Simon Yates wary of third week surprises at the Giro d'Italia

Simon Yates comes into the Giro d'Italia 2021 to try and make it fourth time lucky after falling short on his previous rides of the Italian Grand Tour, but says he is wary of past failings in week three.

Yates (BikeExchange) comes into the race, yet again, as one of the top favourites after a very impressive performance at the recent Tour of the Alps where he beat rivals such as fellow Brit Hugh Carthy (EF-Nippo) as well as Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), and Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) to overall victory.

The British rider from Bury has, in the past, come out of the traps all guns blazing, especially in 2018 when he took three stage wins but he suffered in the final week, slipping out of pink to 21st with Chris Froome (then Team Sky) taking the overall win.

>>> Five things to look out for at the Giro d'Italia week one

When asked in a pre-race press conference about his tactics he said: "We'll see, we have to see how the prologue goes first, I know it's a cliché but we take it day-by-day.

"I can't predict what's going to happen in the first, second, or third week but we'll try to do our best every day. It also depends on what the other teams' want to do and how they want to race. But of course, if there is an opportunity I will try and take it."

Yates' new motto for this year's race is that he and the team have to be "calm and cautious," repeating the phrase multiple times throughout the press conference, taking in that the entire race is a very difficult one this year.

He continued: "We have to be careful at all moments, save energy when we can but of course we have to try and win the race and for me, I will have to take some time at some point before the final time trial. We'll see how it goes but calm, cautious and we'll just try to do our best."

"It will be challenging and of course the stage with the gravel I'll be looking to avoid any mishaps, any crashes, any splits and really concentrate on later in the race."

The 2018 Vuelta a España winner suffered from more disappointment at the race in 2020 when he had to abandon due to catching Covid-19, but says he hopes for better luck in this year's edition with a very strong team around him that he trusts.

Yates will be hoping these past difficulties have helped him for this year's race as he looks to avoid the same things happening again.

"It's hard to say [where the race will be won], you look at the last few years the race has always been won in the third week. There are guys who come from nowhere to win the bike race. I know that very personally as well.

"I'm getting older, getting more experienced as time goes on so I hope I'm learning to manage myself better. We're also evolving as a team we haven't really been targeting the GC for that long compared to other teams so I hope we can learn those experiences from the past to try and help us win this Giro."

The Giro starts on Saturday, May 8 with an 8.6km individual time trial around the city of Turin before heading on a three-week adventure around mostly central and northern Italy.