"He is seated, and I am doing like 650 watts on the dude’s wheel" - Quinn Simmons on Wout van Aert and understanding the level of top riders

Stage 6 of the 2022 Tour de France was a wake up call for American champion Quinn Simmons. Whilst he is currently one of the very best rouleurs in the world, he recalls the time he joined Wout van Aert in a brekaway at the Tour de France and found out the hard way how high the level at the top of the sport was.

It was the sixth day of the Tour, finishing in Longwy but with a mostly flat profile and 219 kilometers on the menu. An assumed breakaway day, it saw a massive fight to form a breakaway, which included Van Aert who was in the yellow jersey. “Two and a half hour fight for the breakaway,” Simmons shared in words to the Watts Occurring podcast.

Simmons found himself in a group with Van Aert and Jakob Fuglsang in the head of the race. “Suddenly, the three of us were off the front and I am like 'well, guess we are committed now'.” This was peak Van Aert time, in a year where he won three stages at the Tour, won the green jersey; and whilst he wore the yellow jersey he not only took a solo stage win but was also fighting to get in breakaways and pacing Jonas Vingegaard in the cobbled stage and in the mountains.

Simmons, at the time 21 years old, was on his Tour de France debut and found out the hard way just how hard he would have to ride in order to be matching the best.

“He was treating me like he was motor pacing me. It was insane," Simmons says of the Belgian. "It is just this slight uphill, and he is seated, and I am doing like 650 watts on the dude’s wheel, and he just rides away from me.”

The risky breakaway ultimately did not work, this despite the massive power outputs that were being pushed out front. “It is not that I cracked. That was the first time one on one I really felt how good the best guys are in the world.”