Simon Yates named as Giro d’Italia leader for Mitchelton-Scott, twin Adam races Tour de France

ByEurosport

Updated 15/07/2020 at 11:13 GMT

Simon Yates will target the Giro d’Italia and brother Adam Yates will race the Tour de France as Team Mitchelton-Scott announced their squads for the upcoming Grand Tours.

Simon Yates

Image credit: Getty Images

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Simon Yates, who won the 2018 Vuelta a Espana after spectacularly blowing up in that year’s Giro, will be the team leader for the rearranged Italian Tour from October 3-25.

"The focus for us at the Giro d’Italia will be to support Simon Yates as best as possible, to help him achieve the optimal result we can as a team and ultimately try to win the race," sports director Matt White said.

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"For me, the Giro d’Italia is the most physically demanding Grand Tour, so having a strong team around you certainly makes a difference. The team we will send will be a deep one and I’m confident Simon will have great support across all facets of racing.

"There will be only a few riders who will double up with the TDF/Giro combo this year and there certainly won’t be any GC riders at both. This will have an impact on the make-up of the field on the start line in Sicily."

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Meanwhile, Mitchelton-Scott will aim to build on their four stage victories from last year's Tour de France as White conceded that other teams had stronger General Classification hopes.

The rescheduled Tour runs from August 29 to September 20.

"After the success of last year, we want to chase stage wins at the Tour de France. We rode an aggressive style of racing last year and we want to continue in that vein this year," said White.

"The stacked GC field can affect stage opportunities, but it can also create opportunities. It’s no secret the strongest squads are Team Ineos and Lotto-Jumbo, but once the GC is stabilised, there’ll still be opportunities because no one wants to control the Tour de France for 20 days; you just have to pick the right moments.

"In general, we know the guys have been training well in this period so we know more or less where they are at, but now they need to convert that training into race condition with a limited race program. It will be the equivalent of starting back racing after a major injury, with the lockdown period and different mental challenges that had to be dealt with.

"I am happy with where the guys are at currently but we will make our final selection decisions based on how guys adapt back to competition."