Quinn Simmons is expected to return to racing with Lidl-Trek next week at the Vuelta a Burgos, August 5-9. The 2023 US pro road national champion has been absent since his crash at Strade Bianche five months ago.
The 23-year-old spent the last month in northern Utah preparing for a comeback to the pro peloton. He took to social media on July 31 to say he had booked his flights to race in Spain, and that coming through months of recovery was “already a win” because he was never sure he would race again this season.
“Trained. Fed. Motivated. All that’s left now is to see if I remember how to pin on a number [for Spain]. Thanks to LIdl-Trek medical and performance staff for taking care of me these months, we weren’t sure if I’d be back at all this season so to be getting on a plane tomorrow is already a win,” he posted to Instagram.
He called his time in the Park City area his “comeback camp”, where he spent time to “smack some fitness into the legs” on a road bike and mountain bike. Simmons captured some video of some of his six- and seven-hour efforts and included a screenshot from a fitness summary for one week that totalled 947km and 16,931 metres of elevation gain.
Along with mainly solo efforts in Utah the past few weeks, he also rode alongside Lidl-Trek teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart, who was on a separate training schedule in Utah. The Briton had made a comeback of his own from a fractured hip at last year’s Giro d’Italia. The two will ride together at the Vuelta a Burgos next week, Geoghegan Hart making his first appearance there since 2022 when he finished seventh overall. It will be a debut for Simmons at the five-day stage race.
Prior to the start of this season, Simmons signed a contract extension with Lidl-Trek to keep him on the US-based WorldTour squad through 2026. His early-season campaign began with nine race days in Australia, capped at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race by striking on a solo attack that lasted until the final kilometre and then settling for 15th position.
Simmons put a big target on Strade Bianche a month later, where he finished seventh in 2022 and 12th last year, and he was aggressive with several attacks. He crashed out with 74km to race. He did not line up back home in the US to defend his stars-and-stripes national jersey in May and did not make the Tour de France squad.
He was very disappointed not to compete at US Nationals, a race that he said “saved his career” a year ago. But it was the flashback to the 2023 Tour de France that had a bigger sting, a race where he crashed hard on stage 5, and continued to race through stage 8 but had to withdraw because of concussion symptoms, which lingered and kept him away from racing for two months.
“One year ago today I made probably the worst decision of my career and got back on the bike,” he noted on social in early July about continuing in the Tour with a neurologic injury. “Been a fight, but things are finally starting to look better. Hopefully a month of proper training to come and then back across the pond in August.”
Along with Geoghegan Hart and Simmons at the Vuelta a Burgos, the Lidl-Trek team should also include Bauke Mollema, Patrick Konrad, Pim Ronhaar, Sam Oomen and Jacopo Mosca.