Bicycle Racing News and Opinion,
Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary | Our YouTube page
2024 Tour de France | 2024 Giro d'Italia
Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe. - Frank Zappa
Les Woodland's book The Olympics' 50 Craziest Stories: A Five Ring Circus is available in print, Kindle eBook & audiobook versions. To get your copy, just click on the Amazon link on the right.
Current racing:
- June 15 - 22: Tour de Suisse
- June 18 - 22: Baloise Belgium Tour
Upcoming racing:
- June 21 - 29: Most national road championships
- June 24: Giro dell'Appenino
- July 2 - 7: Tour of Austria
- July 5 - 27: Tour de France
Latest completed racing:
- June 8 - 15: Critérium du Dauphiné
- June 13: GP Kanton Aargau
- June 8: Brussels Cycling Classic
- May 9 - June 1: Giro d'Italia
- May 29 - June 1: Tour of Norway
- May 14 - 18: 4 Jours de Dunkerque
- May 18: Rund um Köln
- May 13: Classique Dunkerque
- May 11: Tro-Bro Léon
- May 10: GP du Morbihan
- May 9: Tour du Finistère
We posted the report from third-place Oscar Onley's Team Picnic-PostNL with the results.
Here's the report from stage winner Quinn Simmons' Team Lidl-Trek:
Quinn Simmons secures a remarkable solo victory on Stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse, celebrating his first win in the stars and stripes jersey
Quinn’s win was a tactical and emotionally charged masterpiece. After being disappointed with his fourth place on yesterday’s stage 2, Quinn wanted revenge today. A six-rider breakaway formed early in the stage and it was clear that he was among the strongest riders in the move. The group worked well together, establishing a gap on the peloton, which was content to let them dangle for most of the day, always keeping the time-gap low.With 20km to go, Simmons attacked solo from the breakaway. His acceleration was sharp and committed, and he quickly opened a gap.
Simmons powered through the undulating terrain alone, using his time-trialing strength and descending skills to hold a 30-second advantage. The peloton organized a chase behind, but they couldn’t reel him in. He crossed the line flying like an eagle, punching the air and pointing to the sky in tribute to the late Gino Mäder.
Quinn Simmons solos across the line. Sirotti photo
Quinn -
"The motivation was super high today. I really wanted to win yesterday, on the two-year anniversary when we lost Gino. It’s really hard being here for me and seeing his mom at the start. Now I can pay my tribute, and for sure, I had extra motivation for today.
"The first part of the celebration was for me - the eagle - in my new US national champion jersey. The last time I was in this jersey I didn't win a race and I had a terrible season. It was a huge motivation to win in the American champion jersey. The final celebration was to say that I dedicate this to Gino. To win a WorldTour race in this US champion jersey is for sure up there (amongst top wins)"
Here's the report from second-place Joao Almeida's UAE Team Emirates-XRG:
João Almeida delivered a strong performance today at the Tour de Suisse, clinching second place on Stage 3. The 195.6-kilometer race from Aarau to Heiden featured rolling hills and a challenging finish, providing an ideal platform for Almeida to showcase his punchy finishing prowess.
Despite a late surge by Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), who had formed part of the days’ main breakaway, Almeida managed to secure second place in a reduced sprint finish, just ahead of Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).
Joao Almeida finishes second, just ahead of Oscar Onley. Sirotti photo
Almeida: “It was a super fast today. It was quite hard and I decided to give it a try, I guess six seconds in three minutes is not much, but yeah, I gave my best. The team worked really good. So yeah, one less day in the books. I’m looking forward to the days ahead to try and take back more time in the GC though I know it will be difficult. We’ll do our best.”
Jan Christen was aggressive throughout the final half of the stage, igniting the peloton with his trademark attacks. The elastic never broke in the front group which allowed Simmons to build his slight advantage as the kilometres ticked by.
The form shown by Christen is positive following his crash on stage 1, as the local youngster seeks to impress on home soil.
