In a familiar scenario, Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) claimed his third USA Pro Road National Championships title with a commanding solo attack from a select lead group with 29 kilometres remaining, holding off all chasers to the line.
After making his move at almost the same location on Wertz Avenue climb as last year, Simmons received advice from his support car, and crucially water on a hot day, as he continued to extend his lead. With six kilometres to go, Simmons called the support car driven by Tanner Putt once more, for a quick fist bump in celebration.
Crossing the line 2:04 behind, Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) claimed silver, holding off Larry Warbasse (Tudor) who was coming in hot.
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The 198.6km race was defined by a tactical battle between defending champion Simmons and the 12-strong Modern Adventure squad, who leveraged their numbers by launching rider after rider on the attack, forcing Simmons and others to repeatedly chase. Simmons countered with power in an attempt to shed his rivals.
“I think this year is definitely more difficult,” the back-to-back winner said on the FloBikes race broadcast. “Last year I was just coming off of a missing season with injuries, so hopefully a little bit more under the radar, and then today, I mean, it was 100 versus one, so I kind of just had to do it with the legs, and at times it was pretty frustrating.”
The outcome, however, quickly put that to rest, with Simmons relying on the accumulated fatigue among his rivals to make the difference.
“I knew, as long as I could make it to the point where everyone was tired, there was a good chance to get away,” said Simmons.
Newly crowned U23 road champion Ashlin Barry (Visma-Lease a Bike Development) was fourth, and Tyler Stites (Modern Adventure) took fifth.
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How it unfolded
The final race, the men’s elite road race, of the USA Pro Road Championships started off under sunny and warm conditions.
The 102 starters faced two laps of the 14.5km junior circuit, featuring the Wertz Avenue climb, before expanding to a 21km loop crossing to the far side of the river, where the Bridge Road climb was added for the remaining eight laps, for a total of 198.6 kilometres.
Attacks flew immediately from the start, with the 12-rider Modern Adventure squad in the middle of the action, initiating a three rider break. Under impetus of defending champion Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), the 47-second gap was shutdown in the third lap, creating a new 11-rider lead group. More riders came across the 19 seconds with the peloton closing behind, shutting down the move.
This scenario continued for most of the race, as the temperatures continued to inch up to close to 30 °C, riders were grabbing ice socks from team cars, soigneurs and anywhere they could find them.
Modern Adventure once again went on the attack, with Robin Carpenter and Cole Kessler taking off with 134 kilometres to go, building a gap of 1:56 with six laps to go.
A response came from strong group that included Simmons, Gavin Berry, Kevin Vermaerke (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Ashlin Barry (Visma-Lease a Bike Development), Garrett Beshore (Meridian Racing p/b de la Uz), Artem Schmidt (Netcompany Ineos), Eric Brunner (Project Echelon Racing).
Halfway though the race, Simmons accelerated again on the Bridge climb (2.1km at 5.5%), taking Vervaeke, Barry with him as they overtook Carpenter and Kessler. Sensing the danger, more riders made it across, once again reshuffling the front of the race.
Ian Lopez de San Roman was the next Modern Adventure rider to go on the attack, soon joined by his teammate Kieran Haug. The duo pushed their gap to one minute with 67 kilometres to go.
Simmons tried to motivate and organise the other riders in the reduced field led by Project Echelon.
Deja vu, as Simmons once again accelerated on the climb, joined by Barry, Larry Warbasse (Tudor), Taylor Stites (Modern Adventure) and Vermaerke, as they caught Lopez de San Roman and Haug.
The seven rider break build their gap to 30 seconds at the start of the penultimate lap. For the first time, Vermaerke came to the front to launch a few attacks, testing legs and trying to whittle down the group.
Simmons put in one final big attack up Wertz Avenue climb (2.3km at 5.5%) with 29 kilometres to go, and was off solo, building up a lead of 1:07 seconds as he started the final lap.
The chase group then turned their focus to the podium places, with Vermaerke attacking to go for second, but he came close to being overtaken by a charging Warbasse at the line.
