{"id":401054,"date":"2026-01-09T02:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401054\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T02:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T02:46:11","slug":"as-i-understand-it-he-lost-his-desire-visma-lease-a-bike-coach-discusses-simon-yates-sudden-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401054\/","title":{"rendered":"‘As I understand it, he lost his desire’ \u2013 Visma-Lease a Bike coach discusses Simon Yates’ sudden retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giro d’Italia champion Simon Yates<\/a> shocked cycling with the sudden announcement that he’d be retiring from racing<\/a> with immediate effect on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old, who also won the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a during his 12-year career, didn’t give a definitive reason for his surprise decision to retire, but a coach at his Visma-Lease A Bike squad has shed some light on the situation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Speaking to Danish outlet Feltet<\/a>, Visma coach Jesper M\u00f8rk\u00f8v said that he understands Yates had lost the desire to continue competing.<\/p>\n

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“First of all, it’s a shame, but that’s how it is. I won’t go into it any further, but as I understand it, he lost his desire,” M\u00f8rk\u00f8v said.<\/p>\n

Former racer M\u00f8rk\u00f8v, who has worked at Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a> for two seasons, said that the high demands modern racing places on riders may also have contributed to Yates’ decision.<\/p>\n

“It’s something that’s been discussed in recent years [around cycling], that it takes a lot to be able to be on the top shelf, and it’s really hard,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Simon has been in the game for many years, and then he has lost some of his enthusiasm for it.”<\/p>\n

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Yates waves goodbye to the sport just before the beginning of what would’ve been his 13th season in the peloton, and only his second year at Visma-Lease A Bike.<\/p>\n

The Briton can look back on a career palmar\u00e8s containing those two Grand Tour wins, plus stage race triumphs at Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of the Alps. He was twice a runner-up at Paris-Nice and also won 11 Grand Tour stages, including three at the Tour de France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking back at their short time working together, M\u00f8rk\u00f8v hailed Yates’ astute racing mind, which was evident during last year’s Giro when he mounted a penultimate stage attack to race into the maglia rosa.<\/p>\n

“It has been great working with Simon. He is a really nice guy, and he is really good not only in terms of power, but also tactically really good,” said M\u00f8rk\u00f8v.<\/p>\n

“During the Giro, he made some tactically very smart decisions. When people notice that he has been sitting in some funny places in the peloton, it is actually for a reason that he has done so, because he has seen something in the race.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Giro d’Italia champion Simon Yates shocked cycling with the sudden announcement that he’d be retiring from racing with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-401054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}