Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) may compete in both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France next year.

Plans for next year have not yet been finalized as the team awaits the full Vuelta a España in December. The Giro d'Italia route has only 26 km of time trials, the fewest TT kilometers of any race since the 1960s.

"We like the route a lot, but we haven't finalized the details yet and would love to see the GPX files, but if there is one consistent feature of the Giro, it's that there is always a brutal back end," Matt White, sport director for Team BikeExchange told Cyclingnews.

"You know what to expect in the Giro. In terms of climbing distances, it's always the toughest of the three Grand Tours, with some stages having up to 5,000 meters of climbing on some days. What is being talked about now is the 51,000 meters of climbing distance for the entire race. ...... We are preparing for a tough race."

Yates competed in a combination of the Giro and Tour in both 2019 and 2021; the 29-year-old finished eighth overall and third overall in the Giro and won two stages in the 2019 Tour de France. He crashed on stage 13 before reaching the Pyrenees, missing a great opportunity for a stage win.

The Tour de France's 53-km time trial, along with the cobbled stages, could dissuade many high-profile climbers from risking their ambitions for the 2022 Grand Tour. At least on a basic level, the Giro landscape is certainly tilted toward climbers, especially those who can make a difference in the final week.

"It's very much a climber's race," White added, "but even if the Giro had a 50-60km time trial, realistically it's still a race for climbers.

"At the end of the day, the best climbers will come out on top in the Giro.

White did not say specifically which way the team was leaning when deciding between Yates and another GC hopeful, Lucas Hamilton's program, but logically, Yates would go for Maria Rosa before focusing on another stage win in the Tour

Giro.

The lack of a time trial in the middle of the Giro seems to be a real incentive.

"What we have seen in the past is that having the time trial in the middle has hurt riders who are not time trial specialists. It's a lot of effort to run three time trials in the Giro," White said.

"We're still discussing it, but he also likes the Tour de France, it's his favorite race. If we see him in the Giro, there's a good chance we'll see him in the Tour, but we still need to discuss it, and of course we haven't seen the route of the Vuelta yet. Of course, we haven't seen the route of the Vuelta yet.