Quinn Simmons has suggested his solo victory at the US Pro Road Race National Championships might have saved his career after a difficult opening half of the 2023 season. He will now wear the national champion’s jersey at the Tour de France after being named in Lidl-Trek’s selection on Monday.
“Today could have saved my career. I was thinking about what I wanted to do. This brings the mojo back,” Simmons told FloBikes after the race. “And now, for the first time in a long time, the stars and stripes does a lap in France next month.”
Simmons started 2023 with a fine stage win at the Vuelta a San Juan in January and he still looked to be on track for the Classics after placing fifth at the Faun Drôme Classic the following month. The American could only manage 12th at Strade Bianche, his main objective of the early season, and he made little impact for the remainder of the Spring.
The 22-year-old lined out at the Tour de Suisse earlier this month, but he abandoned the race following the tragic death of Gino Mäder. He remembered the Swiss rider in his comments in the aftermath of his victory in Knoxville on Sunday.
“I wasn’t supposed to be here [at US Road Nationals]. I took a last-minute flight home, coming off one of the worst days of my life on the bike,” Simmons said. “I just feel super lucky, racing with my brother, and my dad jumped in the team car for the last few laps.
“The timing for us US riders, if you do the Tour, it’s really hard to make it here, to actually do the Nationals. So I knew maybe I don’t get this chance for another couple of years.”
Simmons joined Tyler Williams (L39ION of Los Angeles) on the attack with a little over 60km to go, and they managed up a hefty lead to ensure they would fend off a chasing group that included Giro d’Italia stage winner Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates).
“Brandon has showed multiple times, recently at the Giro, that he is one of the best riders in the world. That’s not a good person to hear is chasing you down,” Simmons said. “If there’s one person in the race that we marked out that I really didn’t want to go head-to-head with, it was him. So I was pretty happy to have three minutes. But even then, three minutes on a guy like Brandon isn’t quite enough.”
It sufficed here, however, and Simmons dropped Williams on the final lap to claim a lone victory, coming home 37 seconds ahead of his erstwhile breakaway companion. Taylor Stites (Project Echelon Racing) outsprinted McNulty to bronze, 1:49 behind Simmons.
“Going into Nationals is always a hard plan because we don’t have eight guys to control the race. From the beginning I decided that whatever it takes, I’m going to do it,” Simmons said. “No one here can ride as flat out as I can, it’s the one thing I’m super good at. I’m not a good sprinter, I’m not a good climber, but I can ride flat out for hours. We had to take advantage of that.”
