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Another European racing season is gleaming ever closer on the horizon and as Quinn Simmons contemplates his fourth year at WorldTour level, he lets loose a few home truths.
First, the Trek-Segafredo pro tells Cyclingnews he doesn’t race bikes because he likes bikes. Secondly, he’s not yet done a single pro season that he’s looked back on and felt happy with it. Thirdly, he’s not unduly worried about his contract running out at the end of the 2023 season.
Fourthly, mentioning no names, but he feels a bit of peer pressure when he sees riders he used to beat as a junior now winning the World Championships and the Vuelta a España.
Put it all together and it makes 2023 sound like it’s going to be an interesting year for Simmons.
“Quinn has shown he’s strong in a race like Tirreno[-Adriatico] or [Tour de] Suisse or Canada [GP Québec/Montréal], now he’s got to show he’s a winner,” Trek-Segafredo manager Luca Guercilena tells Cyclingnews.
“This year before he can become a full team leader he’s got to do that. But he’s shown he’s got the potential to do some very big things. Hopefully this year.”
Simmons has changed some things in his buildup to 2023, starting with a much longer break over the winter. After the two Canadian races, GP Montréal and GP Québec, when he was due to head back into action at the Worlds but instead headed home. It was something which he says “was good for me”.
“Every year I hope I get that one step better and so far I have. I hope that doesn’t change,” he says. “In October, usually I do nothing. But then in November I’ll typically go to California and do a months’ training there.
“This time around I made the decision to stay home in Colorado and discussed it with my coach. If it was snowing I’d go skiing, sunny I’d go out on the bike. So I did a lot of skiing, played a lot of hockey, rode my bike a little bit, and then stayed in Arizona for a week, because I was like ‘oh shit, I’ve got training camp I need to do a good week of riding!’
“So one week I did a bunch of hours and then prepared. That was my first serious on-the-bike training for 2023.”
Doing six weeks easy in October with just 40 hours training in total, even after a very short season didn’t appear to have a negative kickback. “I only did 53 days racing in total but I empty the tank each time so it was a lot,” Simmons explains.
The combination of a lot of ice hockey games in November, all dutifully uploaded to…
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