Why Simon Yates should quit Giro d’Italia and target Tour de France after Blockhaus nightmare

When Simon Yates announced shortly before starting his fifth consecutive Giro d’Italia that this would probably be his last appearance before he turned his attentions to trying to win the Tour de France, no one expected that shift from pink to yellow to happen as soon as this very summer. But that is exactly what must happen now. “I was hopeful of still being able to try and do something, but I’ve been in a lot of [knee] pain since Etna.

I’ve been trying to manage it as best as possible. It wasn’t my only problem today. I also suffered with the heat,” Yates said after conceding a hefty 11 minutes on the unforgiving ascent of Blockhaus on Sunday.

Ad/> “I’ll see what happens now,” he added. “We’ve got the rest day, I’ll see how I pull up from the stage today.” Giro d'ItaliaHindley upsets heavyweights on Blockhaus, Yates crumbles, Lopez fights to keep pink5 HOURS AGO But it’s clear that Yates should not take any more chances with his injured knee. He needs to quit the Giro now and rest up ahead of the Tour’s grand depart in Copenhagen on 1st July.

Why continue? The 29-year-old doesn’t need any more Giro stage wins – he’s proved he can do that with five already to his name, including his impressive time trial victory last weekend. Nor does he need the developmental exercise of battling to the end of a Grand Tour after falling well out of contention. He’s already been there, done that and got the pink T-shirt on numerous occasions since his infamous implosion on the Colle delle Finestre on the penultimate day in the mountains in 2018.