Teams & Riders The Remco Evenepoel is the next Eddy Merckx thread

[Logic-is-your-friend]

lol, that video is funny is for many reasons. That has to be some of the worst English uttered by Flemish people in the history of bad English.
Some juvenile questions (not sure if all of them were tongue in cheeck, but some were):
"And if you are 5 minutes into the test, do you think of me as the world hour record holder, or as your best friend... or just as an àsshole."
"You mean you don't think if Rik was in the shape of his life, he would be able to follow the full 20 minutes? Or is that a tricky question to answer?"
"How much faster do you think Remco would have been on this parcours?"

Haha, damn.

 

[Rik Van Looy]

Turns out beating Timmers his time was not even a challenge, since some of the women have been beating that time. Only one man did worse than that time. As a result, Remco's effort turned out to be not impressive at all and is only 14th out of 19. Best overall time for the moment is for Greg Van Avermaet.

Most impressive performances are for 17 year old Thibau Nys, who simply smashed the 1500m running test, almost running the entire thing on the maximum speed setting (22km/u) and beating olympic medallists 400m relay, and putting his teammate Toon Aerts (supposedly a good runner in CX) at 30seconds. I was flabbergasted. Another eye-opening performance was by Bart Swings, ice-skater and former inline-skater Olympic champion... who managed to beat all the cyclists' times on the 3km cycling test. Faster than De Gendt, Lampaert, Campenaerts, Evenepoel, Naesen, Van Avermaet... Damn, maybe he should consider changing disciplines again.

Still to come next week: two lesser knows cyclists, i think their names were Wout van der Poel and Mathieu van Aert. Never heard of 'm.

In het Nieuwsblad Remco gave an explanation on why he did badly a this test (+ also the virtual races). He will no longer participate at the virtual races. For the first time ever he achieved such high wattages during tests and nonetheless he got beaten. Remco saw some cyclist achieve 8 watt/kg during those virtual races and he is convinced that they are not competing under the same conditions. He can't wait to compete in "real life". What was also obvious is that he goes to the Giro to win that event, not to learn or to ...

In an Gazetta dello Sport article journalists were warning people not to look at the age of Remco. They see Remco as a favorite to win the Giro.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

In het Nieuwsblad Remco gave an explanation on why he did badly a this test (+ also the virtual races). He will no longer participate at the virtual races. For the first time ever he achieved such high wattages during tests and nonetheless he got beaten. Remco saw some cyclist achieve 8 watt/kg during those virtual races and he is convinced that they are not competing under the same conditions. He can't wait to compete in "real life". What was also obvious is that he goes to the Giro to win that event, not to learn or to ...

In an Gazetta dello Sport article journalists were warning people not to look at the age of Remco. They see Remco as a favorite to win the Giro.

Well, in the Container Cup, everybody rode the same machine, so there is no doubt the conditions were the same. Of course, in this case, it's merely a pure wattage exercise and him being a light guy, he would always be in a disadvantage compared to big guys like Lampaert or Naesen, 10 or 15kg heavier than Remco, without weight and cda having any effect.

Do you have a link, scan or transcript of what was said in HNB and Gazzetta dello Sport regarding him trying to win the Giro?

 

[hayneplane]

I think we have enough evidence now to conclude that there is very little crossover relevance from virtual racing to the real peloton and that we (myself included) should stop trying to deduce any form lines from them and just enjoy them as a bit of entertainment in the absence of road cycling.

 

[Rik Van Looy]

Evenepoel, la testa al Giro e il colore dei sogni: “Per me è il rosa”

Con un post sui social il 20enne fenomeno belga della Deceuninck-Quick Step fa capire come al centro dei sui pensieri ci sia sempre il Giro d’Italia. Valverde: Strade Bianche e Sanremoâ

www.gazzetta.it

 

[Rik Van Looy]

Evenepoel, la testa al Giro e il colore dei sogni: “Per me è il rosa”

Con un post sui social il 20enne fenomeno belga della Deceuninck-Quick Step fa capire come al centro dei sui pensieri ci sia sempre il Giro d’Italia. Valverde: Strade Bianche e Sanremoâ

www.gazzetta.it

Het Nieuwsblad (Saturday 16/05/2020) page 6, 7 and 8.

