Understandably, all the post-2024 World Championship road race headlines are surrounding Tadej Pogacar's ride for the ages as he attacked 100km out, en route to his first ever Rainbow Jersey. Somewhat lost in the shuffle however, is a very strong performance from the USA's Quinn Simmons.
With a dangerous lead group nearly two minutes up the road, Pogacar decided to take matters into his own hands in the chase, attacking from the peloton at 100km to go. Although Simmons and Andrea Bagioli attempted to follow, they were soon dropped as Pogacar linked up with compatriot Jan Tratnik from the breakaway. Although the nature of Pogacar's victory came as a surprise, the end result did not shock Simmons at all.
“If anyone is surprised that Pogacar won this race then I don’t think they follow cycling,” the former US national champion Quinn Simmons stated after the finish. “I did 7000 kilojoules today, so you tell me if the race was difficult. My teammate Matteo Jorgenson told me before the race that he tried to follow Pogacar once and said that ‘when you go too close to the sun you get burnt,' and today I got burnt.”
Nevertheless, a 9th placed finish in a race containing some of the biggest and best the current peloton has to offer is a more than creditable result for Lidl - Trek's Simmons. Finishing as the highest placing American also, the 23-year-old can look back fondly on his performance in Zurich.
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