Once he left Europe and returned home to the United States after the Tour de France, Quinn Simmons says he was not able to get up from his sofa. He was happy to be back in Durango of course, the place that means more to him than anywhere else in this world, but the Lidl-Trek rider was wholly, utterly exhausted.
Every rider is tired at the end of a Grand Tour – even yellow jersey winner Tadej Pogačar admitted that he was feeling the impacts of this year’s especially gruelling lap of France – but when we look at Simmons’ performance in July, we can begin to understand why he was in an almost comatose state for some time afterwards.
The American rider, resplendent in his stars and stripes national champion’s jersey and with his trademark blonde mullet blowing in the wind out of his helmet, had done all he could to try and secure that elusive stage win. He’d been in breakaways at every time of asking, attacking and then attacking again if it didn’t work the first time. Second place on stage six was as close as he got to the top step of the podium, but Simmons' results in other stages don’t paint the full picture of his efforts. This is a bike rider who is desperate to win.
“Post-Tour I was really, really dead. I was happy because it shows I left everything there energy-wise. I did the Tour de Suisse then the Tour de France and that’s 30 race days of giving it more than something everyday,” Simmons says. “When we finally made it to Paris, you can almost feel your body be like ‘hey, bud, you’re done.'”
His performances at the Tour come after what many would consider Simmons’ best ever season as a professional. The road he has travelled on to get to this point hasn’t been straightforward: there have been setbacks, crashes, a big bout of concussion, but the 24-year-old is finally where he wants to be.
“Before the summer started, if I knew that I would win a stage of Suisse and do the Tour I did, I'd be extremely excited. But when you get into it and you start to feel like you can win a stage then you don’t, it is a bit disappointing,” Simmons reflects. “If I look back individually, I essentially lost five stages from the breakaway. You see afterwards on the TV where you went wrong, but it doesn’t help you to go back.”
Typically self-critical – a trait that the most successful athletes in the world are riddled with – Simmons is still left wanting more after coming so close to success this summer. Having grown up in America, the Lidl-Trek man is aware of the Tour de France’s significance in his home country; arguing that no other race is recognised like it. Simmons feels a type of responsibility, as national champion, to represent his country on the world stage.
“I think I have to be proud of it, now I have full focus to try and win a stage because, especially as an American rider, if you can do that your career is more or less made,” he explains. “I could win three times Flanders or Roubaix and the majority of the US population would know nothing. After what I did in the Tour without even winning a stage, it’s insane the level of support you get at home. Cars stop in the road to take pictures of you – it’s weird to get used to.
“I was stopped in a gas station – I live in the middle of nowhere – and people who I assume would never watch bike racing come up to me and say ‘we loved you in the Tour.’ You really feel a difference. The flight attendant on the way home wanted a selfie. It shows the gravity of one of the biggest sporting events in the world and puts the right amount of pressure on us to perform. In the biggest races, you need something extra to be able to suffer like that.”
Entertaining fans and being a recognisable personality in his field is something that Simmons has long been vocal about. He makes observations of big superstars that dominate American sports and argues that professional cycling could learn something from them. For Simmons, it isn’t just about the things he does when riding his bike, but the persona he carries off of it.
“In the race we have a job to do and you need to show up, I’m not saying do stupid stuff for entertainment value, but we can also finish the race and tell the story if there was some drama, not just be so monotone,” he states.
“If you look at the TV numbers then the Tour is the third most watched sporting event in the world. Compare that to the soccer World Cup and what do those guys make? A lot more than us because we don’t provide as much entertainment value to sponsors. There’s a whole bunch of stuff that is wrong and it can only benefit us to make the sport more watchable. The more people that watch it, the more money we all get paid.”
He acknowledges that cycling can be reluctant to change due to the ties to history and tradition that the sport has. Races like GP Quebec and Montreal – where we are having our conversation – set a standard, according to Simmons. These are city-centre races which have crowds lining every corner of the course, making bike racing into a type of stadium sport.
