Playing against type seems to suit Quinn Simmons. The American’s default setting is aggression, but his Trek-Segafredo directeur sportif Adriano Baffi suggested adding a little patience to his repertoire this week at the Vuelta a San Juan.
Those notes paid dividends in Villicum, where Simmons delivered a canny late attack on the motor racing circuit finale to fend off the sprinters and win stage 3.
“As hard as it is for me to sit in the bunch bored all day, it pays off, I think,” Simmons joked when he took a seat in the press conference tent after the podium ceremony.
The Villicum circuit has built a reputation as a springboard for late attackers, and Simmons was one of several riders who eyed replicating Zdenek Stybar’s successful heist here in 2020. World champion Remco Evenepoel was another, but Soudal-QuickStep ultimately opted to try to set up Fabio Jakobsen for the sprint.
Although Trek-Segafredo had Jon Aberasturi – third the previous day – in their ranks, Simmons was their focal point on Tuesday afternoon. “The first thing today when I woke up, my coach sent me a video from when this race was won the same way, and I told my roommate Mathias [Vacek], ‘If you bring me there to this point, I’ll win today,’” Simmons said.
He was as good as his word, powering out of the final corner in the last kilometre to open what proved to be a winning margin. Max Richeze (Argentina), riding his last professional race, gave chase in search of a grand send-off on home roads, but he had to settle for second, while race leader Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the sprint for third.
On crossing the line, Simmons reached for his radio to thank his teammates, though the precise wording was not for public consumption. “If I say exactly what I said, I’m probably in trouble on the internet again,” he smiled. “No, I said thank you to the team. Two riders spent the whole day going back to the team car to keep getting us bottles, and the team protected me all day, so it was easy to do a one-minute effort at the end when I hadn’t hit the wind yet.”
Simmons’ general classification ambitions suffered an early setback when he crashed on the opening day and was then handed a 20-second penalty for drafting as he chased back on. “I don’t want to criticise anyone, but this gave him extra motivation to bring out what he had,” Baffi told Cyclingnews. Last season, Simmons might have taken that time penalty as an invitation to go on the offensive…
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