He misses the competition.
He wanted to win the prologue (or at least distance already his main competitors for the general classification). He hopes that the prologue still goes through (3 days less in total). The team is now trying to find out if there will be a prologue (In Sicily instead of Hungary).
He would have liked to ride LBL as well, but this is impossible, because he wants to find out how it feels to go for a win in a grand tour (Drie weken koersen om mee te doen voor de eindzege).
He finds it ridiculous that the Belgian championship takes place on 22/09.
He would like to ride the worlds in Switzerland instead of Qatar. It was one of his main goals.
He talks about who could be the second Belgian rider for the TT at the olympics.
He gives an explanation why he did so badly at the container cup (for his running and cycling result).
He gives an explanation why he did so badly at the virtual races. The best cyclists used Elite and it seems that they had an advantage. (Greg Van Avermaet reed in de Ronde van Vlaanderen direct twee minuten weg van mij. Raar, want ik trapte, net zoals in de Digital Swiss Five, mijn beste wattages van het seizoen).(In de Digital Swiss Five reed Pierre Latour op het vlakke een hele tijd 7 of 8 watt per kg. In een officiële competitie kan dat niet).
He responds to criticism with regards to his challenges (50 times de Muur, ...).
He responds to the criticism by Eddy Merckx (Evenepoel lijkt soms te denken dat hij er al is, maar hij moet nog veel boterhammen eten). According to Remco Eddy has the right to utter these words (just look at his palmares) . It does not really bother him too much. Remco thinks he is doing a good job and the team is satisfied with what he has already achieved.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Het Nieuwsblad (Saturday 16/05/2020) page 6, 7 and 8.

He misses the competition.
He wanted to win the prologue (or at least distance already his main competitors for the general classification). He hopes that the prologue still goes through (3 days less in total). The team is now trying to find out if there will be a prologue (In Sicily instead of Hungary).
He would have liked to ride LBL as well, but this is impossible, because he wants to find out how it feels to go for a win in a grand tour (Drie weken koersen om mee te doen voor de eindzege).
He finds it ridiculous that the Belgian championship takes place on 22/09.
He would like to ride the worlds in Switzerland instead of Qatar. It was one of his main goals.
He talks about who could be the second Belgian rider for the TT at the olympics.
He gives an explanation why he did so badly at the container cup (for his running and cycling result).
He gives an explanation why he did so badly at the virtual races. The best cyclists used Elite and it seems that they had an advantage. (Greg Van Avermaet reed in de Ronde van Vlaanderen direct twee minuten weg van mij. Raar, want ik trapte, net zoals in de Digital Swiss Five, mijn beste wattages van het seizoen).(In de Digital Swiss Five reed Pierre Latour op het vlakke een hele tijd 7 of 8 watt per kg. In een officiële competitie kan dat niet).
He responds to criticism with regards to his challenges (50 times de Muur, ...).
He responds to the criticism by Eddy Merckx (Evenepoel lijkt soms te denken dat hij er al is, maar hij moet nog veel boterhammen eten). According to Remco Eddy has the right to utter these words (just look at his palmares) . It does not really bother him too much. Remco thinks he is doing a good job and the team is satisfied with what he has already achieved.

Thanks. Unfortunately, the GdS article is behind a paywall. If anybody can summarize, that'd be great.

I thought the Giro didn't want to ride any less than 3 weeks? So i imagine they'll replace the 3 stages instead of simply cancelling them?

 

[del1962]

Turns out beating Timmers his time was not even a challenge, since some of the women have been beating that time. Only one man did worse than that time. As a result, Remco's effort turned out to be not impressive at all and is only 14th out of 19. Best overall time for the moment is for Greg Van Avermaet.

Most impressive performances are for 17 year old Thibau Nys, who simply smashed the 1500m running test, almost running the entire thing on the maximum speed setting (22km/u) and beating olympic medallists 400m relay, and putting his teammate Toon Aerts (supposedly a good runner in CX) at 30seconds. I was flabbergasted. Another eye-opening performance was by Bart Swings, ice-skater and former inline-skater Olympic champion... who managed to beat all the cyclists' times on the 3km cycling test. Faster than De Gendt, Lampaert, Campenaerts, Evenepoel, Naesen, Van Avermaet... Damn, maybe he should consider changing disciplines again.

Still to come next week: two lesser knows cyclists, i think their names were Wout van der Poel and Mathieu van Aert. Never heard of 'm.

Now that is a good time just under 4 minutes but in no way ti it beat aby olympic 400m relay medalists eihher men or women

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Now that is a good time just under 4 minutes but in no way ti it beat aby olympic 400m relay medalists eihher men or women

Sorry. He "merely" beat 2 bronze medalists in the 400m relay of last year's worldchampionships. And 3 fourth place runners 400m relay at the olympics 2016 (in my mind they won that bronze medal, turns out they just missed it). He beat them by 3, 9 and 26 seconds. I'd say that's quite spectacular for a 17 year old CX rider.

