‘I don’t want to say I’ve stopped caring but I’ve learned to stop beating myself up’ – Quinn Simmons takes new mindset into pursuit of career-defining Tour de France stage win

Simmons has credited a change of internal pressure as a key reason why he’s finally winning bigger races, noting how when he was coming through as a pro, he’d be overly harsh on certain performances.

When asked if that meant this would be the year he gets that Tour stage win he chased exhaustingly 12 months ago, Simmons could only laugh – “I thought it was ‘the year’ every year” – but this new mindset seems to have put better placed him to do so.

“One thing I’ve changed in preparation, and one thing is I’ve stopped… I don’t want to say I’ve stopped caring, but I’ve stopped putting so much on thinking ‘I have to win’, and I just let it happen,” he said.

“I put way too much on myself. I could not care less what anyone else says about me, but what I tell myself, I beat myself up quite badly, and I’ve learned to stop that a bit.

“I mean, even for my stage win at the Dauphiné, it was not the stage I picked out; I did not think we were going to make it – I was just there to train for here, and then suddenly, like 3km to go, I realised it like, ‘Wow, I’m about to win a stage of the Dauphiné; this is cool.”

Simmons winning stage 4 of the recent Tour Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes – aka the Dauphiné (Image credit: Getty Images)

Simmons is also more confident in his tactical abilities as a racer, having been guilty of wasting energy at the wrong times in the past and missing the clinical edge to bring him the type of results his power could, or maybe should, have bred.

He is aware that he is something of a marked man, though, in a similar way to Ben Healy – who he finished second behind on stage 6 of last year’s race – with those around him knowing not to let him go solo. Brute force has allowed him to take those aforementioned top-level wins in the past, though, so it could be his best path to success again at the Tour.

“My legs have gotten better, but I think one thing that, with the way I came into the sport as world champion, I never got the opportunity to be that small-name rider who maybe got the lucky breakaway,” added the US rider.

“Every time I’ve won, I’ve had to just force it. It’s similar to if I’m in a break with Van der Poel, I’m gonna follow him and be really annoying about following him, but now I’ve reached the point where I’ve noticed other riders are now doing that to me, and I’m like, ‘Wait, guys, I’m not the world champion, like follow someone else. You know, I’m still a small rider.’

“I think tactically being able to handle that has helped, and then I have just gotten better. If you can push more power, maybe the attack that didn’t make it before makes it a little further now, and eventually it’s going to make it to the finish.”

Simmons has described the ultimate satisfaction a Tour stage win would bring him, saying it would allow him to retire with little else to aim for, but going back to that internal pressure he places on himself, he’s been able to recognise the successes he’s already had at 25.

“There’s these other super young riders that have kind of changed the bar, but if you go back five years ago, for someone to be my age and have done what I’ve done, it’s not such a bad career,” he said.

“I mean, OK, it’s not Remco, it’s not what Seixas is doing, it’s not what these other riders are doing, but I just turned 25, I have a stage in three of the biggest races and three national titles, it’s not too bad.

“I’m happy with where I’m at, [but] if I win a stage here, I can basically retire satisfied. I know I’m never going to ride GC. I’m never going to be able to do what these crazy people can do, but if I can pick up a stage slowly at all the biggest races in the world, you know, for me, that would be amazing.”