Remco Evenepoel

[therealthing]

What? This 18 year old kid is already a full blown alien.

He has won pretty much everything he entered this year and has just won the Junior ITT by a huge margin.

He is already going to Quickstep next year- as we know a very dirty team where he will probably produce some nuclear performances.

Anyone else highly suspicious?

 

[Red Rick]

Obviously talented.

But yeah I'm not assuming anything is cleanz here

 

[Akuryo]

All 3 GTs in 2020 ... maybe a few monuments, cause 63 race days is not enough.

 

[May0maniac]

He looks like a huge talent, reminds me a bit of the stories that you hear about Frank VdB as a kid, and while his performances are a bit crazy there isn't a lot to say about him right now.
The Belgian cycling federation doesn't even know how to spell anti-doping (Besides the Femke motor thing, who was the last guy that got caught by them for actual doping?) but that's a topic for another debate...

 

[Robert5091]

I assume Patrick Evenepoel https://www.cyclingranking.com/rider/5997/patrick-evenepoel is his father.

 

[MartinGT]

So whenever a new talent wins a race now we're going to have a new thread?

 

[glassmoon]

So whenever a new talent wins a race now we're going to have a new thread?

How about winning 34 of 44 races in the past 18 months? Is it enough?

 

[King Boonen]

So whenever a new talent wins a race now we're going to have a new thread?

Most likely yes. Pretty depressing isn't it?

 

[Flamin]

Great, informative insight in Evenepoel's doping program.


lolz

 

[Echoes]

I assume Patrick Evenepoel https://www.cyclingranking.com/rider/5997/patrick-evenepoel is his father.

What are you implying? Patrick Evenepoel was most probably clean and was robbed by EPO dopers like so many Belgian riders at that time. As an amateur rider he could drop Bartoli or Bugno. As a pro he had to retire after three years due to heart problems (advised by Pr. Brugada who also advised Vansummeren to stop) and his greatest win remains the GP Wallonia in 1993.

 

[rick james]

So whenever a new talent wins a race now we're going to have a new thread?

Aye

 

[Red Rick]

So whenever a new talent wins a race now we're going to have a new thread?

He's a ridiculous outlier. If we can't be suspicious of outliers then we might as well stop pretending we care.

 

[Pippo_San]

I want him in Cofidis. Then he can go full VdB route. Oh wait.

 

[King Boonen]

So whenever a new talent wins a race now we're going to have a new thread?

He's a ridiculous outlier. If we can't be suspicious of outliers then we might as well stop pretending we care.

Is he? I don't follow junior riding at all but I wouldn't be surprised to see other junior riders at least coming close to his level, the distribution at that age is more likely to be larger.

 

[rghysens]

So whenever a new talent wins a race now we're going to have a new thread?

He's a ridiculous outlier. If we can't be suspicious of outliers then we might as well stop pretending we care.

Is he? I don't follow junior riding at all but I wouldn't be surprised to see other junior riders at least coming close to his level, the distribution at that age is more likely to be larger.

The difference between him and nr. 2 was bigger than that between nr. 2 and nr.13, while he eased off in the final straight. He won the european chamionships with a solo from the 3rd of 11 laps and won with almost 10 minutes. In addition to that he has about 30 other victories, often with minutes in front. That's what I call an outlier.

But, there was an interesting article with Thomas de Gendt yesterday in a Belgian newspaper, who said that he won 20 times a year in the novices category, often with minutes, but he didn't turn into the next Merckx (although he has his day from time to time). Of course novices ain't juniors, but juniors ain't pros either.
For now, I'm in doubt.

 

[King Boonen]

So whenever a new talent wins a race now we're going to have a new thread?

He's a ridiculous outlier. If we can't be suspicious of outliers then we might as well stop pretending we care.

Is he? I don't follow junior riding at all but I wouldn't be surprised to see other junior riders at least coming close to his level, the distribution at that age is more likely to be larger.

