Sporting long fiery hair, a handlebar moustache and multicoloured sunglasses, American champion Quinn Simmons instantly stands out at the Tour de France.
But the Lidl-Trek rider believes that he and his colleagues in the peloton must do more to grow the sport and elevate their own profiles and celebrity status.
“I grew up with American sports, and you’re used to these hockey players who are true sports stars,” the 24-year-old said ahead of his third Tour.
“And then in F1 you watch these press conferences that they give, and they have personality. Maybe sometimes it’s a bit of a show, maybe sometimes it’s real, but I think we kind of lack that.
“We have guys winning a Classic and they sit there and say, ‘Yeah the legs were good, eh, thanks to the team’. Like, that’s boring for the 15-year-old kid watching at home. It was [Peter] Sagan who made me want to be a bike racer.”
Highlighting the gulf in wages between American sportspeople and a professional cyclist – the current average salary in the men’s WorldTour is just north of €500,000, but the median is around €300,000 – Simmons continued: “I think if you want to talk about the whole model of the sport, it’s a bit messed up that we don’t know make these big salaries with the amount of people who watch it. But some of that is on us that we’re not enough of an entertainer.”
Simmons is one of five riders from the United States competing in the Tour this July, with he and Neilson Powless of EF Education-EasyPost representing the best chances of victories from the breakaway. Matteo Jorgenson and Sepp Kuss are part of Visma-Lease a Bike’s GC train for Jonas Vingegaard. There’s also Will Barta at Movistar.
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Referring once again to his home country’s approach to sport, Simmons suggested that sometimes his compatriots feel like they can’t be their true selves in their adopted continent of Europe.
“I’m not European, and you see a lot of times American riders come and they think they have to pretend to be European,” he said. “We can stand here and fully respect the sport and all the other riders, but you don’t have to copy their appearance.”
Simmons comes into the Tour after his strongest start to the season yet, winning a stage in each of the Volta a Catalunya and most recently at the Tour de Suisse, with his second American road title sandwiched in between.
Asked if he’s an entertainer, he responded that first he had to become a regular winner. “I think what’s left for me is that I need to start winning big bike races,” he said.
“It’s not just enough to [act like an entertainer]… I think the American influence side of the sport takes the entertainment too far and forgets you need to perform first to win the bike race, then you can have a bit of style.
“For me the next step is performance based. First in sport, you need a performance, but let’s give the people something to watch.”
Simmons’s win in Suisse, courtesy of an attack 20km from the line, gave him belief that he could maybe take a victory in this year’s Tour.
“Suisse confirmed what I’ve always known I have in my legs,” he said. “I think they talk a lot about the power I did that day and everything, but I do this in training – I know I can do it, but I’ve never really shown it in a race.”
