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

[Valv.Piti]

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.

That is indeed a problem, thankfully for Remco he can gain something back purely on his rouleur skills

 

[Mayomaniac]

So far so good, he looks great and the team is looking strong (well, besides Hirt) and frankly this race needs him to be great.
The only worry on my behalf is that the fast weight loss could mess with his recovery later in the race, when you have consecutive mountain stages and fatigue starts adding up.

 

[red_flanders]

That is indeed a problem, thankfully for Remco he can gain something back purely on his rouleur skills

Thankfully. But it burns matches. Has to get cleaned up or he won't ever be able to beat these guys.

 

[peterfin]

The good thing about Remco's decending skills is that if he gets a long road without sharp corners he can reduce the gap in no time by riding 10 km/h faster. In the end Vingegaard lost 30s during the decent and he only 18s vs Pogacar.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

So far so good, he looks great and the team is looking strong (well, besides Hirt) and frankly this race needs him to be great.
The only worry on my behalf is that the fast weight loss could mess with his recovery later in the race, when you have consecutive mountain stages and fatigue starts adding up.

Yes, exactly. It's also in the back of my head. He basically lost 1kg per week, which is likely not ideal when it comes to recovery. I am not sure how losing muscle weight factors in, as i think he lost both muscle as well as fat. Maybe if he only lost roughly 1kg of fat in total (and 1.5kg muscle) since Dauphiné, the risk isn't that big?

But i hope it's clear to everybody now, that when he gets his weight down, he is an actual contender. Like i've always said.

 

[Valv.Piti]

So far so good, he looks great and the team is looking strong (well, besides Hirt) and frankly this race needs him to be great.
The only worry on my behalf is that the fast weight loss could mess with his recovery later in the race, when you have consecutive mountain stages and fatigue starts adding up.

We need Slimco more than 3 weeks a year!

 

[AnotherArmChair]

Seems he looking to win the stage friday

https://twitter.com/x/status/1808191658250629336

View: https://x.com/NBCSCycling/status/1808191658250629336

 

[steffr222]

He seems happy and relaxed as well as optimistic about the ITT on Friday. Gonna smash it on Friday..

 

[Medvind]

Happy for Remco, this must give him a big confidence boost. Think he will smash it on friday.

 

[Le Grand Doop]

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.

let's count the reasons Remco might be a little nervous/cautious going down a mountain:

1. He almost died riding his first monument at age 20 -- that could also have been a career-ending injury (and as it is probably hurt his progress for over a year).
2. He almost lost the Vuelta in 2022 because of a crash (that is pretty clear now that his dropping of a few seconds 2 and 3 days after that crash was a residual of the crash).
3. He was part of a horrific crash at the Basque Tour that almost jeopardized his entire season's goal.
4. He just crashed on watery roads in the Dauphine

and...

5. He rode past a few seconds after Gino Maher went off the road at TDS last year.

Not sure he will ever develop into a good descender, but there are plenty of totally logical reasons why he may have gone cautiously today.

 

[Extinction]

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.

You have to fitness the breaks and carry speed out of the turn. Plus if you are scared going down you pull up and it's a disaster.

 

[Cookster15]

I don't know, how was Remco's descending today compared to say Andy Schleck in 2011 (stage 16 that year)? He could be a lot worse. I think Remco did really well today. Which other stages this tour have technical descents that could bother him?

 

[houtdffan]

This seems optimistic for a 25k TT.

the way Remco is riding on the flat, he's taking more than a minute out of the field.

Had Gouvenou grew a pair and put in a proper 55km ITT, we'd see an Indurain Luxembourg performance

 

[peterfin]

I think he will go absolutely nuts on Friday in an all out effort to go for yellow.

 

[peterfin]

the way Remco is riding on the flat, he's taking more than a minute out of the field.

Had Gouvenou grew a pair and put in a proper 55km ITT, we'd see an Indurain Luxembourg performance

Or a Jan Ullrich Saint Etienne performance.

 

[Le Grand Doop]

I think he will go absolutely nuts on Friday in an all out effort to go for yellow.

agreed. because he is a competitor.

however, hard to imagine anyone taking 46 seconds out of this Pog.

Pog at last year's worlds TT, sure -- I think he beat him by 3 minutes or so -- but much longer, flatter course and Pog was at the absolute end of a TDF and Worlds that he had prioritized.

 

[Snake]

I think he will gain over a minute on vingeegard

 

[peterfin]

The faster the TT, the better for Remco. Excluding a national ITT title Pogacar won only one ITT with an average speed above 48 km/h (out of 23 ITT's). Remco won 11 out of 24 above 50 km/h. 45s equals about 1 km/h difference for a 25km TT. It's a lot but it's not impossible.

 

[Froome]

the way Remco is riding on the flat, he's taking more than a minute out of the field.

Had Gouvenou grew a pair and put in a proper 55km ITT, we'd see an Indurain Luxembourg performance

He will not take 1 minute on Pogacar, Roglic and Vingegaard.

He will win the ITT, but the gaps will not be that high.

 

[topt]

Yes, exactly. It's also in the back of my head. He basically lost 1kg per week, which is likely not ideal when it comes to recovery. I am not sure how losing muscle weight factors in, as i think he lost both muscle as well as fat. Maybe if he only lost roughly 1kg of fat in total (and 1.5kg muscle) since Dauphiné, the risk isn't that big?

But i hope it's clear to everybody now, that when he gets his weight down, he is an actual contender. Like i've always said.

sure he is, still waiting for that time that he will beat pogacar; will NEVER happen

 

[Didinho]

Isn’t Tarling riding here also? Don’t now about winning the TT just yet. Maybe he had a harder time leading up to it but he could better save energy for maybe his only target this Tour.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Isn’t Tarling riding here also? Don’t now about winning the TT just yet. Maybe he had a harder time leading up to it but he could better save energy for maybe his only target this Tour.

No, Tarling isn‘t riding.

 

[Didinho]

No, Tarling isn‘t riding.

Ow my bad. Had him in my provisional Sporza Tour prono but didn’t knew they selected more riders, not just the real start list.

Could be his first Tour stage win then indeed. I’m taking it day by day. Stay out of trouble.

 

[red_flanders]

sure he is, still waiting for that time that he will beat pogacar; will NEVER happen

Never is a strong word.

Never beat him at...the Tour? Anything? The TT? Assume you mean the Tour.

 

[topt]

Never is a strong word.

Never beat him at...the Tour? Anything? The TT? Assume you mean the Tour.

sure Tour; as a Pog fan I dont see Remco as a threat, he will lose a lot of time on at least one climb, will be top 10 in the end.