Analysis
'36 Minutes at 430W' Quinn Simmons' mind-blowing ride to Tour de Suisse stage win
If you ain't first, you're last. That’s the Strava bio of Quinn Simmons (Lidl - Trek), newly crowned U.S. national champion - a title he also claimed two years ago. After a near win in stage 2, he proved he still had plenty of gas left in the tank.
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Cor Vos
The very next day, he delivered. Simmons took a spectacular solo victory on stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse, attacking from the early breakaway. What makes this victory even more special is that he was able to honour Gino Mäder, who tragically died in this race two years ago.
Let's dive into the watts behind this remarkable performance.
Joining the break
To join the break, Simmons put out a massive 5-minute 20-second effort at 515 watts. What makes it even more impressive is how irregular that effort was - it’s much harder to produce big numbers like that without a steady rhythm. After that, the breakaway group (Van Moer, Walker, Verstrynge, Battistella, Peters and of course Simmons) worked together smoothly, aiming to build a big gap on the peloton ahead of the brutal final. Simmons averaged 300 watts for four hours. All of this already made for a very tough day, but the real work hadn’t even started yet.
Dropping his companions and staying away
On the first climb of the finale, Knolhusen, Simmons put out 483 watts for 11 minutes and 25 seconds, dropping his breakaway companions with this powerful effort.
After a short descent, the next climb followed - Büriswilen: 500 watts for 5 minutes. This effort was immediately followed by a flat section at 413 watts for 7 minutes. Combine those two efforts and you get 443 watts over 12 minutes.
With barely any rest, the final climb followed: 483 watts for 6 minutes and 30 seconds (missing the last 300 metres due to Strava privacy settings).
Put the entire finale together and you get a 430-watt effort for 36 minutes and 30 seconds. An insane performance, a lovely victory, and a beautiful tribute to Gino Mäder.
