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

[houtdffan]

Okay the 3 assumptions I'm talking about:

1. Alaphilippe as high mountain domestique is a good idea. Which it really isn't. He was struggling to hang on for most of the Tour and he wouldn't be able to even do much work for Evenepoel in the best case, wasting one of the best stagehunters on maybe a few seconds here and there.
2. Egan Bernal is only good on high altitude. He wins as much on low altitude as on high altitude, and he was really just not great in the 2nd week of the Tour last year.
3. Evenepoel would be the standout favorite for the Tour. I wouldn't go that far. He'd be one of the favorites to win, but with him never having done a GT before I'm not sure why I'd go for the Tour at a first GT attempt, when the Giro suits him many times better and has a weaker field.

My rebuttals

1. Yes, Alap was struggling. However, he may be able to give that 3-4 good km. He'd not have to worry about conserving energy and hanging on like he did last year

2. Never said Bernal was bad at low elevations. He just may be unbeatable at the very high altitudes. Thus, Evenepoel has a chance given the lower elevations of this route.

3. Yes, the giro is better this year for Evenepoel with the TTs. No question about it. But, given his form, he'd have a real chance at this tour. As good as he is, he deserves to have the team dedicated to him

 

[KZD]

I would not be surprised if Remco goes for Giro + Olympics next year instead of the Tour.

And sadly it seems that the World Championships this season might get cancelled

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

I don't think I ever saw something like this to be honest.
What's left to test? Multi climbing stages? Recovery over 3 weeks.
Seems from another planet.

True. We know UniPuerto stages aren't the issue

Picon Blanco, Remco Evenepoel's first climbing record!

Picon Blanco 2020:8,0 km@9,3%---25:30---average speed 18.82 km/h(Remco Evenepoel) 2019:8,0 km@9,3%---25:55---average speed 18.52 km/h(Ivan S...

www.climbing-records.com

He beat Landa and Sosa's fastest ascents on that climb with relative ease. Got dropped on the next MTF, which probably suited him a bit less, but he only lost because he showed more ego than Jeff Cavaliere likes lifting fake plates. If Evenepoel had timed his attack a bit better he'd have won on that MTF as well.

Given his raids on rolling and hilly terrain as well as his climbing prowess in UniPuerto stages I think he could be considered the Giro favorite already. Hard mountain stages shouldn't be a problem. He doesn't even have to be a top 5 climber in that race . He'd win regardless.

Of course, we don't know, but that's my best guess.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1292144997035388929

View: https://twitter.com/CarlosCR_/status/1292144997035388929

My rebuttals

1. Yes, Alap was struggling. However, he may be able to give that 3-4 good km. He'd not have to worry about conserving energy and hanging on like he did last year

2. Never said Bernal was bad at low elevations. He just may be unbeatable at the very high altitudes. Thus, Evenepoel has a chance given the lower elevations of this route.

3. Yes, the giro is better this year for Evenepoel with the TTs. No question about it. But, given his form, he'd have a real chance at this tour. As good as he is, he deserves to have the team dedicated to him

In poland, he's facing an out of shape B-tier Ineos train. What he did today, he could never replicate in a stacked TDF, not because "he isn't good enough" but because Thomas + Froome + Sivakov + Bennett + Kruijswijk >>>> Dunbar. And when there are no ITT's, he's always going to lose uphill sprints to the Slovenian boys and some others.

I could see him repeat what he did today in the Giro, when all the domestiques are gone, and it's him vs Nibs, Yates, Carapaz etc. and those guys don't want to help each other. But not in the TDF.

 

[Jagartrott]

We know little of his recovery potential and potential for weak days during a 3 week stage race, right? So I do not count on him to immediately win a GT. It'd be great if he could podium Giro this year - winning, I think that's a stretch. Not impossible, but not that likely I think. Based on tea leaf predicting.

Today, amazing performance though. Junior racing in a field with seasoned pro's.

 

[Walter1234]

He actually got dropped on a mountain like a week ago. It's actually really clear he's stronger on rolling terrain than on steep mountains.

That is a quote from somebody who doesn't understand cycling.
Only thing that happened are a few riders who can produce more power in one minute then Remco and who waited long enough to do this; there are many riders who can do this.
This is how riders can win stages racing against Remco. Stay in his wheel and beat him in the last 500m-1km.
Nobody with understanding of cycling would call this being dropped.

 

[Red Rick]

That is a quote from somebody who doesn't understand cycling.
Only thing that happened are a few riders who can produce more power in one minute then Remco and who waited long enough to do this; there are many riders who can do this.
This is how riders can win stages racing against Remco. Stay in his wheel and beat him in the last 500m-1km.
Nobody with understanding of cycling would call this being dropped.

Ok.

