Durangoan Colby Simmons was the top American finisher at the UCI junior road race world championships Thursday in Belgium.
Simmons finished 15th in the race, just 24 seconds behind the winner, Norway’s Per Strand Hagenes. Hagenes’ winning time was 2 hours, 43 minutes and 48 seconds.
“I definitely could have done better, but at the end of the day I wasn’t in the right position when the winning move was made,” Simmons said. “But it’s not a bad result.”
Simmons said Hagenes attacked on the last steep climb and then played it right to finish first.
The race was a eight-lap circuit around Leuven, totaling 121.8 kilometers. Each lap had 22 turns and lots of short uphills.
“It was definitely a pretty technical, demanding course,” Simmons said.
Simmons said Team USA’s strategy was to have two guys out front, other team members covering moves while he and another racer saved some energy for the end.
“With all of the crashes, it was super-hard to do what we planned on,” he said. “It ended up being everyone for themselves.”
Out of the 173 cyclists who began the race, 83 crashed and did not finish.
“It was really hard to hold position,” Simmons said. “Junior racing is super-aggressive; there were so many crashes that you had to stay towards the front to avoid the crashes.”
To get near the front, he said he went as “hard as possible” from the start.
“I had to spend more energy to stay in front, but it’s something I had to do to stay safe,” Simmons said.
Simmons managed to avoid the carnage and ended up leading Team USA in the junior race. Simmons is the current junior road racing national champion.
Simmons’ older brother, Quinn, also competed in the Belgium in the elite road race world championship on Sunday. Quinn, however, crashed and did not finish.
“He crashed in the circuit where it was pretty much impossible to make it up,” Colby said.
France’s Julian Alaphilippe won the elite world title. Neilson Powless finished fifth for the USA, which was the best American placing in the men’s road race since Chan McRae in 1999.
Colby Simmons said he’ll now take a little less than a month off his bike to get a reset and mentally prepare to ride for Team Jumbo-Visma’s development team next year. He said he’ll begin training with Jumbo-Visma at the first of the year.
“Being on a team that’s a feeder for the world tour, it’s the best team for me and my development,” he said.
He’ll also bump up and compete in the U23 division next year, and said he’s probably most excited for the amount of racing he’ll get to do.
“They get into all of the big U23 races, which will help me develop into a better rider out there,” Simmons said. “It will definitely be a bit harder. Everyone in U23 wants to make the step up to the tour. It will definitely be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to some hard racing.”
Having an older brother on the world tour has added to his motivation, he said. Quinn rides for Trek-Segafredo and competed in the Vuelta a España this year.
“Definitely seeing him do really good in the biggest races in the world gives me more motivation to race with him some day,” Simmons said.
Sepp Kuss of Durango rides for Jumbo-Visma’s pro team.
Simmons said he hasn’t thought much about future goals, but added, “I definitely want to show I belong and that I’m good enough; It’s definitely cool and a good opportunity.”
colivas@durangoherald.com
