Can British cycling twins Simon and Adam Yates replicate their 1-2 Tour de France stage finish come Paris 2024?

"Pesky younger brothers, eh?"

So posted British cyclist Simon Yates after younger brother Adam Yates pipped him to the line at the opening stage of the 2023 Tour de France in Bilbao.

The pair finished 1-2, only the third set of brothers to have achieved the feat at the iconic race after Francis and Henri Pélissiers, and Andy and Fränk Schlecks.

Oh, and when Simon mentioned his "younger" brother, he meant his younger brother by five minutes. The siblings are identical twins.

“It was a super special experience," said Adam afterwards. "One-two with your brother in the Tour de France on the first stage is not something many can say.”

As twins, it's unprecedented.

The iconic moment was the culmination of a lifetime of cycling together, starting when their father, John, took them to the Bury Clarion Club in Greater Manchester.

The pair were soon hooked.

Since then, their paths have diverged and merged throughout their careers.

The two first separated when Simon signed up to the British Cycling Olympic programme in 2010, where later that year, he was selected for the Commonwealth Games aged just 18, finishing 45th in the road race on the streets of New Delhi.

Adam, meanwhile, pursued a road career with amateur teams in France.

Thirteen years later, with a plethora of outstanding results, disappointments, and odd experiences in between, the siblings merged thrillingly to secure a 1-2 finish on the first stage of the 2023 Tour de France in Bilbao in July.

With parents watching on from their campervan in Spain, it was a full-cycle moment for the family, if you will.

So, as we head toward Paris 2024 in less than seven months, and with the men's road cycling season starting for Simon with the Tour Down Under from 16-21 January, and Adam starting his season in the Tour of Oman from 19-25 February, Olympics.com tracks their respective journeys and asks, if the British Olympic Association selects the pair to compete in France, could they emulate the 1-2 finish in Spain, on the streets of Paris, come the men's road race on 3 August 2024?

• As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
• Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.

Rollercoaster ride on the cycling tour for the Yates brothers

The next significant moment in Simon's cycling career came three years after his Commonwealth Games appearance.

In 2013, Simon became track cycling world champion in the points race, the only one of the brothers to ever win a world title on either the road or the track throughout their careers.

That same year, the twosome competed in the Tour de L'Avenir where Simon won the race's fifth stage – ahead of Adam – before adding a second stage victory the following day, finishing the race tenth overall. Adam had no race wins but was second overall, by just 55 seconds to Spanish rider Rubén Fernández.

The following year, the pair were reunited, turning pro together, signed by the Australian team Orica-GreenEdge, in 2014.

Racing together in the Tour of Turkey, Simon had to withdraw after stage 3 after crashing and breaking his collarbone.

Taking over from his injured brother as the de facto team leader after his brother crashed out, Adam finished the stage in second place.

The sixth stage saw his first-ever professional victory, which helped him claim the overall victory.

"Unexpected" was the way he described the win, the first-ever overall win by a Brit on the Tour of Turkey. His initial aim was just to win some stages.

Simon's season took an upturn when he was a last-minute addition to the team for the 2014 Tour de France, with the Grand Depart setting off from the UK.

With only five days' notice, the first-year professional took his place alongside iconic names in British cycling – Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Mark Cavendish.

Simon featured in two breakaways during his debut, before being withdrawn by his team on the second rest day after giving him experience for the future.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the start in Yorkshire," said Simon after the race. "Almost in my home training base basically and it's something I will never forget for the rest of my life."

The professional cycling rollercoaster for the brothers had begun.

Both Adam and Simon Yates hit Tour de France

In 2015, both brothers were selected for Le Tour, with Simon's best results, an eighth-place finish on stage 3, and 11th on stage 20, which finished atop the iconic Alpe d'Huez. Quite the moment for the climbing specialist.

Adam finished in the top ten on two mountain stages and 50th overall in a spectacular first showing in the blue riband event.

The week after the Tour de France, Adam won the one-day race, Clásica de San Sebastián but a bizarre set of circumstances meant he didn't immediately celebrate his biggest victory to date.

A melee ensued after the leader Greg van Avermaet was involved in a crash with a race motorcycle. In the confusion, Adam did not realise he had won, so the classic crossing-the-line celebration image is missing from his collection.

