There are a handful of options for who the best rider of the first 11 days of this Tour de France is. There's Ben Healy, stage winner, in the yellow jersey; Tadej Pogačar, two-time stage winner, the next best on general classification; Mathieu van der Poel, stage winner, yellow jersey holder, and relentless attacker; Tim Merlier, two-time stage winner; and even Jonas Vingegaard, who has lost time, but is very much on the front foot.
Then there's Quinn Simmons. Lidl-Trek's US champion is hardly inconspicuous, with his long hair, handlebar moustache and stars and stripes kit, but the 24-year-old has been on the attack as often as he can: second on stage six to Vire Normandie, won by Healy, and in the break for 150km the day the same man took yellow on Le Mont-Dore on Sunday.
Pre-Tour he had called for his fellow bike riders to be more entertaining, and he has certainly been true to his word.
With 64km to go on Wednesday's stage, Simmons attacked again, joined in an elite chasing move from the peloton with Alpecin-Deceuninck's Van der Poel, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) and Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers).
"To sneak away from that group, with four of the best one-day racers here... My salary misses one 0 from all of those guys," the American explained post-stage. "It's a crazy experience to be racing with them at the Tour."
It wasn't the first time that Simmons had been at the front of the race on stage 11, and was proof of his indefatigable attitude at this Tour.
"Today I was about 50/50 in the morning," he said. "I wouldn't jump so much and see what Van der Poel does, because we thought maybe they'd control or maybe for the break. I think he saw we tried in a nice group, also with Wout. It never went, so I sat back and watched the racing, and at some point the race was over, half the bunch stopped to pee, so the race started again.
"It was crazy, 15km just to get back to the front, and you realise you're there with the yellow jersey, Pogačar, Jonas, all these real hitters."
Simmons then attacked from the chase on the penultimate climb, lighting the move that would eventually see Van der Poel finish third, almost catching the final escapees, Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility) and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla); the former won.
"I took a big risk, but I've already been second here," Simmons said. "This was only the chance I had to make it, you saw the way Van der Poel came past me on that wall. He's the best rider in the world at this, my little engine doesn't stand a chance.
"We all know how it is at the Tour, the front group has a slight advantage always. Those who are brave get an opportunity here. For those guys to stay there all day, it's amazing."
Despite more disappointment, Simmons was not left bereft at the result: "Of course I would like to win the bike race, but look at who I'm out there playing with. I worked quite hard this winter and this off-season to install a V8, unfortunately at the Tour you need a V12. Those are the best guys in the world, I'm with them now, and maybe it's next year, maybe it's the year after. I'm in a good way to play with them in big races."
It is not the end of the American at this race, either. "Last time I checked we still have 10 stages left," Simmons said. "There are still chances for the breakaway left, even a stage like Paris maybe. If I can go a few days in the mountains with Skjelly [Mathias Skjelmose] just to be there to support him. Unless my legs imploded, you're not done seeing me here."
