Quinn Simmons showed his speed in a relatively flat stage on Wednesday in the Tour de France. The Durangoan with the red, Hulk Hogan-style mustache finished ninth in Stage 11 of the Tour.
It’s Simmons’ second top 10 finish of the 2025 Tour after having zero in his previous two Tour appearances.
Riding for Lidl-Trek, Simmons finished the 165.8-kilometer loop that started and finished in Toulouse, France, in ninth in three hours, 16 minutes and 49 seconds, 56 seconds behind stage winner Jonas Abrahamsen.
Fellow Durangoan Sepp Kuss finished in 45th place in Stage 11, 3:28 behind Abrahamsen.
Stage 12 was another mountain stage and the fortunes of the Durango riders flipped. Kuss proved his reputation as one of the best climbers in the peloton and Simmons struggled.
Kuss, riding for Team Visma-Lease a Bike, finished 24th, while Simmons finished 85th on the 180.6 km stage that started in Auch, France, and ended in Hautacam, France.
Tadej Pogačar dominated the stage and pulled away on the mountains for a win in 4:21:19, 2:10 ahead of second-place Jonas Vingegaard. Kuss finished 13:30 behind Pogačar; Simmons was 33:03 behind.
Pogačar now leads the general classification after a dominant performance that went a long way toward the Slovenian capturing his fourth yellow jersey. He leads the Tour with a GC time of 45:22:51. Vingegaard is 3:31 behind in second and Remco Evenepoel is 4:45 behind in third.
Kuss is 21st in the GC, 33 minutes behind and Simmons is 46th, 1:08:04 behind.
Simmons’ Lidl-Trek teammate Jonathan Milan still leads the points classification over Pogačar for the green jersey. Pogačar leads the king of the mountain standings, although he is tied with second-place Lenny Martinez with 27 points. Evenepoel leads the youth classification by 49 seconds over Florian Lipowitz.
Kuss’ Visma-Lease a Bike squad has a commanding 17:15 lead in the team classification over Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