 

[Walter1234]

actually today Remco won a race like he won his races as junior. He goes and nobody sees him back.
It did help that the field in Poland was not too strong, there were hardly strong domestics and his opponents thought they didn't need to co-operate to take him back.
They will start learning...

 

[Big Doopie]

Ok.

impressive self-control. Kudos.

 

[Walter1234]

Ok.

I was expecting some push back ;-).

 

[F_Cance]

people laughed at more for saying that cycling will be boring due to him. Wait a few more weeks and then you will have to agree.

It did help that the field in Poland was not too strong, there were hardly strong domestics and his opponents thought they didn't need to co-operate to take him back.
They will start learning...

this excuse is getting old.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I was expecting some push back ;-).

His 1 minute output is actually mediocre.

 

[Jspear]

people laughed at more for saying that cycling will be boring due to him. Wait a few more weeks and then you will have to agree.




this excuse is getting old.

Nah it’ll take a couple years before I get bored. It’s cool seeing such a strong young rider who animates races. It’s different than a strong robotic team setting a tempo and everyone else just following single file and then getting dropped.

 

[F_Cance]

What's so exciting about the same outcome every time? Once he has a gap it's over. No suspense, nothing.

 

[Jspear]

What's so exciting about the same outcome every time? Once he has a gap it's over. No suspense, nothing.

Well there will be suspense during his first GT for the whole three weeks. Can he survive? I don’t know...suspense! And then there will be suspense in different monuments. Can he do this against those fields? And then there will be suspense whenever he does his first Tour. Is the Tour really at a different level? Or does his style still work? And then there will be suspense when new riders come onto the scene. Can he fend Them off?

 

[Walter1234]

...

this excuse is getting old.

Note ; for me that were not excuses, but facts....

 

[Big Doopie]

What's so exciting about the same outcome every time? Once he has a gap it's over. No suspense, nothing.

to watch the beauty of someone achieving such feats.

 

[Walter1234]

What's so exciting about the same outcome every time? Once he has a gap it's over. No suspense, nothing.

It doesn't need to be like that; if his opponents choose to cooperate they can beat him. But that is a difficult one....

Walter

 

[Armchair cyclist]

The real challenge is winning Milano Sanremo with Cipressa attack

Turchino, surely

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

What's so exciting about the same outcome every time? Once he has a gap it's over. No suspense, nothing.

It's not boring because he can still be beaten and the way others respond (or are slow to learn/adapt) is interesting in itself. But if all the other favorites just sit in the mighty Dunbar's wheel, and wait until he takes 1m5s... yeah. But that's not Remco's fault.
Let me ask you something, did you think Pogacar's raid (his last stage win) in the Vuelta was less impressive or less dominant? Because i don't. So why would you get all sulky that he won (again). They now have 13 pro wins each. They've been pro for the same amount of time. Why haven't i seen you moping in the Pogacar's threads or the Valencia or California threads? They've only raced 2 races together. The Worlds and San Sebastian, each DNF once. We'll see more interesting races when they compete against each other, throw in Bernal and Sivakov and some other guys. Maybe you'll end up being glad that Bernal can't just run away with his 5th TDF win in 3 yeas.

If you were really a fan of Cancellara (going by your username) then i don't get the vitriol. He won races in exactly the same way as what we witnessed today.

 

[red_flanders]

this excuse is getting old.

So funny. Yep, someone always finds a reason why his incredible performances are...not that incredible. At some point you just have to accept he’s won all 4 stage races he’s entered this year (assuming tomorrow nothing bad happens), none of which were goals. He’s winning at will. At 20. It’s awesome to watch.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

He's sad because he wanted to win with 5 minutes.

(i'm kidding)

So funny. Yep, someone always finds a reason why his incredible performances are...not that incredible. At some point you just have to accept he’s won all 4 stage races he’s entered this year (assuming tomorrow nothing bad happens), none of which were goals. He’s winning at will. At 20. It’s awesome to watch.

That's what he means. He's afraid it will become boring and he'll suck the fun out of watching cycling.

 

[red_flanders]

That's what he means. He's afraid it will become boring and he'll suck the fun out of watching cycling.

I pointedly ignored that part of his post. For my part I’m really freaking happy to be watching true talents win in cycling again.

 

[Big Doopie]

I soooooo agree with this.

everything points towards a generational talent.

at this point, I suggest sitting back and simply enjoying the ride.

and he has panache!!

prefer this ten times over riders who wait for the mountains, then get dropped off with 2kms to go and win by 12 seconds plus the bonus.

Remco harkens back to a cycling everyone thought was dead.

 

[Big Doopie]

What's so exciting about the same outcome every time? Once he has a gap it's over. No suspense, nothing.

is suspense everything?

not for me.

being gifted a possible generational talent who can ride like no other to watch is something to enjoy on its own.

if you’re just POed because he is beating your favorite riders, I’m sorry, can’t help you there.