Quinn Simmons wins at the Villicum Autodrome.Sprintcycling
heat tour. 40 degrees and a sun cooking the stones. race tour. squad attacked. Excited. changing wind. 45 on average through the desert between volcanic sands along the endless straights of Route 40, Chimbas, which has a cycling team and the meaning of its name in Quechua, Pedregal, Pocito and its lush orchards, olive trees, vineyards and a peeled hill on which the The ashes of the 10,000 San Juan residents who died in the 1944 earthquake lie, and the cyclists fly like the wind.
As at the Tokyo Games, and Richard Carapaz remembers well, at Fuji; like Julian Alaphilippe’s World Cup at Imola, a finish on a new speed course, brand new asphalt and a new very good runner, long red hair, a wild beard, Quinn Simmons playing with the efforts of Remco Evenepoel and the world champion gets lost in the labyrinthine curves of the racetrack when he wants to impose his enormous speed on the stretched out peloton. Simmons, an American from Durango (Colorado), 21 years old, already junior world champion 2019, is not lost. You have studied the arrival on your trek. He has clear ideas. Jump at an intersection and surprise. Just over a kilometer to go. maintain speed. It even increases them. Accelerate, accelerate on a false plane that will make your legs scream, and silence will burn your lips and curses await. Simmons wins. The sprinters Richeze, who had the same idea as him but came up short, Sam Bennett, who remains the leader of the Tour of San Juan, Fernando Gaviria, who arrives late, die at the feet of a cyclist who before that became famous for his few wins even for the temporary suspension his team Trek gave him a few years ago for a tweet, an emoji, a palm, black, to say goodbye to a cycling commentator who said that who liked Donald Trump, better follow him. Since then, he hasn’t opened his mouth outside of pure cycling reactions.
The Argentinian race, which only big cyclists win this year, Bennett, Jakobsen, Simmons, will be decided in a high finish on Friday. I rest on Thursday. On Wednesday another stage between volcanoes and a long and extended climb to over 2,200 meters and desert before descending to Barreal and its Pampa del Leoncito, the trail of a dry lake of 14 by 5 kilometers, white and solid earth that dazzles , no bush and sailing chariot races.
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