Why Simon Yates’s Vuelta win was the best Grand Tour victory of 2018

Yates came of age at the Vuelta in 2018, bouncing back from a Giro d'Italia which ended in disaster

Simon Yates reached the finish on stage 20 of the 2018 Vuelta a España (Sunada)

(Image credit: Yuzuru SUNADA)

So which Grand Tour win was the best of the season? Could it be Chris Froome’s chaotic, clutching-at-straws Giro? No. What about Geraint Thomas’s exciting and panache-filled Tour win? Not quite.

What about a rider who’d already laid himself bare once in 2018 at the Giro, falling off the leadership throne and into nothingness in humbling public freefall. A rider who, despite his young age, picked himself up and returned two and a half months later at the Vuelta in full battle order to finish what he started. Now that has to be the Grand Tour win of the year.

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After cutting his teeth on local and national newspapers, James began at Cycling Weekly as a sub-editor in 2000 when the current office was literally all fields. 


Eventually becoming chief sub-editor, in 2016 he switched to the job of full-time writer, and covers news, racing and features.


A lifelong cyclist and cycling fan, James's racing days (and most of his fitness) are now behind him. But he still rides regularly, both on the road and on the gravelly stuff.