During John's recovery he took the twins to Manchester Velodrome to track sessions run by his cycling club, Bury Clarion,[10] to keep in touch with the other members.

He competed well throughout the race and on stage six he took his biggest win to that point, on the summit finish at Haytor, sprinting clear of a nine-man group, which included Bradley Wiggins and Nairo Quintana.

He was a surprise selection for the Orica–GreenEDGE team for the 2014 Tour de France, with only 5 days' notice, and was one of only 4 British riders to take to the Grand Départ startline in Leeds.

[28] Yates was disqualified from the race and served a four-month doping ban during 2016; his team took full responsibility for this blaming an "administrative error".

The ban meant Yates missed the Tour de France, where his brother Adam finished fourth overall and won the young rider classification.

[30] He finished 7th overall at the Tour de France and won the young rider classification, matching the feat achieved by his twin brother a year prior.

However, Marc Soler of the Movistar Team, who started 37 seconds down on Yates in sixth place overall, attacked around halfway into the stage along with compatriot David de la Cruz (Team Sky); the duo joined Omar Fraile (Astana) at the head of the race, and the trio managed to stay clear of the rest of the field by the time they reached Nice.

[32] Later that month, Yates won stage 7 of the Volta a Catalunya after attacking multiple times on the 6.6-kilometre (4.1-mile)-long final circuit through the Montjuïc Park; he finished fourth overall.

[33] Yates entered the Giro d'Italia as joint leader of Mitchelton–Scott with Esteban Chaves, supported by a strong climbing focused team including Roman Kreuziger, Mikel Nieve and Jack Haig.

[34] Yates placed seventh in the opening 9.7-kilometre (6.0-mile) individual time trial in Jerusalem, 20 seconds down on defending race winner Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb).

Yates won stage 9 after accelerating away with 100 metres (330 feet) to go on the summit finish to Gran Sasso d'Italia, extending his lead over Chaves and Dumoulin.

[46] After the Giro, Yates made his return to racing at the Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia, where he finished second behind team-mate Robert Power.

He subsequently returned to WorldTour competition at the Tour de Pologne in August, where he won the race's closing stage with a solo attack and finished second overall behind Michał Kwiatkowski.

[48] However he lost the lead on stage 12, when Mitchelton–Scott elected not to close down a large breakaway, with the red jersey being taken by Jesús Herrada with Yates in second and Alejandro Valverde in third.

[59] He rode the Tour de France, in support of his brother's general classification ambition, but Simon was allowed a day off domestique duty, and won stage 12 into Bagnères-de-Bigorre in a 3 up sprint against Pello Bilbao and Gregor Mühlberger.

[60] Unfortunately for Adam, his general classification hopes faded after losing time on the individual time-trial and the climb to Col du Tourmalet.

[72] Yates started his season with top-ten overall finishes at Tirreno–Adriatico (tenth),[73] and the Volta a Catalunya (ninth),[74] before his first wins came at April's Tour of the Alps.

[100] The opening stage of the Tour de France, held in and around Bilbao, saw Adam Yates attack on the descent from the Pike Bidea climb, where he was followed by his brother – with them working together over the closing kilometres.

[104] He ultimately finished the race in 4th overall, having overturned an 18-second deficit to Carlos Rodríguez before the penultimate stage into a 34-second advantage,[105] missing out on the final podium spot by almost 90 seconds – to brother Adam.

[106] In the autumn, he took four top-six race results at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal (sixth),[107] the Memorial Marco Pantani (fourth),[108] the Giro dell'Emilia (third),[109] and Il Lombardia (fifth),[110] but no further victories.

[112] Orica–GreenEDGE's owner Gerry Ryan accused British Cycling of leaking the news of Yates's failed drug test to the press, and criticised the organisation for doing so.

[28] Subsequently, the international governing body Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) issued a statement indicating that Yates would not be provisionally suspended from competition due to the substance he had tested positive for.

[114] On 17 June, the UCI decided to issue a four-month ban for the "presence and use of the specified prohibited substance terbutaline",[115] backdated from 12 March (the date the positive sample was collected), preventing Yates from competing at the 2016 Tour de France.