling calendar. To quote Spain's first Tour de France winner, Federico Martin Bahamontes, back in 1959, "The Tour is the Tour."
But Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) is, at least for now, one of the exceptions to that general rule, recently telling Spanish website Ciclo21 that he was currently "not interested in the Tour de France". Rather, as he explained to Cyclingnews on the morning of the last stage of the Ruta del Sol, for now it's the Giro d'Italia that is wholly in his sights.
"I have a deep passion to try to win this race [the Giro], but, just at this moment, the Tour isn't doing anything for me," Yates says.
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"And that's OK. I think some people are the same; some people are the opposite, too. They only want to go and do the Tour; that’s what drives them to get out of bed in the morning. They want to go and race it and win it. At this moment in time, it's not me, and that's not a problem."
Yates cites "what happened last year" at the Giro d'Italia – when he was in the lead and within grasping distance of overall victory, but then lost almost at the last fence – as one of the reasons why he feels so strongly about the Italian Grand Tour.
But, interestingly, Yates says he doesn't have the same driving motivation behind him for Paris-Nice, despite taking the lead on stage 6, but then losing the lead to Marc Soler (Movistar) on the final, rain-soaked day.
Testing his legs in Andalucia
Keeping Yorkshire in mind
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/simon-yates-right-now-the-tour-de-france-isnt-doing-anything-for-me
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