Our very own Captain America sprinted from the breakaway to take a brilliant Stage 4 victory.
After helping Lidl-Trek deliver a strong performance in yesterday’s team time trial, Quinn Simmons carried his form into Stage 4 of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, producing a perfectly executed ride to take victory from the day’s breakaway.
The 12 rider move formed early in the 167km stage but never established a big advantage over the peloton. With Simmons represented in the move, the Team was able to settle into a defensive position behind while the breakaway worked together to maintain its lead over the rolling terrain.
As the kilometers ticked down, so too did the gap to the peloton. With 20km to go and the gap sitting just inside 40 seconds, it didn’t look likely that the break would survive. Constant cooperation and a healthy tailwind meant it came down to the wire, with the breakaway seeing off the peloton by a handful of seconds. Backed by the confidence gained from the team’s impressive ride in the time trial the day before, Simmons timed his effort to perfection, launching a powerful sprint to surge clear and secure the win.
With a stage victory now secured and confidence running high throughout the squad, we look to carry this momentum into the remaining stages, as the race heads towards the high mountains.
From Quinn...
It was a big fight for the breakaway today and I really believed there was an opportunity, but then when the bunch only gives us like 2 minutes max, I was actually a bit in a bad mood and in my head, I thought it was just going to be a hard training, but yeah, we come and we hit the tail wind and it was a super strong group and luckily we didn't play any games. Everyone worked well together and I think we need to all give each other credit for fully committing and making sure one of us won.
I think it's pretty special when a break actually goes like this and everyone respects that we're all super strong and we just have to beat the peloton, racing like this is super fun. I mean, it's a dream for any breakaway rider and to just hold off the peloton and it's my 1st sprint I ever won, so that's also kind of cool.
(Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
