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

[Low is rhe new high]

Remco will win the ITT with 20s to Roglic and 30s to Jonas and 60s to Pogacar. I don’t believe in the idea that Pogacar has reached a new level. This is the first time ever these four has done a GT against each other. So far it has been stages that are beneficial to Pog and UAE and he is expected to be best the first week and weaker in the end due to the giro. Since he has not destroyed neither Remco or Roglic I believe they are very much in contention and will have their peaks in week 2 and 3. It will be especially interesting to see Roglic since he is on a different (racing and training) program than before. Jonas is harder to judge if he had a punctured lung 3 months ago he shouldn’t be able to race and contest for yellow today. Compare to van art which was less severally injured.

 

[Low is rhe new high]

Remco can improve, but so can Pogacar and Vingegaard

Yeah of course but are they more or less likely to considering their age.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Remco will win the ITT with 20s to Roglic and 30s to Jonas and 60s to Pogacar.

This is not realistic imho. On a flat TT, i would always put Pogacar above Vingegaard. Today in the flatter section of the descent, you could see Vingegaard was missing pure power on the flat. I don't think he will do a good TT.

 

[LesDiablesRouges]

Indeed, my comments are about what I expect to happen in this race.

Agree he looks really strong. But I don't anticipate seeing those kind of gaps to Roglič and Vingegaard, and I think it's up in the air if he beats Pogi. I tend to think he will, but I think it's gonna be very close, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Pogi beats him.

I would be shocked if Pogacar beats Remco in a flat ITT of 25kms. I think Remco is going to destroy the ITT and win by at least 30 seconds if not more.

 

[AmRacer]

I see what you mean Extinction, but Tadel and Vingo can very possibly backslide more than they can improve.

Vingo isn't in top shape, as everyone can see.

 

[Extinction]

I see what you mean Extinction, but Tadel and Vingo can very possibly backslide more than they can improve.

In theory they should declines before he does, but it's all just speculation. The irony is Remco didn't think he would have two mutants to contend with to be number 1.

 

[ppanther92]

Are we ready to accept remco might be a legit GT contender?

Yes, probably. I was a sceptic on that but seems like it’s ultimately only a matter of how “in shape” (i.e., with the right weight), he enters the race.

 

[Extinction]

Great result for Remco, as many have said. Looks super strong. The climbing times are incredible, so for him to be there...amazing.

He is burning matches he ideally shouldn't need to burn by losing so much time on the top of that descent. Catching back up...it's great he has the power, but imagine if he was descending well. He came over the top close to Vingo, if he catches him that's a two man race and all the rest have 15-30 seconds more against them.

It's not the worst thing, but it's costing him and limiting him for sure.

Yea watching him descend was painful.

 

[ppanther92]

Remco will win the ITT with 20s to Roglic and 30s to Jonas and 60s to Pogacar.

Vingegaard did awesome TdF ITTs but today one could see that explosiveness is there, resistance is mostly there but he lost time when it was key to put max power in. That will hurt his ITT as well.

 

[Andre]

Kudos to Remco, he is ahead of:
30 seconds on Roglic and Rodriguez
2 and half minutes on Ciccone and Bernal
4 minutes on Hindley and Mas

 

[Extinction]

Kudos to Remco, he is ahead of:
30 seconds on Roglic and Rodriguez
2 and half minutes on Ciccone and Bernal
4 minutes on Hindley and Mas

But he's 45 secs down on Tadej.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Yea watching him descend was painful.

His descending was not very good but in the end he only loses 18s to Pogacar from the top to the finish. There have been GC riders who lost minutes on descends.

But it is one of the other issues the team was supposed to address 3 yeas ago. They were going to have him do some training on cornering at high speeds with a MotoGP friend of Cavendish (when they were still team mates). Never happened. But since Evenepoel descends "well" on training, they assume he will do the same when riding 20kmh faster for GC in the biggest race of all and the issue got solved by itself.

