When USA Cycling announced its team for the UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong, Australia, one name was surprisingly absent – that of Quinn Simmons, the 2019 Junior World Champion.
When asked about his omission at the Maryland Cycling Classic, the 21-year-old said he was too tired from his racing his debut Tour de France to accept a spot.
“It’s a long season for all of us. I’ve had four trips to Europe already and I’m quite tired after the Tour,” Simmons told Cyclingnews. “At some point, you have to say enough is enough.
“I still have to go back for some more one days at the end of the season. I spoke with Jim Miller at USA Cycling, and told him I just don’t have the mental energy left in the year to go, and I didn’t want to take a spot and not be able to do my job.”
Simmons made his presence known at the Tour de France, attacking to make the break of the day on five stages, including two mountainous stages and the day into Saint-Etienne where he helped set-up teammate Mads Pedersen for the win.
It was a massive undertaking for a young professional in his first Tour. He missed a stage victory but earned the most aggressive rider award after stage 19 to Cahors.
“I definitely wanted to empty and give everything I had there, and I think I successfully did that because I haven’t been able to ride a bike very well since,” he said.
“For a first Tour, it was nice. Obviously, you hope to win a stage, but we did everything but that. You know, I want to go back and finish the job now.”
The fatigue hardly showed at the Maryland Cycling Classic, where Simmons was once again out in a long-range breakaway, winning the mountains classification and finishing eighth.
With a strong build and full beard (back after a mid-Tour de France shave), it’s easy to forget that Simmons is only 21 and in his first year post-neo-pro. His first season with Trek-Segafredo in 2020 was marred by insensitive social media posts that earned him a brief suspension from the team.
Since then, he’s let his legs do the talking and has shown himself to be a versatile rider, with an overall win in Tour de Wallonie last season and two mountains classification victories this year at Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour de Suisse.
“This is my third year, it really doesn’t feel like that. Because the first year and a half were really kind of ruined by coronavirus. So I still feel like quite a young pro, even though I have three seasons now. I’ve grown as a rider, and I’m just missing that last few per cent.”
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