Meanwhile, Felix Grossschartner finished in the main group to keep his high placing on GC, with the Austrian still sitting in 6th place at 1’18” heading into stage 4 from Heiden to Piuro (193.2km). Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) continues to wear the leaders jersey.
Content continues below the ads
GC leader Romain Grégoire's Team Groupama-FDJ posted this report:
Another day in yellow done and dusted! At the end of the third stage of the Tour de Suisse, during which his teammates worked hard on Tuesday, Romain Grégoire took fourth place, eighteen seconds behind the sole survivor of the breakaway, Quinn Simmons. Never in trouble in the hilly final to Heiden, the race leader secured his jersey, which he will attempt to defend on Wednesday on the climb of Splügenpass, at an altitude of over 2,000 meters.
The third stage of the Tour de Suisse was both a first test for the race leader Romain Grégoire, but also a goal in its own right. Having initially come to Switzerland to chase stage wins, the young Frenchman was really keen to give it a go in the day’s last thirty hilly kilometres. That’s why, despite a six-man breakaway that wasn’t threatening on GC, his teammates took the lead after just five kilometres of the 195-kilometer stage route.
“This breakaway couldn’t be taken lightly with the stage win in mind,” William Green explained. “We pulled immediately to maintain a small gap, but at one point, they almost stopped in front. There was a counterattack in the peloton, which caused a bit of stress, but we managed to control the situation with Stefan. Eddy did a very good job during the first 90 kilometres, then Olivier took over when we reached more hilly terrain. The goal was then to close the gap on the breakaway before the technical descent with thirty-five kilometres to go. When we saw that the gap wasn’t decreasing, we asked Stefan to pull, even though we would have liked to keep him for the final.”
Thanks in particular to the work of the local rider, the gap first got under two minutes, then even under a minute approaching the descent leading to the hilly final. At the foot of the first of the three last climbs, the breakaway had a lead of only twenty seconds, but Quinn Simmons went on his own and the peloton lost ground. On the following climb, Romain Grégoire followed the attacks for the first time, but the lack of organization in the peloton allowed the American champion to maintain a significant margin.
Starting the last three, uphill kilometres, Simmons still had a thirty-second lead, which proved to be more than enough to secure victory. A few hundred metres further down, Romain Grégoire responded perfectly to the last attacks before claiming fourth place on the day, meaning third among the favorites. “The peloton was still quite large on the last climb, there were teammates from other teams, so the goal was to be patient and wait for the sprint,” said William. “There were several corners in the last 600 metres, and the plan was to go quite early, like Romain did. He just ran out of legs in the last 50 metres, but it’s not too bad after the last few days in yellow.”
Romain Grégoire finished fourth, retaining the GC lead. Sirotti photo
Eighteen seconds behind Simmons, Romain Grégoire nonetheless proved to be among the strongest. “It was still a difficult day,” he said. “We really tried to control the day to fight for the stage with the team, and I’m a little disappointed not to thank them and reward them with a victory. That said, I was beaten by two stronger riders in the peloton and by a rider who put on a show at the front, so I have no regrets.” “We took our responsibilities for the general classification and also for the stage,” added William. “Every rider on the team gave 100%. In the end, we came up short, as did other teams. That’s racing, but we did everything we could to race for the win today.”
On the other hand, the Groupama-FDJ leader comfortably retained his yellow jersey, and still has a 25-second gap before the first major climb on Wednesday. “Since the start, every stage has been exciting, and the terrain will be different again tomorrow,” said William. “There will be a long flat period before quite a challenging climb and then a very long descent. Romain is certainly in a position to go over this climb and hopefully sprint from a reduced group.” “I’m expecting a tough day, because I think they’ll try to make up time on me tomorrow”, Romain added. “We’ll have to be strong.”
Here's the Swiss Tour report from Team INEOS Grenadiers:
Geraint Thomas was able to re-mount and finish stage three at the Tour de Suisse following a crash with 60 kilometres to go.
The Welshman went down following a bottleneck into a tight left-hand corner. After some initial assessment the INEO Grenadier was able to get back on the bike and, with the help of his teammates, forge on back towards the peloton.
