Quinn Simmons looked like he was riding toward another stage win in the Tour de Suisse (Tour of Switzerland) when he sprinted away from the breakaway group with 22 kilometers left in stage 7 on Saturday.
Unfortunately for Simmons, he was told by his Lidl-Trek team to wait for his teammate Lennard Kämna, who had been distanced from the leaders, and help Kämna get back to the front.
Simmons obeyed team orders and fell back into the chase group and missed out on a fantastic sprint to the line from the lead group. He finished 28th, 6 minutes and 25 seconds behind stage winner João Almeida. Kämna finished 10th, 1:11 behind.
“Of course, when you do five hours flat out in the breakaway, you hope it’s not for nothing and you make it to the final,” Simmons told reporters. “In the end, it was a GC day and I’m happy I was there to be able to help Lenny a bit in the final. Obviously, I wanted to make it, but today wasn’t the day.”
After he was asked to wait for his teammate, Simmons did well by pushing the pace in Kämna’s group to help minimize Kämna’s losses.
Simmons received the most combative rider award for the day and, therefore, made a trip to the podium.
“Anytime you can stand on the podium, it’s super nice,” Simmons said. “I’m coming out of this race with a super good feeling and a lot of good work in my legs.”
Simmons finished the Tour de Suisse in 30th in the general classification (GC) after eight stages of racing. Almeida won the race in 29:29:01 and Simmons was 45:50 behind in 30th after over 1,200 km of racing. He finished sixth in the points classification and eighth in the mountain classification.
Some of the highlights from the Tour de Suisse that Simmons can build on are his stage 3 win and fourth-place finish in stage 2.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