I wonder if Simmons believes the dominance of particular riders and teams, namely Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates-XRG if we are talking in the context of the 2025 season, is also contributing to the diluted entertainment some of the biggest races have offered this year.
“Maybe,” he responds. “But also dominant teams also have a big fanbase so they bring money to the sport. If there’s a company that wants to put millions into the best team in the world, that’s no bad thing. It just forces us all to catch up.
“I think if riders can have a bit of personality so that the kid at home can have his favourite rider, that would be a good thing. I remember when I was younger I loved watching Peter Sagan race, but I also found him entertaining off the bike. It gives you someone you want to be in the future. There’s more to this sport than just weighing food and saying thanks to the team.”
A result of the likes of Pogačar having an iron grip on the 2025 WorldTour season is that the level in professional cycling is consistently increasing. While others struggle to keep up, Simmons is feeling and getting better results than he ever has before. Stage wins in Suisse and Catalunya this season [plus, he went on to finish third at GP Montreal behind Brandon McNulty and Pogačar a few days after our interview] show that the Lidl-Trek rider is thriving in this newly shaped peloton.
“I’ve always believed I have the potential to be one of the best riders, but there have been times when you doubt if the work is worth it. When you’re coming back from illness and concussion, it’s a hard cycle when nothing is going right,” he says. “But it is one of the best jobs in the world when you’re on top, and one of the worst in the world when you’re behind. It is much harder every year – each winter you get three per cent better and think you’re going to smash it but then you show up to the first races again and you’re in the same spot.
“This is my first season I’ve been fully healthy, I think it’s shown the level that I have always had but I’ve never proved it. I can see my power meter, I can see what I do in training and then for one reason or another I would always have trouble showing that in a race. A few times this year I finally did show it when the TV was on.”
Before he can head back to Durango again and enjoy his off-season, Simmons has one more big goal this season where the TV cameras will certainly be focused on him: the World Championships in Rwanda. The American rider has been training at altitude and trying to improve his climbing in preparation to fight for the rainbow jersey, and will not be deterred by a flying Pogačar who has stated his intentions to defend his title in Africa.
“I think if you start with a negative attitude there’s no point. You have to be realistic of course – he’s shown he is the best bike rider in the world right now. At the same time, if you want to be world champion you have to beat the best so it would be a shame if he wasn’t there,” Simmons says.
“I’d like a nice picture in the rainbow jersey at the end of the race, of course. How realistic is that? It’s hard to say, but we’re all competitors. You don’t go there planning not to finish at the top, even if you probably won’t.”
Simmons has had a taste of the rainbow jersey before, winning the junior world title in Yorkshire back in 2019. His US teammates, Magnus Sheffield and Luke Lamperti, were on that same national team as 18-year-olds and they will be reunited as elite riders this season. Simmons says he will be the outright leader for the US squad and is not intimidated by the altitude metres that are on the menu next weekend.
“We all raced in the same junior team and have a good relationship. Overall we have a strong US team and I have guys that I trust to be with it as long as they can. We go there with one leader and one goal. We can fight for the podium and maybe there’s a special day somewhere,” Simmons smiles.
“For a rider like me if you look at the altitude on paper then it is too much but I’m hopeful that living at altitude will change the game a bit. It’s not super high in Rwanda but if we feel it and it shows things down a bit I think there’s hope for someone like me to make it. It is one of the last Worlds when I have the chance to do super good, as when we look at the next year it gets really hard then it is sprints after that, so I have to try.”
This is who Quinn Simmons is: a rider who will not conform to what he can and cannot do ‘on paper.’ He has self-belief and confidence in abundance and he’s needed that to get to this point in his career so far. There is no doubt that regardless of what happens at the World Championships, Simmons will entertain us all – whether that’s in his attacking style on the bike or post-race interviews off it. He wants to be the best of the best, and will stop at nothing to try and achieve that.
“I will keep pushing until I can’t push and don’t believe in myself anymore,” he states. “If I stop feeling that I can reach the top, you won’t see my racing anymore. Once I reach my ceiling, whenever that is, that's enough. Once I tick the box of being as good as I can be, you’ll never see me back.”
