From the Tour de France to MTB: Quinn Simmons returns to Leadville seven years after coming close to victory

Just three weeks after finishing the Tour de France, Quinn Simmons will swap the road for mountain biking. The American road champion will compete this Saturday, August 15, in the Leadville Trail 100 MTB, one of the major endurance events in the United States and a race in which he already finished second at just 18 years old.

Quinn Simmons returns to MTB after the Tour de France

The Lidl-Trek rider will arrive in Colorado after finishing the Tour de France in 18th place and being involved in numerous breakaways, finishing second in the stage that ended in Foix and being part of the team that won the team classification.

Now he will face a completely different challenge. Leadville, known as Race Across the Sky, exceeds 160 kilometers and is held permanently at high altitude, starting above 3,000 meters and reaching elevations over 3,600.

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A terrain that Simmons knows particularly well. The American grew up in Durango, Colorado, at about 2,000 meters above sea level, and he already knows what it means to fight for victory in this race.

His only participation was in 2019, when he was still 18 years old. Despite suffering a flat tire and finding himself more than ten minutes behind the leader before Columbine, he staged a huge comeback to finish second behind Howard Grotts and ahead of Lachlan Morton and Peter Stetina. Months later, he would be crowned junior road world champion and in 2020 he would make the leap to the WorldTour.

Keegan Swenson will be the rival to beat

Seven years later, Simmons will find a Leadville dominated by Keegan Swenson. The reigning world champion of XCM has won the last five editions and holds the record for the event with 5:43:31. A new victory would allow him to equal David Wiens' six wins.

The 2026 edition will also have some particularities. The Willow fire has forced a change in the route, which will be 102.1 miles, about 164 kilometers, and around 3,020 meters of total ascent. The modification eliminates the traditional out-and-back section through Powerline, although it keeps Columbine as one of the decisive points.

It will also be the first edition after Life Time has banned mountain bikes equipped with road handlebars, a configuration increasingly common in Leadville and with which Swenson won in 2024 and 2025.

Simmons will not be the only contender to challenge the great dominator. At the start line will be specialists like Alexey Vermeulen, Brendan Johnston, Simon Pellaud, Cole Paton, or John Gaston, as well as road cyclists like Lachlan Morton, Michael Woods, and Chad Haga.

For Simmons, it will be his first Leadville since that surprising second place in 2019. This time he returns as a three-time champion of the United States and directly from the Tour de France.