Two-time Grand Tour winner Simon Yates has announced his retirement from cycling with immediate effect.

The shock announcement comes just seven months after the 33-year-old Briton clinched a thrilling victory at the 2025 Giro d'Italia.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider also claimed his third stage win at the Tour de France in July last year.

Yates, whose first Grand Tour title was the 2019 Vuelta a Espana, joined the Dutch team on a two-year contract before the 2025 season.

"This may come as a surprise to many, but it is not a decision I have made lightly," said Yates.

"I have been thinking about it for a long time, and it now feels like the right moment to step away from the sport."

Visma's head of racing Grischa Niermann added: "[Winning the Giro d'Italia] was one of the major goals of the season, for us as a team and for Simon personally. The fact that he also went on to win a stage in the Tour de France underlines his class.

"It is a shame that he is stopping now, but he does so at an absolute high point."

Yates and his identical twin brother Adam turned professional in 2014 with Orica-GreenEdge, now known as Jayco-AlUla.

Simon, who spent 11 years with the Australian team before joining Jumbo, finishes his career with 11 Grand Tour stage wins in addition to his two overall victories, while he also won the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race in 2020.

His crowning moment was a stunning performance on the penultimate stage of last year's Giro to snatch the pink jersey and effectively ensure his second Grand Tour title.

It came on the same Colle delle Finestre climb where Yates cracked in 2018, ending his hopes of winning a maiden Grand Tour.

Yates thanked Visma for the team's "understanding and support of my decision to stop now".

"You gave me the opportunity to rewrite my history, and through trust and belief, we did it together," he added.

Representing Great Britain, Yates won the points race at the 2013 Track World Championships before embarking on a professional career on the road.

He competed in the Tour de France eight times, with his best finish being fourth in the general classification in 2023, when his brother Adam was third with UAE Team Emirates.

"Simon was an exceptional climber and general classification rider who always delivered when it mattered most," Niermann added.

"In the Giro, he peaked at a moment when almost no-one expected him to be able to win anymore, which truly characterises him as a rider."

It's unusual for any cyclist to retire at the beginning of the year, just as teams are gearing up for some hard training in southern Spain, and a gruelling World Tour schedule which begins in Australia.

But for a rider who won one of the sport's biggest races in spectacular and unexpected fashion last year, it's an even bigger shock.

Yates is only 33 and has a palmares (list of honours) most professional cyclists can only dream of. But it's a brutal sport, which requires its very best to be in the saddle for several hours almost every day of their lives.

Perhaps he had simply had enough, or perhaps his talent-drenched team's 2026 priorities had been adjusted to favour others.

Either way, it may be that Yates' final competitive dream was realised in his epic redemption on the Colle delle Finestre last year to win the gruelling three-week Giro - reversing an overall deficit to take a near four-minute lead on the race's toughest mountain climb, seven years after his dramatic capitulation on the same climb's loose gravel as Chris Froome secured his only Giro title.

That win last May suggested the charming Yates, from Bury in Greater Manchester, had more to offer in a sport ever-more obsessed with youth.

The fans wanted more this year - perhaps it is time for Yates' less decorated, identical twin brother Adam to provide it.