Tadej Pogačar dominated Il Lombardia, making history as the first five-time consecutive winner, but Quinn Simmons was arguably the hero of the day, attacking from the start in Como, racing all out for 241km and finishing fourth.
The 24-year-old US national champion even managed to scare Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad, who had to work extra hard to catch him.
"We were a little scared about him on the penultimate climb because he’s a dangerous rider. It was an impressive race by Quinn, a really great ride," Pogačar said post-race.
Simmons revealed the numbers of his ride on Instagram. He produced an average power of 390 watts during 4,400 metres of climbing with a maximum power of 1,270 watts.
He dubbed his ride as "Last training session before Big Sugar," indicating he will line up at Sunday’s gravel race in Arkansas, the last in the LifeTime Gran Prix series.
Simmons was in a hurry all day Saturday at Il Lombardia.
He attacked as soon as the race director's car accelerated away and joined the 14-rider break of the day. When the likes of Michael Matthews and Pello Bilbao began to struggle on the Passo della Crocetta with 80km still to race, Simmons went clear alone. Team leader Mattias Skjelmose was suffering in the peloton, and so Lidl-Trek decided to go 'all-in' with Quinn.
He opened a gap on the chasers from the break, and the peloton was at four minutes, forcing UAE to chase even harder than they hoped and expected.
Simonds led by two minutes at the foot of the Passo di Ganda and perhaps hoped to crest the 8.7km climb before Pogačar did his thing. However, Isaac del Toro and Jay Vine did some high-speed chasing and pacing, and then Pogačar attacked at the halfway point. He caught Simmons three kilometres from the summit.
The Lidl-Trek team car told Simmonds not to try to stay with Pogačar but to save his legs to try to fight with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) and anyone else for a podium place. He was eventually caught by the Belgian, plus Australia's Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling), but rode full gas all the way to the finish in Bergamo, rightly celebrating his performance as he crossed the line.
Simmons collapsed on the road due to the fatigue of his effort, but was quickly taken into the podium area. He won a special prize for being first to the summit of the Ghisallo, that remembers Gazzetta dello Sport journalist Pier Luigi Todisco, who was killed while cycling to work.
He was considered the hero of the race, who dared to try to take on Pogačar.
"I didn't expect to stay away so far when I attacked. I hoped to be there for Skjelly, but when they told me he suffering, I decided to go for it myself and see where I could push myself," Simmons told BiciPro quickly at the Lidl-Trek team bus before dashing to MIlan Linate airport for a flight home to the USA.
When Pogačar caught and passed him, neither had the time or energy to talk.
"The speed he passed me was insane," Simmons said. "I hoped to finish in the top three, maybe next time."
Simmons turned professional in 2020 after winning the junior world title in Yorkshire. He was clearly talented but faced a series of setbacks and crashes, especially in 2024, which left him with a nasty concussion and doubts about his career after witnessing Gino Mader's tragic crash at the Tour de Suisse.
He came back fresh and motivated for 2025. He missed the Classics but won a stage at the Tour de Suisse to secure a place in Ldl-Trek's Tour de France line-up. He raced aggressively in the Tour, joining four major breakaways and finishing second to Ben Healy on stage 6. He ended the Tour by proposing to his fiancée, Sydney, on the Champs Élysées.
This year, and now his Il Lombardia performance, has changed Simmon's career.
"He rode for 200km off the front, and he was incredibly strong on the Ganda despite being tired. His performance will make us reflect and rethink things," directeur sportif Maxime Monfort explained to BiciPro.
"He told us that he couldn't perform on climbs longer than ten minutes, but we saw what he could do on 30-minute climbs.
"We often forget that Quinn is still young and still developing. He seems like a 28-year-old veteran, but he's still got room to improve. We have to carefully plan his race calendar for the future. Now we know he can do well in races like Lombardia or Liège-Bastogne-Liège."
