- Quinn Simmons proposed to his girlfriend on the Champs-Élysées after the Tour de France.
- Tadej Pogačar of Slovenia won his fourth Tour de France in six years.
- Five Americans competed in the 112th edition of the world's most prestigious bike race.
Quinn Simmons rode 2,075 miles over the past three weeks in the Tour de France, which finished Sunday. And on the last day in Paris, he pulled off perhaps the biggest feat of his life: He proposed to his girlfriend on the Champs-Élysées.
With the Arc de Triomphe in the background, Simmons got down on one knee, took Sidney Berry with his left hand and presented her a ring with his right. She hugged him and he lifted her off the ground in a joyous embrace. The crowd behind the race barriers cheered.
The Durango, Colorado, native with the flowing blond hair and Fu Manchu was still in the rain-soaked stars-and-striped national champions jersey that earned him the nickname “Captain America” when he proposed.
Simmons told NBC Sports he’d been planning the surprise since being named to Lidl-Trek’s Tour de France team last December. “I knew I had an extra reason to get to Paris this year,” he said. Riding in his third Tour, Simmons finished the race in 2022 but didn’t make it to the end in 2023.
“Didn’t win a stage, but did win the game of life. Simmons +1,” he posted on Instagram.
The proposal capped off a great 2025 Tour for Simmons, who often put himself at the front of the peloton in breakaways and set up his teammate Jonathan Milan to win two sprint finishes. Milan earned the race’s green jersey as the top sprinter. Simmons finished 59th overall.
Who won the Tour de France?
The yellow jersey as the overall race winner went to Tadej Pogačar for the fourth time in six years, including the past two. Two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard, of Denmark, was expected to challenge Pogačar for the title, but the 26-year-old Slovenian seized control of the race early on, wearing out all of his competitors to the end.
Vingegaard finished 4 minutes, 24 seconds behind Pogačar in second place, while German Florian Lipowitz, riding in his first Tour, was 11 minutes back in third.
“Just speechless to win the Tour de France; this one feels especially amazing,” Pogačar said. “Just super proud that I can wear this yellow jersey.
“This was one of the hardest Tours I’ve ever been in.”
Pogačar and Vingegaard finished 1-2 for the fifth straight year.
“We’ve raised the level of each other much higher, and we push each other to the limit,” Pogačar said. “I must say to him, big, big respect.”
Americans in the Tour de France
While none of the five Americans in the race were contenders for the overall title, they worked hard as domestiques — riders who shield their team leader, set the pace and tempo and provide food and water bottles on the course. Here’s how they did:
Durango, Colorado, native Sepp Kuss was the top American with a 17th-place finish in the race, about 1 hour, 20 minutes behind Pogačar. Though he struggled at times early, he played a key support role to again get Visma-Lease a Bike teammate Vingegaard on the podium.
Matteo Jorgensen, also a member of Visma-Lease a Bike, was the next-highest-ranking American, finishing 19th overall, an hour-and-a-half behind the winner.
The rider out of Boise, Idaho, flirted with the top five in the early stages of the 21-day race but came down with bronchitis in the second week, limiting his well-known climbing prowess. He rebounded with strong rides in the latter stages, including a fifth-place finish on the final day in Paris.
“In the race, you have minutes where your airways are closed and you think ‘I can’t push at all,’” he told Velo. “You cough up some mucus and it’s clear, and you think you’re back to normal, but you’re never truly back to 100% capacity.
“It’s just been a case of staying present and seeing what I can do on each mountain and the rest is pretty much out of my control.”
Neilson Powless, of Roseville, California, set his sights to win a stage this year after coming close a couple of years ago. That didn’t happen, but his team has enjoyed a very successful race. His EF Education-Easypost teammate Irishman Ben Healy won stage six and then snagged the yellow jersey as the overall race leader for a couple of days.
Powless finished 47th overall while helping Healy crack the top 10.
“Tour #6 in the books," Powless posted on Instagram, marking the sixth time he has finished the race.
Tour de France rookie Will Barta, of Boise, Idaho, rode to 102nd place on the Spanish Movistar team among the 160 finishers in the race. (24 dropped out with various injuries or illness.)