AJ August, Bob Jungels and Lucas Hamilton put in superb shifts to help bridge Thomas back to the bunch. This coincided with the day's final major climb, which saw the peloton quickly blow apart.
Geraint Thomas gets his bike before the stage start. Sirotti photo
Victor Langellotti led the team home into Heiden in 11th place and is also now the team's best-placed rider on the GC. Earlier Ben Swift and Laurens De Plus followed a flurry of initial moves before the day's break ultimately formed.
American Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) took an impressive solo victory on the day, while Romain Gregoire (Groupama-FDJ) retained the overall lead.
Content continues below the ads
Team Soudal Quick-Step posted this Swiss Tour report:
Everything pointed to a fight between the pre-race favourites at the end of the third stage, but the breakaway prevailed for the second time in three days, despite the fact that at one point, with just 20 kilometers to go, the last survivor of the day’s move had only eleven seconds ahead of the chasers.
Stage three gets rolling under blue skies. Sirotti photo
The punchy finish in Heiden, where the race returned after eleven years, was a good chance for the GC men to make up ground in the standings following Sunday’s awkward stage that ended up complicated things, but they were left to fight for the minor places on the podium after Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) managed to hold off the peloton and take the victory.
Ilan Van Wilder was very active in the closing part of the stage, as the Belgian tried several times to go on attack, at first alone and then with a small group, but the bunch came back and kept things together. Eventually, he concluded as the first Soudal Quick-Step rider in the standings and made a jump of four places in the rankings.
And here's the Tour of Switzerland stage three report from Team Visma | Lease a Bike:
The third stage of the Tour de Suisse once again caused Team Visma | Lease a Bike few problems. The Dutch formation was present in a tricky finale and finished with Tiesj Benoot, Bart Lemmen and Tijmen Graat in the group of favorites. Lemmen thus maintained his third place in the general classification.
In the third stage of the Swiss stage race the riders were presented with a hilly course. The men from Team Visma | Lease a Bike took care of Lemmen and made sure the Dutchman stayed out of trouble. Quinn Simmons proved to be the strongest of a six-rider breakaway and was able to put his hands in the air after just under 200 kilometers.
“It was a difficult day, but we got through it well,” sports director Maarten Wynants said. "Our plan was to be in the breakaway and from there compete for the win. Unfortunately that didn't work out. Moreover, we lost Menno along the way. He is still struggling with the after-effects of a fall in Dunkerque. We didn't want to take any risks with him."
Wynants is proud of the fighting spirit the team showed. "We wanted to defend Bart's third place, and we succeeded. Moreover, in the final we were nicely in it with the three of us. Tijmen is showing nice progress and did a good job of supporting the team. That he was still there is very nice." Tomorrow Wynants expects a special ride. "It will be a battle to get in the breakaway. We are going to do our best for a nice result."
Content continues below the ads
Here’s the team’s post:
Stevie Williams, winner of Flèche Wallonne, the Tour Down Under, and the Tour of Britain in 2024, has today released an update for his fans.
“Hi everyone,
“The 2025 season hasn’t gone to plan, so I want to share a bit of an update about why I haven’t been racing. Since the start of my season in Australia, I’ve had an issue with my right knee, a quadriceps tendinopathy, which is very tricky to manage, and it hasn’t resolved. I was able to come back for Giro d’Abruzzo and the Ardennes, but since then, things still aren’t completely right. Unfortunately, this means I won’t be able to race the National Championships in Wales or the Tour De France. I’m gutted to miss them, especially racing Nationals in front of a home crowd.
Stevie Williams signing in at the 2025 Tour Down Under. Sirotti photo
“But I’m working really hard to get back to full fitness with the support of the team, and I hope I’ll be back on the start line soon. As a cyclist, the only thing you want to do is race, so this season has been incredibly frustrating, but I know that these things can’t be rushed. A big thanks to everyone in the team, and the support of great people externally. I hope to be back soon.”
Back to news and opinion index page for links to archived stories | Commentary