Somewhere in Quinn Simmons‘ worldview of bike racing, there’s a point where his ideas about competing in an era dominated by Tadej Pogačar, how to provide worthwhile entertainment for the fans and how to get the best out of himself as a pro all fuse and intertwine. The end result of these ingredients may not always lead to success, but on the plus side, the consequences are rarely boring either.
In 2025, that blend of different beliefs played their part not only in the Lidl-Trek rider netting his first two WorldTour wins of his career. They also saw the current American National Road Champion sign off his race year with a spectacular, if doomed, 238-kilometre breakaway in Il Lombardia as he attempted to out-Pogačar Pogačar with an ultra-long distance move.
For many fans, Simmons’ ultimate, last-day throw of the dice was arguably one of the Classics high points of the entire season, while Pogačar himself said he had been made a “little bit afraid” by Simmons’ move. But in any case, to fling down the gauntlet like that in Il Lombardia, the one-day Classic where Pogačar had taken four straight wins in a row and was the overwhelming favourite for a fifth last October, felt audacious in the extreme.
It didn’t work, with Simmons caught after some six hours away and 30 kilometres from the line. You might even go so far as to say that, of course, it wouldn’t have worked, given Pogačar’s past history both in the race and in his World and European Championships-conquering build-up to the final Classic of 2025.
But at least Simmons tried, and partly as a result, the whole event wasn’t as deadly predictable as we’d feared. No disrespect intended to Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and the rest of the Slovenian’s rivals, but sitting waiting for Pogačar to launch his usual long-range attack had all the feel and interest of a pre-written script. Furthermore, Simmons still hung on to get fourth in Como, far closer to success than his previous best Monument result, a distant 73rd in the 2021 Milan-San Remo.
On the attack
So what was Simmons up to on north-west Italy’s autumn leaf-decked lakeside roads last October? The idealist part of Simmons, it turns out, thought it was better to roll the dice in a doomed challenge rather than blindly be led to the sporting slaughter. The utterly pragmatic part of him also thought it’d go down better for the…
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