To win a major bike race, they say you need to love everything about it: the suffering involved, the roads where it is held, the rivals faced, and the challenge involved.
Quinn Simmons loves Strade Bianche for all of those reasons. He may be racing in the shadow of Mathieu van der Poel, Julian Alaphilippe and Tom Pidock on Saturday, but he is a dangerous dark horse who is hungry to win.
“Watching bike racing can be quite boring, but Strade Bianche is one race that’s exciting from start to finish, both as a rider and a spectator. I think it’s a really beautiful race,” Simmons tells Cyclingnews from Tuscany where he has been completing his final reconnaissance rides.
“The biggest thing for me is that Tuscany is actually an enjoyable place to ride a bike, I’d come here for a cycling vacation.
“I love Flanders too and the cobbled Classics are super nice races because of the history, but objectively, the bike racing there kind of sucks. You are on concrete roads and just fighting for survival on every climb or cobbled section. Trust me, that’s not always nice even if it’s nice to watch on television.
“At Strade Bianche you suffer too, but once the selection has been made, the real racing starts, and I enjoy that. Going flat out on gravel with the best riders in the world is something special.”
The now 21-year-old from Durango is a former junior world champion and he turned professional with Trek-Segafredo without racing in the under-23 ranks. He won the Tour de Wallonnie in 2021 and a stage of this year’s Vuelta a San Juan but he is still looking for that big Classics win he seems so destined for. With Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven focused on the cobbled Classics, Simmons gets his chance at Strade Bianche.
Simmons is a Classics rider but he can also handle the shark tooth’s profile and the steep hills of Tuscany. He was in the decisive attacks that emerged in the last two editions of Strade Bianche and senses that he can win it this year or sometime soon.
“I think it comes down to how I feel and perform on race day,” Simmons says, his confidence innate but tempered with modesty.
“Sometimes I have special days where I can drag myself uphill and defy gravity a bit. Then I have other days where I feel like a heavy rider and I can’t quite do it. But if I wake up on Saturday and I have one of those special days, I think I can at least be up there somewhere.”
Gravel roads and the chicken and rice grind
Simmons’ dedication to Strade Bianche is shown by the time he has spent in Tuscany before the race.
He made his European debut at the Faun-Ardèche Classic and the Faun Drôme Classic in France last weekend, finishing fifth in the latter at the same time as David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).
He opted against the flat roads of the Belgian Opening Weekend for two days of hilly racing and then drove to Tuscany to stay in a local Airbnb.
Simmons’ parents are visiting and he has dragged his father out for some rides on the Strade Bianche gravel but he refused to be tempted by the local Chianti win and rich pasta dishes, insisting to Cyclingnews that he has stayed on the ‘chicken and rice grind’ apart from a visit to a Siena bakery during a recovery ride on Monday.
Since then, Simmons has completed a final block of training and done extra reconnaissance of the 63 kilometres and 11 sectors of gravel roads that make Strade Bianche so special.
“I feel good. I’m not quite as good as I was in the previous years and I’m still a bit heavy, but I think I’m in a good position to at least try to do something,” he says.
Simmons finished seventh at Strade Bianche in 2022 and 54th in 2021 but there is far more to his performances than just the result.
“I’ve been in the front of the race twice and I made the selection with the favourites that went to the line,” he points out.
“Last year, Pogačar made us all look like juniors and rode away from us but there was a group of six chasing him and I was in it. I was a bit of an idiot and did too much work and that probably cost me a podium place, but I was there to fight for it.
“In 2021 it was Van der Poel, Pogačar, Bernal, Van Aert, Pidcock, Alaphilippe and then myself. Every single one of those riders was a top, top hitter, some of the best in the world and on $2 million contracts, while I was a neo-pro dude. But I hung out with them.
“Strade Bianche made me realise that I can hang with the big dogs. I know I have to be on a good day, with the right mindset but it’s possible.
“Unfortunately, I had a flat and then had to chase back to the second group and then was taken out of the crash, so my chances were over.
“I didn’t get a nice result but in my head, I was at least there to fight for it. That left me hungry and left me loving Strade Bianche.”
A career-changing opportunity
Egan Bernal, Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar are absent this year, while Mathieu van der Poel makes his road racing debut after a successful cyclocross season and altitude training camp. Other possible contenders include 2018 winner
Tiesj Benoot, who won Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, local resident Alberto Bettiol, Pello Bilbao and perhaps debutant Thibaut Pinot.
“Strade Bianche attracts one of the hardest fields to beat because a really good Classics rider can win it, but a Grand Tour winner can win it too. Even without Pogacar and Van Aert, there’s such a diverse group of riders who can go well,” Simmons points out.
“It’s never easy to win when Van der Poel is on the start line, then there’s the Jumbo-Visma block that showed what they can do even without Wout.”
Simmons will have the support of a mixed Trek-Segafredo squad that includes Classics riders but also climbers like Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier and the ever-reliable Toms Skujiņš and Dario Cataldo.
He was happy to win a stage at the Vuelta a San Juan, but he is still on a journey of discovery. He was super aggressive in last year’s Tirreno-Adriatico but then got sick and struggled in the Classics. He fought his way into six breakaways at last year’s Tour but didn’t come up with a victory. He is far more focused in 2023.
“I used to be a promise and if I’m honest, I’m sick of just showing promise. I want the promise to be something. I want to finally be able to be the one who can get it done,” he said last September.
“I’m still looking for that first big one but it was nice to at least get one win in the bag early in the season even if Argentina in January is a long way from Strade Bianche,” he tells Cyclingnews now.
Simmons will be 22 on May 8 and is in the final year of his second contract with Trek-Segafredo. He is still growing and developing but can see his progress and his potential future.
Strade Bianche is a huge moment of opportunity that could significantly change his career.
“It’s cool to see each year how my body changes. I’ve become better at some things and worse at others, but I know I still have a long way to go from where I’m at now. I’m not nearing my top level and that’s quite exciting,” he says.
“I still really don’t have a great idea of what my limit will be. Maybe I’ll find a new limit or a new level on Saturday.”