They missed out on bronze in Rio by a hair. Sorry for this huge oversight. Here is by how much they missed a bronze medal in Rio:

https://twitter.com/x/status/767197046117769216

View: https://twitter.com/afspraakinrio/status/767197046117769216

 

[GuntherL]

Remco should go for it during the first two Giro weeks. If the stages in the last week remain unchanged, they would have to climb to 1800 meters during stage 17 and to 2700 meters in stages 18 and 20. When I look for Stelvio + October in Youtube, I get to see a lot of snow. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these climbs would be shortened or taken out. If it can happen in France in July, it can surely happen in October in Italy.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Remco should go for it during the first two Giro weeks. If the stages in the last week remain unchanged, they would have to climb to 1800 meters during stage 17 and to 2700 meters in stages 18 and 20. When I look for Stelvio + October in Youtube, I get to see a lot of snow. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these climbs would be shortened or taken out. If it can happen in France in July, it can surely happen in October in Italy.

I saw an interview with Kelderman yesterday, where he said he has friends living/training there in October, and that it should not be an issue.

I would personally tell Remco to take it easy and stick to following in the first two weeks. Only trying to make a gap in the ITT's. It's the only way we can expect him to realistically go for GC over the course of 3 weeks. If he goes for it in the first two weeks, the more experienced riders will choke him in the third week. I don't understand why you would take the risk if you have no idea how he would do in his first GT. Remco doesn't need 2700m climbs in order to take time. He can blast away on a shallow slope just as well. Let him preserve his energy, focus on the ITT's, stick to following Nibali if possible, and see what's left in the tank in the 3rd week.

 

[GuntherL]

I saw an interview with Kelderman yesterday, where he said he has friends living/training there in October, and that it should not be an issue.

I would personally tell Remco to take it easy and stick to following in the first two weeks. Only trying to make a gap in the ITT's. It's the only way we can expect him to realistically go for GC over the course of 3 weeks. If he goes for it in the first two weeks, the more experienced riders will choke him in the third week. I don't understand why you would take the risk if you have no idea how he would do in his first GT. Remco doesn't need 2700m climbs in order to take time. He can blast away on a shallow slope just as well. Let him preserve his energy, focus on the ITT's, stick to following Nibali if possible, and see what's left in the tank in the 3rd week.

 

[GuntherL]

You're right. That would be the sensible thing to do, but I'd love to see a sensational Giro. Merckx' raid to Marseille. Froome deciding the Giro in 2018. Contador on Los Muchacos in the Vuelta in 2017. Let's go crazy! He's got a long career ahead of him. Caution can wait.
Let him lose some time in the first week and go wild in the last two.

Look, There's been only one month of pro cycling in the last 7 months and I still have to wait for two more. My sanity is fading. Nobody can expect me to remain rational for that long. I'll probably set up a tent in front of my TV 1 week before Strade Bianche like parents used to do to register their kids in their preferred school.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

You're right. That would be the sensible thing to do, but I'd love to see a sensational Giro. Merckx' raid to Marseille. Froome deciding the Giro in 2018. Contador on Los Muchacos in the Vuelta in 2017. Let's go crazy! He's got a long career ahead of him. Caution can wait.
Let him lose some time in the first week and go wild in the last two.

Look, There's been only one month of pro cycling in the last 7 months and I still have to wait for two more. My sanity is fading. Nobody can expect me to remain rational for that long. I'll probably set up a tent in front of my TV 1 week before Strade Bianche like parents used to do to register their kids in their preferred school.

I think there will be plenty of instances in his career where he will have to go berserk. Who knows, maybe in the first week he'll get caught in the crosswinds, get stuck behind a crash or whatever, and then he'll have to make up minutes and it'll get plenty sensational soon enough. If he'd squander his energy before something like that happens, it's game over. It's his first GT, there's plenty to go wrong.

 

[Jungle Cycle]

so, how many watts for 3min for him?? 650?

View: https://youtu.be/PQosZmA49XQ

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

so, how many watts for 3min for him?? 650?

View: https://youtu.be/PQosZmA49XQ

Naaah... those are numbers for big riders like van Aert, Asgreen, Cavagna... i think. In the Container Cup, van Aert pushed close to 600 watts at max effort over almost 4 minutes, and he beat Remco by 25 seconds. Remco is so small and light, there is no way he can push 650 watts for 3 minutes. Maybe something like 525? I know a few months ago, some numbers were posted in this thread. I'll see if i can find them in a bit.

EDIT: for reference, Michael Woods pushed 499W in 2m39s in stage 3 of the 2019TDF, in the final climb when Alaphilippe attacked solo. Woods weighs 60kgs.

2019 Tour de France: Michael Woods Stage 3 Analysis

See Stephen Gallagher's analysis of a rowdy Stage 3 through Michael Woods' (EF Education First) TrainingPeaks power file.

www.trainingpeaks.com

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

After Contador and Nibali (iirc), now Carapaz joins the fray of bombarding Evenepoel to favorite for the Giro.