 

[Froome]

Yea watching him descend was painful.

He also crashed in April on a descent, and almost died before on a descend. He had some fear and that's normal.

The good news is that mountain stages with a finish on a descent is over.

 

[Andre]

But he's 45 secs down on Tadej.

Yes...but Tadej is the only one standing in Remco's way. It's easier to concentrate on only one rider for the time being

 

[Extinction]

His descending was not very good but in the end he only loses 18s to Pogacar from the top to the finish. There have been GC riders who lost minutes on descends.

But it is one of the other issues the team was supposed to address 3 yeas ago. They were going to have him do some training on cornering at high speeds with a MotoGP friend of Cavendish (when they were still team mates). Never happened. But since Evenepoel descends "well" on training, they assume he will do the same when riding 20kmh faster for GC in the biggest race of all and the issue got solved by itself.

Well, as he said, the Itzulia crash hampered him. He had difficulty at high speed and with melted snow water on the road in the curves it was murder.

 

[Extinction]

He also crashed in April on a descent, and almost died before on a descend. He had some fear and that's normal.

The good news is that mountain stages with a finish on a descent is over.

Oh I agree.

 

[Extinction]

Yes...but Tadej is the only one standing in Remco's way. It's easier to concentrate on only one rider for the time being

The problem though is surpassing him.

 

[Filippo_3467]

Will be interesting to see if he can beat Pogi on Friday. The climb is a bit nastier than I thought so could be a close one. Would be great for the race if Remco could come closer.

 

[Low is rhe new high]

This is not realistic imho. On a flat TT, i would always put Pogacar above Vingegaard. Today in the flatter section of the descent, you could see Vingegaard was missing pure power on the flat. I don't think he will do a good TT.

Ok good point then they will both lose ca 60 s. My main point is that both Roglic and Remco is still very much in contention and that the GC will be decided in week 3. Before this 4 stages I was worried it would be like the giro.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

He also crashed in April on a descent, and almost died before on a descend. He had some fear and that's normal.

The good news is that mountain stages with a finish on a descent is over.

While that is true, i could see from the helicopter shots that he was still making mistakes against basic cornering technique. He cuts to the inside of the corner way too fast at times, which reduces your options coming out of the corner. You either have to brake a lot harder and end up losing both time and speed, or you simply find yourself a few hundreds of meters down.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Not the end of the world. Where will descending skills really matter anymore this Tour? It has be be some long range shenanigans going on on stage 19 or 20, otherwise its just pure w/kg

 

[red_flanders]

I would be shocked if Pogacar beats Remco in a flat ITT of 25kms. I think Remco is going to destroy the ITT and win by at least 30 seconds if not more.

It's not flat. It wouldn't shock me if Remco wins by 30 seconds, but I think that's optimistic. It also wouldn't shock me if Pogi wins by 10. The rest of the times are more what I was reacting to. I don't see him taking a minute out of Roglič, that would be shocking.

 

[red_flanders]

Not the end of the world. Where will descending skills really matter anymore this Tour? It has be be some long range shenanigans going on on stage 19 or 20, otherwise its just pure w/kg

More a concern about his prospects as a Tour winner moving forward. It's a weakness, and weaknesses can be exploited. Plus if someone attacks at the top of a penultimate climb, puts 15 seconds into him, and arrives a minute ahead on the following climb? Problem.

 

[FroomeWagon]

I see Remco is at 18 to 1 right now. Might be time to lay a Franklin ($100).

 

[Krzysztof_O]

More a concern about his prospects as a Tour winner moving forward. It's a weakness, and weaknesses can be exploited. Plus if someone attacks at the top of a penultimate climb, puts 15 seconds into him, and arrives a minute ahead on the following climb? Problem.

The first thing that came to my mind was Vingo's long-range attack near the top of Bonette, followed by a huge descent and Isola MTF. But there's also a less steep section where Remco would likely make up some time.