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Quinn Simmons is the new Quinn Simmons

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What about this guy?
Did MTB before, switched to road, had a stellar year in the junior category and demolished the opposition in the worlds road race.

And as latest news, he signed for Trek, immediately becoming professional next year and skipping the junior ranks.

All jokes aside his year was nowhere near as good as good 'ol Remco's, but he was still very spectacular. I wonder what sort of races we can expect him in? He seems more of a classics type of guy to me, But still early days
 
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Love the thread title. Brenner can wait.

Great race today, and look forward to more from this guy. Wish he could have gotten an offer by a better team, but congrats to him on the contract!
He did. Tons of teams wanted him, from Quick-Step and Jumbo Visma to UAE and BORA. He just chose Trek. I had hoped he would go to Lefevere due to his deal with Specialized, but it didn't matter much to him it seems.
 
He did. Tons of teams wanted him, from Quick-Step and Jumbo Visma to UAE and BORA. He just chose Trek. I had hoped he would go to Lefevere due to his deal with Specialized, but it didn't matter much to him it seems.
I read that while they were interested, no offers materialized from DQS or JV. If he did get an offer from DQS and his goal is Roubaix, I question the decision. But that's not what I've seen reported.

But, maybe too many cooks in the DQS kitchen, and better chances to have free reign at Trek. Or maybe the money was great. His call. Wish him all the success in the world.
 
I love how this thread has gone meta!

Maybe: "Quinn Simmons is the new George Hincapie is the new Peter van Petegem"

As an American, going to a Trek team makes a lot of sense, if a Specialized team wouldn't/couldn't sign him. He'll probably do some grass roots events like Leadville again. That's where the money and exposure are heading anyway.

He's already proven he can handle long races and knows how to win. No reason not to go straight to WT, so long as he's managed as well as Remco seems to have been...
 
I was mostly surprised about how strong the USA was as a team, that's not something we're used to in the juniors. After that Simmons did an impressive solo, but it was also the lack of cooperation among the other teams.
Eh, just a year or 3 ago America used to dominate the scene with a certain Adrien Costa and Brandon McNulty. In the biggest junior race of the year they put minutes into everyone, including some kid named Tadej Pogacar. That has never been their problem, it is their transition to the pro's that often doesn't go as well, probably because the Americans are fully grown at a young age. Or most of them at least. Simmons and Sheffield also looked like men amongst boys most of the year.
 
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Eh, just a year or 3 ago America used to dominate the scene with a certain Adrien Costa and Brandon McNulty. In the biggest junior race of the year they put minutes into everyone, including some kid named Tadej Pogacar. That has never been their problem, it is their transition to the pro's that often doesn't go as well, probably because the Americans are fully grown at a young age. Or most of them at least. Simmons and Sheffield also looked like men amongst boys most of the year.

It's amazing the amount of success Americans have had at the junior level vs returns on the WT. I think -- and as an American living in Europe I can say this -- that the transition from the U.S. lifestyle to the European lifestyle often doesn't go very smoothly. It does require moving a full continent away at a young age, away from family and friends etc -- whereas euro juniors can continue to live at home, or at the very least, a train ride away from home.

(I don't think that Americans are fully grown at a younger age. That doesn't make sense)

Interesting article about Simmons up now. Seems like he could be a bit headstrong based on Knickman quotes, and also that Knickman burned up a friendship with JV because he couldn't "deliver" Simmons to EF. And I see that Simmons will be riding Leadville and Dirty Kanza for Trek...
 
Would be surprised if many Americans know who Evenepoel is.
That doesn't matter to Thijs. Literally nobody called Evenepoel the next Merckx, except the title of his topic here. First if was "they call him the new Merckx" by basically every journalist (a self fulfilling prophecy), and then "in Belgium they call him the next Eddy Merckx". As long as Thijs knows who Evenepoel and Simmons are, that's all that's needed.
 
Eh, just a year or 3 ago America used to dominate the scene with a certain Adrien Costa and Brandon McNulty. In the biggest junior race of the year they put minutes into everyone, including some kid named Tadej Pogacar. That has never been their problem, it is their transition to the pro's that often doesn't go as well, probably because the Americans are fully grown at a young age. Or most of them at least. Simmons and Sheffield also looked like men amongst boys most of the year.
I would agree on the physical maturity Simmons and Sheffield show. On the other hand; they're fairly beefy right now and will likely continue to grow and get leaner if allowed. The downside of going serious-pro early is getting long term priorities balanced with real world results. That, and finding out that there are more riders near you level and some are not altogether clean.

Simmons sounds very much like a former teammate that was referred to Knickman back when he ran the Natz team. Roy mentored the guy all the way through the Olympics and a ProTour contract. When the time came to deal with the harsh reality of an "unbalanced" field of play, Roy stayed true to a clean message of advice. Simmons would be best served to continue that relationship in some form for his safety and sanity.
 
Will be interesting to see how much room of improvement he still has, talking from a training load standpoint etc. Brenner for example said after the race that he was not used to the distance yesterday as he hasn't raced close to that long anywhere in his career yet (said similar things after the ITT that he hasn't as big a base yet as second year Junior's) and was just done in the last kilometre's while Simmons was more used to that.
Does anyone know if the American junior program does put more emphasis on bigger mileage early on compared to europeans?
 
Will be interesting to see how much room of improvement he still has, talking from a training load standpoint etc. Brenner for example said after the race that he was not used to the distance yesterday as he hasn't raced close to that long anywhere in his career yet (said similar things after the ITT that he hasn't as big a base yet as second year Junior's) and was just done in the last kilometre's while Simmons was more used to that.
Does anyone know if the American junior program does put more emphasis on bigger mileage early on compared to europeans?
The Americans may still be collecting Juniors from the trade teams. Hagen Berman developed a whole lot of recent pros and they rode varied programs. USA Cycling has a history of dysfunctional ruination of talent so the smart ones take charge of their program. Brenner is young enough he's probably spent much time on restricted gears and mileage so he could have a big upside. He'll lean down abit on that tougher program I'd bet but I don't know anything about him. Simmons sounds like he just rides until he's done. Natural
 
Eh, just a year or 3 ago America used to dominate the scene with a certain Adrien Costa and Brandon McNulty. In the biggest junior race of the year they put minutes into everyone, including some kid named Tadej Pogacar. That has never been their problem, it is their transition to the pro's that often doesn't go as well, probably because the Americans are fully grown at a young age. Or most of them at least. Simmons and Sheffield also looked like men amongst boys most of the year.

Sigh..Costa..so sad.

Which race was that?
 
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