Giro d’Italia 2020, Richard Carapaz teme Remco Evenepoel: “Non sarei sorpreso se vincesse”

Richard Carapaz è ormai pienamente focalizzato sul Giro d'italia 2020. L'ecuadoriano, campione uscente, punta quindi alla doppietta e comincia a mettere a fuoc

cyclingpro.net

Tour of Italy 2020, Richard Carapaz fears Remco Evenepoel: "I wouldn't be surprised if he wins ... He has numbers that make me think he can. "

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I'm afraid Remco is getting carried away a bit with all the flattery. Contador, Nibali and Carapaz calling him a favorite, able to win the Giro... Whether or not that might turn out to be the case, they are putting the pressure on him, so they can more easily control him tactically in the actual race. I can only imagine that DQT is clever and experienced enough to handle it and guide him through it. Yesterday, on a Sporza quiz, he responded to the statement that he would ride the Giro to gain experience with "depends on how you look at it". And this article in GdS further paints that picture.

The entire article is behind a paywall, if anybody else can give a rundown of what it says, that'd be appreciated.

Evenepoel: "Nella casella del mio Monopoli c'è scritto Giro"

Nibali lo teme, per Contador è un fenomeno. Il belga, popolarissimo già a 20 anni, è sulla scatola del gioco. Obiettivo rosa: "Ammiro i pugili come Joshua, sono veri combattenti"

t.co

Evenepoel: "Giro is written in my Monopoly box"

Nibali fears him, for Contador he is a phenomenon. The Belgian, already very popular at 20, is on the game box. Pink target: "I admire boxers like Joshua, they are real fighters"

There is something, about Remco Evenepoel, that impresses even more than the results already obtained, absolutely great and extraordinary for his age: the maturity and awareness with which he manages the interviews, more usual in the samples with years and years of experience on the shoulders and legs. The 20-year-old Belgian from Deceuninck-Quick Step also confirmed his presence at the Tour of Italy after the revolution in the calendar. The debut in a big lap: "And I'm working to make it unforgettable", he tells us in connection on Zoom.

EDIT: from articles quoting the GdS article, he would also have said that from recent tests he did, his power output has increased. And that he does not want to ride defensively and wants to take chances.

 

[Berflamand]

I don't think he is getting carried away with the flattery, he just seems extremely confident about his own capabilities and he has very high expectations of himself.

I think this was already the case last year but he was a little more cautious in his interviews before the races. But for example I remember him saying after a race he won that he texted his girlfriend before the race saying that he would win today for her and that usually when he says something like that he also effectively wins the race.

Apparently this year he has become a little bit less shy in his interviews beforehand but I think the confidence was always there and he doesn't let himself carried away by flattery from others.

We'll have to see how he copes with losses or disappointment, especially after expressing his very high ambitions more and more clearly in the press, because sooner or later there will be a moment or a race in which he won't be able to live up to his own ambitions, let alone to the expectations of the general public.

 

[BlueRoads]

To me it looks like he does not take it well if he does not win and tends to quit and take aim at something different (football, cobbles, e-racing). But as long as he just wins everything that won't be a problem.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

From a Polish article, likely it was also in the GdS article, he's supposed to ride Criterium du Dauphine (12-16 August) and Tirreno-Adriatico (7-13 September).

 

[GuntherL]

From a Polish article, likely it was also in the GdS article, he's supposed to ride Criterium du Dauphine (12-16 August) and Tirreno-Adriatico (7-13 September).

Dutch translation: "Remco Evenepoel wil een roze T-shirt"

Oh, Google Translate. Don't ever change.

Considering the timing of the Dauphine, I expect an elite field of TdF riders in full preparation for the main event. If he can match them, that will be another step forward.
"

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Dutch translation: "Remco Evenepoel wil een roze T-shirt"

Oh, Google Translate. Don't ever change.

Considering the timing of the Dauphine, I expect an elite field of TdF riders in full preparation for the main event. If he can match them, that will be another step forward.

Or backward, if he's in form too soon.

PS: always translate to English. It will work a lot better in most cases, i assume it gets more care and user input.

 

[KZD]

Yes, in theory he could be far from the best in the Dauphiné and still be a GC contender in the Giro considering the difference in quality of both fields.

It will be the first time he races against the best climbers in the high mountains so even if he is not in great shape he will want to test himself.

 

[red_flanders]

To me it looks like he does not take it well if he does not win and tends to quit and take aim at something different (football, cobbles, e-racing). But as long as he just wins everything that won't be a problem.

Interesting. Seems to me a leap to make that kind of assessment from those examples, but OK.