It’s no secret that the top riders in men’s cycling are getting younger and younger every season. Just look at the recent Strade Bianche, for example, with four riders in the top six still being 23 or younger, and 19-year-old Paul Seixas grabbing everyone’s attention by taking second behind Tadej Pogačar.
Riders often speak of a post-Covid-19 pandemic boom, with the peloton’s level since 2020 exploding upwards and only continuing to rise as advancements are made to training methods, equipment, and nutrition, but also as a more professional generation of juniors look to pave their way into the WorldTour.
There’s little time to bed yourself in as there may have been in eras gone by – the best talents have to be ready at 18, and if you aren’t performing at the expected level scouts pick you for and team signs you to reach, then top prospects can quickly get left behind and forgotten.
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‘Breaking power records left, right and centre’
He’s raced through the various booms and busts of pro cycling’s past 15 years, and to this day, admits he is continuing to set new power records year on year, but even still, it just isn’t enough to beat the best guys anymore.
Yates managed three victories in 2025, none at WT-level, which isn’t to say he isn’t among the top climbers in the world still. The bulk of his work is as a domestique and a luxury one at that, helping the likes of Pogačar, João Almeida and Isaac del Toro on several occasions since he joined UAE in 2023. But the fact of the Brit not challenging in a similar way to how he was even two years ago does give a look into the harsh reality of keeping up in today’s peloton.
“Even last year, I think it broke most of my power efforts. I’d say it was one of my worst years, but I was the best I’ve ever been in terms of power,” Yates told Cyclingnews back in February.
“OK, I really struggled in the Giro, and obviously helped Tadej in the Tour, but other than that, I was breaking power records left, right, and centre and still not winning, so take that as you will.
“The big difference I’m seeing is that everyone is just full gas from the start of the year. I remember going back a couple of years, and my level wasn’t super high at the UAE Tour, but I was still up there on the podium.
“Every year it’s getting harder and harder to win races, and even these races now at the start of the year, the level is super, super high, even in Oman I was doing power records, left, right, and centre and there’s still guys in the wheel and a lot of guys still fighting, so it’s just getting harder and harder.”
Keeping up with the younger generation
He’s not the only more experienced GC racer who’s been talking about the ever-present need to switch things up in order to try and stay in contact with those rising up, with Primož Roglič saying before Tirreno-Adriatico that “the young guys are riding faster and faster year after year, which is good for us because they’re kicking us in the ass that we have to work and move.”
“A lot of the young guys, well, they know more than me, to be honest. Obviously, maybe they don’t have the experience, but in the grand scheme of things, they know most things,” said Yates. “These days, I think you see a lot of juniors coming through and under-23s coming through, and their levels are already like crazy, crazy high.
“There was a big jump at the beginning of the 2020s, with everyone getting more professional, more focused, even now people are doing altitude in the off-season and not really having off-seasons, and rethinking what is normal in bike riding.
“Guys are trying to find that one per cent or that 0.5 per cent that wasn’t there before, and these are the things you have to do and to keep up. But I think in ten years, it’s also going to be a completely different sport again, and it’s always going to be like this because there’s always somebody who wants to win and is more ambitious.”
Chasing improvement at 33 with Pogačar as motivation
Yates isn’t short of motivation, however, as he continues to change up his calendar with improvement at 33 still in mind – just this January, he raced the Tour Down Under for the first time – but his big goals will again be at the Giro and the Tour, where helping Almeida and Pogačar to titles will be his assignment.
He may not be winning as often as he did in 2023 and 2024, but UAE still back Yates as one of the very best guys at delivering a GC leader on the toughest climbing days, and he’s more than lived up to his reputation as one of the superdomestiques of the current era on several occasions.
“When you’re at this level, you’re always looking to improve, to find something else that takes you to another level, and as I said, it’s getting harder and harder, and the margins are getting smaller and smaller, so it’s getting tricky,” said Yates. “But I still enjoy it, training super hard, and trying new things as well.”
Yates has the added bonus of knowing that his domestique work often won’t go to waste, with the man he’s often helping, Pogačar, being the top rider in the sport and tending to bring home the results that UAE are chasing as a collective.
2026 is Yates’ fourth year racing alongside the World Champion, and he’s contracted to race until at least the end of 2028 in his service. He speaks highly, of course, of Pogačar, and it’s clear to see how racing for someone like that, “a killer” as he describes, makes it easier to keep striving for more performance.
“I wouldn’t say it’s normal,” – seeing his performances up close – “but I think we kind of just ride as a team and in the big races when he’s on the team, we almost all know that he’s good and will deliver,” added the British rider.
“Even if he is bad, which is barely ever, he never says he’s bad. He never complains. He never has a problem. So I think when you have a leader like that, it’s quite easy to work for him. It’s quite easy to be more motivated. I think that’s also why he wins so many races, he’s a killer.”