Before the 9th stage of the Tour, Simon Yates had expressed his concern and dissatisfaction with the idea of riding on gravel roads in a grand tour. And the concerns become reality for the British rider as he lost another 10 minutes and his GC ambition is over.
“Last time I checked we did road cycling. You could argue that gravel is also a road, but it’s not something that I really enjoy,” said Simon Yates.
“I think there’s a place for it in the sport, you have that sort of things… you have Paris-Roubaix stages, you have cyclocross… but I think we should stick to road racing.”
“They’ll say: ‘Yeah back in the day… all the roads were cobbles…’ and all this stuff, but we’re in 2024 now. I’m not too sure, I think it creates a risk of punctures and crashes for not real reason but we got to deal with it.”
“Last time I checked we did *road* cycling…”
Simon Yates doesn’t appreciate off-road stages in road racing 🇬🇧😠#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/ZAZ91tYDmn
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 7, 2024