The difference between him and nr. 2 was bigger than that between nr. 2 and nr.13, while he eased off in the final straight. He won the european chamionships with a solo from the 3rd of 11 laps and won with almost 10 minutes. In addition to that he has about 30 other victories, often with minutes in front. That's what I call an outlier.

But, there was an interesting article with Thomas de Gendt yesterday in a Belgian newspaper, who said that he won 20 times a year in the novices category, often with minutes, but he didn't turn into the next Merckx (although he has his day from time to time). Of course novices ain't juniors, but juniors ain't pros either.
For now, I'm in doubt.

Your second paragraph was what I was getting at. I'm not interested in if he is an outlier among his current peers, I want to know if other riders have shown the same success in the junior ranks.

 

[Bolder]

To put this into perspective, Rohan Dennis destroyed the pro mens' field by roughly the same margin as did Evanepoel, including a sound thumping of Dumoulin by well over a minute. Granted it was a longer distance but seen in that context what Evanepoel was either not abnormal, or completely normal, depending on your degree of cynicism.

For the record, as of right now, I don't think it's quite fair to cast suspicion on RE. At his age level, there are huge differences in physical maturity. 5-10 years from now, we'll know more about where he stands. But at least we'll be able to say that he was good from the beginning!

 

[yaco]

So whenever a new talent wins a race now we're going to have a new thread?

He's a ridiculous outlier. If we can't be suspicious of outliers then we might as well stop pretending we care.

Is he? I don't follow junior riding at all but I wouldn't be surprised to see other junior riders at least coming close to his level, the distribution at that age is more likely to be larger.

The difference between him and nr. 2 was bigger than that between nr. 2 and nr.13, while he eased off in the final straight. He won the european chamionships with a solo from the 3rd of 11 laps and won with almost 10 minutes. In addition to that he has about 30 other victories, often with minutes in front. That's what I call an outlier.

But, there was an interesting article with Thomas de Gendt yesterday in a Belgian newspaper, who said that he won 20 times a year in the novices category, often with minutes, but he didn't turn into the next Merckx (although he has his day from time to time). Of course novices ain't juniors, but juniors ain't pros either.
For now, I'm in doubt.

Except rider no 2 is one year younger than Evenepoel.

 

[therealthing]

Re:

To put this into perspective, Rohan Dennis destroyed the pro mens' field by roughly the same margin as did Evanepoel, including a sound thumping of Dumoulin by well over a minute. Granted it was a longer distance but seen in that context what Evanepoel was either not abnormal, or completely normal, depending on your degree of cynicism.

For the record, as of right now, I don't think it's quite fair to cast suspicion on RE. At his age level, there are huge differences in physical maturity. 5-10 years from now, we'll know more about where he stands. But at least we'll be able to say that he was good from the beginning!

I wouldn't question him if he hadn't won almost every race he entered.

Also r.e. Dennis- insane performance and I'm surprised there isn't a thread on him.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

why would there be a thread about Dennis? He beat a clearly sub-par Dumoulin who did 2 full on GT's as leader and still managed 2nd with bad legs. Ofcourse a well prepared champion like Dennis crushed him.
The question is why didn't the rest of the field

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Starting to be literally unbelievable unfortunately.

 

[Baldinger]

This is too good to be true. Simple as that.

 

[zlev11]

those old Specialized Tarmacs can REALLY go, huh?

 

[samhocking]

Need to wait until he's 23-35 in my opinion because that's when your brain and body physiology stops developing and plateaus. He might just be a bit of a freak in that he has little more development still to happen and others will catch up over next few years. It's like at school, when there's always the 6 foot 13 year old with stubble kind of thing.

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

Need to wait until he's 23-35 in my opinion because that's when your brain and body physiology stops developing and plateaus. He might just be a bit of a freak in that he has little more development still to happen and others will catch up over next few years. It's like at school, when there's always the 6 foot 13 year old with stubble kind of thing.

That was me. I'm still 6 foot but my beard game is much stronger.