Quinn Simmons: I don't race my bike because I like it

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 Training Peaks, plus his training in nearby Arizona has, he says, made for a conveniently slower buildup. 

“That’s not a bad thing," he explains with a grin, "because usually I’m really good at being super-fit in January, which is super-useless. We’ll see what’s happened by the Classics, but hopefully it will pay off.”

Time will tell, then, but Simmons is keen to make sure this is a season where he gets noticed. He thinks it’s “reasonable” to expect he can fight for the podium in Strade Bianche, he says, given his track record there. But as he says “one thing that pops up in my head is I really want a stage in the Tour de France.”

“You can ask any rider in the world they’ll say the same so it’s easy for me to say. But as Luca probably told you, if I’m in the Tour and in a break six times" - as nearly happened in 2022 when he was up the road a mere five - "but don’t win, then I don’t think anybody is going to be very happy with me. Including myself.

“The team’s worked really well in giving me time to develop, but none of that really matters any more. In my fourth year in a WorldTour, I need to do more.”

His contract expires at the end of 2023. Simmons is not, however, troubled by the spectre of a round of contract renewal coming up soon. Rather, he argues, it’s time to live up to expectations and the peer pressure.

“I’ve got a high enough level not to worry about that, I’m not going to worry about it, I’ve earned my WorldTour place. But I believe some day I can be a top-level rider and it’s time to get closer to that.”

Looking around at others in his WorldTour year book, he says he feels he has to up his game. “I look at Remco [Evenepoel], he’s only a year older than me and he’s won the Vuelta, the Worlds. I remember beating him as a Junior and now he’s got this level.

“Of course I’m happy for them because these are guys I like to race with, but it hurts me a bit, I want to be there, too.” 

He shows raw ambition too, by refusing to give himself a pass on any of his previous years as a pro. “In three years I haven’t once been happy with my season. Maybe in my head I have the idea I’ll be a big rider and it’ll prove delusional, but I believe I can do it. And I’ll keep trying to do it, until I know I can’t.”

He laughs a little at when explaining why he enjoys that challenge, as it turns out the bike is a means to an end for success.

“I think it’s because I’m American. We want to be the best we can be,” he says. “I don’t race my bike because I like it, it’s because I like racing. You do a seven-hour training ride and then stop, you don’t enjoy that. It’s something I think I could be the best and until I know 100% I can’t be, I’ll keep going.”

The alternative prospects on offer are another reason to keep him motivated when it comes to turning the pedals.

“Of course I enjoy riding my bike because I could be working in a factory, so I do like my job. But that’s not why I do it. If I was going to re-create, I’d go skiing, spend five hours in the snow.

“But this, I enjoy the challenge more than the physical act of riding. I like the challenge of chasing something.”

What he’ll end up chasing and catching in 2023, with a season debut at the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina where he’ll cross swords with his old rival Evenepoel, amongst others, we’ll find out pretty soon.

Just don’t expect Simmons to settle for just anything.