It’s hard to think of a worse time for a cycling team to lose a key rider than just seven days into a new year and season, but that’s the situation which Visma-Lease a Bike found them in after Simon Yates announced he was retiring last week.
A two-time Grand Tour winner, reigning Giro d’Italia champion, and a key cog in the climbing train for team leader Jonas Vingegaard, a surprising end to the Brit’s career means Visma have been forced to adapt calendars and redesign a 2026 plan that had included Yates.
Specifically, when it comes to the adaptations, Yates was due to be a leader at Paris-Nice in March, and he was set to race the Tour de France in support of Vingegaard, as he did in 2025 en route to the Dane finishing second overall, while also winning a stage of his own.
Having to change well-thought-out plans is nothing new in cycling, given the frequency of injuries and crashes, teams have…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…