{"id":39733,"date":"2022-06-30T22:16:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T04:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/simmons-set-to-debut-in-tour-de-france\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:51:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:51:31","slug":"simmons-set-to-debut-in-tour-de-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/simmons-set-to-debut-in-tour-de-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Simmons set to debut in Tour de France"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Quinn
Quinn Simmons participates in the Tour de France's team presentation this week. Simmons will make his debut in the Tour on Friday, and will be the youngest competitor in this year\u2019s field. (Quinn Simmons\/Instagram)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durangoan Quinn Simmons will make his Tour de France debut this year with Trek Segafredo when the race starts Friday in Copenhagen, Denmark.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve waited my whole career for.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his most recent race, the Tour de Suisse, Simmons won the King of the Mountain title. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the plan, but once the opportunity was there, it was definitely something we wanted to maintain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Simmons grabbed the KOM points lead on the first stage of the race and never let it go.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main goal was preparing for this month, but it was nice to have something to aim for to keep a bit more motivation and win a small prize at the end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His performance there also cemented his place on Trek Segafredo\u2019s Tour de France roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole year, I knew if it went well, I\u2019d be going, but of course I had to prove myself, and that was the final check mark to make it happen,\u201d Simmons said.<\/p>\n

Simmons, who turned 21 on May 8, will also be the youngest cyclist in this year\u2019s Tour de France.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s also a cool accomplishment for me personally,\u201d Simmons said.<\/p>\n

American Kevin Vermarke of Team DSM is the only other cyclist who is 21, but is six months older than Simmons. Those two riders will be the first competitors in the Tour de France who were born in the 21st century.<\/p>\n

Five other cyclists from the USA also will race in this year\u2019s Tour, including fellow Durangoan Sepp Kuss (Jumbo Visma), Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), Matteo Jorgenson (Movistar Team), Joe Dombrowski (Astana Qazaqstan Team) and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost).<\/p>\n

France (32) and Belgium (18) will have the most cyclists in the field.<\/p>\n

Festivities began this week, including a team presentation in front of fans in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the race will begin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team presentation I feel was on a different level, but now we\u2019re trying to keep everything the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said his team will be going for yellow the first week and then after that, see how the race progresses.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s goal, \u201cis to see (Mads Pederson) in yellow for a few days, then we\u2019ll go stage hunting in the mountains,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be there and do what we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first week will be stressful because of wind and a tough early stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe focus will be to get through that safely,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cWe\u2019ll take it day by day and see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tadej Pagacar of UAE Team Emirates has won the past two Tours and is a favorite again this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will be hard for anyone to beat him,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cHe\u2019s just better than every one, and he\u2019s riding on a different level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Personally, Simmons said he wants to \u201cget through it well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRiding into Paris will be something,\u201d he said, referring to the Tour\u2019s final stage on July 24. \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for that a long time, and I\u2019m excited to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

21-year-old will be the youngest competitor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[657,28,2180],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cycling","tag-headlines","tag-road-cycling"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84425,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39733\/revisions\/84425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39733"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}