Monday, March 13, 2023 at 2:37 pm

In 2022, Simon Yates came close to an overall victory in Paris-Nice, and in 2023 there was no such thing. Nevertheless, the Briton was content with fourth place in the general classification. The result was in line with his own expectations, given his season structure and the level of competition.

“Normally I start Paris-Nice with good form, but this time I’m still improving after starting the season earlier than usual in Australia,” Yates told Jaiko AlUla’s site. In Australia, Yates competed in the Santos Tour Down Under (January 17–22) and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (January 29). After that, he did not see action again until Paris-Nice.

In the Paris-Nice general classification, Yates lost to Tathej Bokar by two minutes and fourteen seconds. David Gaudu (second) and Jonas Wingegaard (third) also overtook him. “I’m honestly very happy where I am. It’s not easy to race against three top riders at the moment, so I’m living up to my expectations.”

Goal d’Es
On the last day of Paris-Nice, Yates went to battle at the Col d’Es as he had done a year before. Before he made the attack, UAE Emirates yellow jersey-wearing Tathej Pokhar was leading the way, and he then left Yates and the other classification riders behind. The UAE team did well there. Almost they had a lot more riders, last year we only had four. I don’t know how many people were there today (Sunday, ed), but it was still a big group.

“I don’t know if it changed anything, but I tried to put my cards on the table anyway to see what would happen. It was,” said Yates, who is fully focused on this year’s Tour de France – as far as the Grand Tours are concerned. He will ride the Giro d’Italia for the first time since 2017. won’t do.