For American champion Quinn Simmons, the X-Factor is important. This is what the striking Lidl-Trek rider tells in the Alpecin Barbershop, which WielerFlits visits at various races, offering a haircut to everyone from the peloton. In the autumn edition of RIDE Magazine, there is a large interview with Simmons from the Alpecin Barbershop.
Simmons sees the presence of the barbershop, for example at the start of the Tour de France, as a nice initiative. “For me, it’s important to also have a personality in the peloton. To radiate something. Sport is also a show. We need to realize that we are the entertainers in that show. Look at a champion like Peter Sagan. There is no doubt he was a great talent on the bike. But he also knew how to sell himself as a star.”
“Sagan is the reason I wanted to become a cyclist. I wanted to be a rider like him. Not just in terms of achievements, but also in terms of presence. In cycling, it sometimes seems like everyone is the perfect son-in-law. Doing everything right and striving to be the perfect professional. But you can also have a mix. Of course, the sporting aspect is the most important, but I think it’s not wrong if you can also give cycling a bit of a different face.”
He finds it important that as a cyclist you also develop a personality. “That you get stronger characters, just like in Formula 1. If you watch the press conferences during the Tour, you never get answers where, for example, Pogacar and Vingegaard challenge each other directly. Nine times out of ten, the answer is that they performed well thanks to the good work of the team. It’s often so unremarkable.”
Simmons is riding incredibly strong in this Tour. - photo: Cor Vos
Simmons regrets that the Netflix series about the Tour de France was not a success. Especially for cycling, because this was an opportunity to gain more ground in the United States. “I think they failed to give a good picture of the race. I only watched the first six episodes of the first year and felt they could have entertained the viewers much better.”
According to Simmons, the makers of this Netflix series tried too much to copy Drive to Survive from Formula 1. “The focus wasn’t really on the sport. On the details of cycling. I’m convinced that with a better vision, they could certainly have made a successful series here. It’s a shame, because for cycling this is definitely a missed opportunity.”
Read the full interview with Quinn Simmons in the latest edition of RIDE Magazine
