Durangoan Quinn Simmons has been busy racing his bike in Europe the last couple of weeks.
Most recently Simmons rode for Trek Segafredo in the seven-stage Tirreno-Adriatico in Italy, which concluded on Sunday.
Simmons finished 72nd in the general classification while scoring nine points climbing in the mountains to place sixth in the final King of the Mountain standings.
Simmons also helped his team’s leader, Giulio Ciccone, finish fifth in the GC, just 37 seconds back.
Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma won the GC (28 hours, 38 minutes, 57 seconds) the King of the Mountain (25 points) and the points jerseys (36). Roglic also won three stages on his way to the GC and his second Tirreno-Adriatico Trident trophy. Sepp Kuss of Durango also rides for Jumbo-Visma, but did not race in the event.
The tour started with a rainy 11.5-kilometer time trial, and Simmons finished in the same time as Thomas Pidcock of INEOS Grenadiers, 1:26 after stage winner Filippo Ganna of INEOS Grenadiers (12:28).
On the 210-kilometer second stage, Simmons finished with the peloton in 41st, clocking the same time as stage winner Fabio Jakobsen of Soudal – Quick Step (5:06.33).
On the 216K Stage 3, Simmons finished 3:10 after Jasper Phillipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck.
On Stage 4, Simmons scored five KOM points and crossed 67th after racing 218 kilometers. Roglic, meanwhile, won the stage to move into second in the GC, six seconds behind Lennard Kamna of BORA-hansgrohe.
During Stage 5, Simmons and his teammates nearly helped Ciccone win the 165.5K stage. Roglic, however, finished just ahead of Ciccone in a sprint to the finish to win his second straight stage and take the GC lead. Ciccone took second while Simmons finished 16:47 back after helping his leader.
On the sixth stage, which was 193K, Simmons scored another five points in the mountains to move up five spots into sixth in the KOM race. Roglic, meanwhile, won his third straight stage and also locked up the KOM jersey with five more points in the process.
On the final 154K stage, the top 108 bikers all finished together in the peloton. Jasper Phillipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck won the stage, but Roglic (51st) finished in the same time to lock up the GC. Ciccone crossed 38th while Simmons finished 1:09 back in 138th. Simmons, 21, also finished 18th out of 38 cyclists in the youths competition, which Joao Almeida of UAE Team Emirates won.
“My third (Tirreno-Adriatico) is in the legs, now time to try something a bit different,” Simmons posted. “Few days of easy and then one week of racing close to the ‘home’ roads in Catalunya (Spain). Thanks as always (Trek Segafredo) for the week, and congrats to (Giulio Ciccone) for hanging with the big dogs.”
Two days before the Tirreno-Adriatico, Simmons finished 12th in the one-stage, 184 kilometer Strade Bianche, finishing just 1:46 after Pidcock in first.
Next, Simmons will race in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. The race will begin on Monday and finish March 26 in Barcelona after seven stages. Roglic, reigning world champion Remco Evenpoel, and Tour de France winners Egan Bernal and Geraint Thomas will also compete in Catalunya.
Kuss has competed in one stage-race so far this season, the seven-stage UAE Tour in the United Arab Emirates, which was held Feb. 20-26.
Kuss ended up finishing fifth overall in the general classification, 2:06 behind the winner, Remco Evenpoel of Soudal – Quick Step (23:25:26).
A ninth-place finish on the third stage helped Kuss move up 29 places into 18th in the GC. Kuss finished in the peloton on the fourth stage, moving up one spot in the GC. Kuss remained in 17th in the GC after peloton finishes on both the fifth and sixth stages.
On the final, 153-kilometer stage, however, Kuss challenged for the win and ended up finishing in fourth place, 47 seconds after Adam Yates of UAE Team Emirates. The strong finish helped Kuss move all the way up from 17th to fifth in the final GC standings. Kuss also scored nine points on the seventh stage to finish 20th in the points race with 11. Tim Merlier of Soudal – Quick Step scored 52 points to win the green jersey.
