{"id":932411,"date":"2026-10-18T08:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932411\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T08:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T08:50:12","slug":"simmons-ends-26-with-a-captain-america-victory-salute-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932411\/","title":{"rendered":"Simmons Ends ’26 With a Captain America Victory Salute in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018The fans here really embrace Captain America\u2019: US national champion outsprints Healy and indulges his inner superhero in final race of season.<\/p>\n

\"Quinn<\/p>\n

(Photo: Getty Images + Race Broadcast)<\/p>\n

Updated October 18, 2026 01:26AM<\/p>\n

Quinn Simmons<\/a> (Lidl-Trek) gave the Japanese fans what they wanted when he won his final race of the season \u2013 a Captain America salute.<\/p>\n

The three-time U.S. national champion flashed the unusual sign-off Sunday after he outkicked Ben Healy<\/a> (EF Education-EasyPost) to win the Utsunomiya Japan Cup Road Race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice here,\u201d Simmons said at the finish of the hilly one-day race. \u201cThe fans really embrace the Captain America, so I really wanted to sign off for the season and give them a salute to say thank you to Japan for putting on such a nice race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pleased to see all the supporters on the side of the road with their cool signs and everything,\u201d Simmons continued. \u201cI\u2019m happy it ended like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simmons draws attention whenever he races.<\/p>\n

The handlebar \u2018tache, flowing locks, and Ricky Bobby meets WWE persona<\/a> \u2013 he\u2019s about as far from a typical straight-laced WorldTour pro as it gets.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old drew huge cheers across the recent Tour de France as thousands of fans embraced the high-fiving, flag-waving \u201cCaptain America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The appeal more than translated<\/a> across to Japan, where locals couldn\u2019t get enough of cycling\u2019s own action hero.<\/p>\n

Even the Japanese commentators on Sunday\u2019s race broadcast were stoked for Simmons\u2019 character-inspired victory celebration.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Simmons and Healy light up final circuits in Utsunomiya<\/p>\n

Simmons and Healy lined up as 5-star favorites for Sunday\u2019s Japan Cup.<\/p>\n

The two super-attackers lived up to their billing.<\/p>\n

The two broke away from the front group at 30km to go of the sinuous, lumpy circuit race in northern Honshu and built a huge gap over the chasers.<\/p>\n

Simmons, riding on crest of late-season form, knew he had to play patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knew we were the two strongest in the race,\u201d he said of himself and Healy. \u201cLuckily the course is selective enough that we could make the difference and have a fair battle between us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite confident in my sprint, so I knew I just had to make it over the climbs the last time,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI was able to survive. It was nice racing with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tough end to the season for Healy, who closes out 2026 without a win on the palmar\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t quite clicked this year,\u201d the Irishman recently told Domestique<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Simmons finally gets the W after string of near-misses
\n\"\"Quinn Simmons and Matteo Jorgenson played key roles in Brandon McNulty\u2019s world title victory in Montr\u00e9al. (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Victory on Sunday puts a deserved cap on 2026 for Simmons.<\/p>\n

The Coloradan has been bulldozing his way across every race on his schedule since he started to peak at the Tour Auvergne-Rhones-Alpes. But in many cases, the endless kilometers on the attack either didn\u2019t pay off or, at the Tour de France, were in the service of teammate Mads Pedersen.<\/p>\n

In the last six weeks alone, Simmons was agonizingly close to the podiums at GP Qu\u00e9bec, GP Montr\u00e9al, and Tre Valle Varisene. He also finished fourth at the UCI road world championships after playing a key role in his American teammate Brandon McNulty winning the stripes.<\/p>\n

Simmons didn\u2019t miss out on the chance for his third victory of 2026 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a really good season. I lacked a bit of winning, but I\u2019ve been quite strong through the year,\u201d he said. \u201cTo finish finally on the top step is quite a nice way to go at the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCaptain America\u201d flies into the winter with three more years on his contract at Lidl-Trek. Plenty more superheroics to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018The fans here really embrace Captain America\u2019: US national champion outsprints Healy and indulges his inner superhero in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,68224,85,114967,73257,85819,67883],"class_list":["post-932411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-road","tag-sports","tag-tag-ben-healy","tag-tag-lidl-trek","tag-tag-quinn-simmons","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}