• Paris 2024 reveals routes of Olympic road cycling events

Back-to-back young riders of Tour de France

Simon missed the Tour de France in 2016 following a four-month doping ban, for which his team took full responsibility, admitting an administrative error. While world governing body, the UCI, described the incident as, "a non-intentional anti-doping rule violation".

In his second Tour de France, Adam finished an incredible fourth overall and won the young rider classification, donning the white jersey at race end.

This despite a bizarre incident on stage 7, when he was involved in an accident where an inflatable arch marking the 1km to-go sign, deflated as he rode underneath it. Cuts to his chin required stitches, but race results were revised to accommodate the incident.

On returning from his ban, Simon competed in the Vuelta a España, taking a solo stage victory, and with it, the first of the brothers to take a Grand Tour stage win. The next year, he emulated baby brother, claiming the young rider classification at the Tour de France, and finishing seventh overall.

Adam did not compete on Le Tour in 2017, instead concentrating on the Giro D'Italia and the Vuelta a España.

Heady yellow jersey days

Adam was Mitchelton–Scott's team leader at the 2018 Tour de France, finishing 29th in the general classification, including a heroic third place on stage 16, despite crashing while in the lead on the final descent.

Adam then rode the Vuelta a España in support of his brother Simon, with both riders competing at the same Grand Tour for just the third time. Simon became the second British rider to win the race overall.

Twenty-ninth place was again the finishing position for Adam at the 2019 Tour de France. Initially supported by his brother, Adam's general classification hopes took a hit after losing time on the individual time trial and the climb to Col du Tourmalet. But this freed up Simon to focus on individual stages, winning two.

The next few years were impacted by COVID-19 – both physically for the riders and in terms of competition schedules.

Simon's 2020 season started in Australia with top-ten finishes at the Tour Down Under (seventh) and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (tenth) before racing the world over was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adam, meanwhile, started his 2020 campaign at the UAE Tour, before the race was abandoned due to multiple positive tests for COVID-19, with Yates designated the winner.

The 2020 season also saw team changes afoot with Simon extending his contract with Mitchelton-Scott until the end of 2022, but Adam sought new pastures, signing for Ineos Grenadiers for two years from 2021.

The Tour de France went ahead with Adam taking the yellow jersey for the first time in his career – on stage five – becoming the ninth British rider to do so. Four wonderful days followed in the Maillot Jeune before he ceded the prized jersey to Primož Roglič.

Adam finished ninth overall, his first top-ten finish at the race since 2016. Simon opted to focus on the Olympic road race at Tokyo 2020, which was then delayed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The brothers both competed in Tokyo, with Adam coming ninth in the road race, crossing the line in a pack that was fighting for the silver and bronze medals after Richard Carapaz of Ecuador had sown up the race win. Simon finished 17th.

Just to relax in his downtime at season's end, Adam ran the Barcelona Marathon, completing the course in an impressive two hours, 58 minutes and 44 seconds.

A COVID-affected 2022, heralded little in the way of what would happen the following year.

Full circle moment for the Yates family

A stomach problem impacted Simon's Tour de France preparations, but the first stage is where the brothers' cycling careers merged into an iconic moment for the tour and the Yates family, completing a full cycle, if you will.

Adam attacked on the descent from the Pike Bidea climb closely followed by Simon.

With their parents following the opening race in Bilbao in their campervan, if there was ever a time to hope their children would play nicely it was when the pair hurtled down the descent from the Pike Bidea climb.

Play nicely they did, working together over the closing kilometres until Adam pulled clear in the closing 350 metres to take the stage victory by four seconds.

“We are pretty close normally," smiled a rueful Simon afterwards, "but I had some cramps in the final. So unfortunately he got the better of me, but I am sure there are more chances coming up.”

“I knew he [Simon] was going good," said Adam. "I speak to him every day, we are really close. To share this experience with him is really nice. But I wish he’d pull a bit easier because he almost dropped me one moment.”

Even in the most heated of contests on the biggest of stages, Adam wanted his brother to give him an easier ride.

But, as the pair well know, that's not how siblings work.