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

[Krzysztof_O]

Dont you know that when you win the Olympic Double you are obligated to celebrate for two weeks eating belgium chokolate and pommes?

Remco made sacrifices to be lean for the summer. After achieving his objectives (Tour podium, double Olympic champion) he deserved to eat like Fatcos do!

 

[Salvarani]

I don't buy the Olympics as an excuse for his poor form now at all.

Probably more of a mental thing, rather than being physically spent. The rain didnt make matters better yesterday.

Worlds ITT and RR was really his last big targets this season. I dont think Lombardia has been one this season. We will see how it goes during the week but how it will go for him is anyones guess.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Weird argument. It's like saying: "Without the cobbled classics, Van de Poel would have had a mediocre season". The point is that they set objectives and Remco was able to tick his off (as MvdP did).
And as said before: the Olympics kind of jeopardized the autumn races for him. Just like last year's focus on the WCTT in august did not allow for a decent preparation of the Vuelta.
I'd love him to have a more balanced (crashless) season in which he's 100% prepared for the WC & the Italian classics.

So basically you agree with me that without the Olympics his season would not be considered great for a rider of his stature. His season would have been okay (3rd at TdF, winning TT WC ain't nothing to scoff at) but just okay for a rider of his stature. The olympics are what made this season memorable/good for Remco.

Reality is, Remco would have started this year with the believe he could win a great deal more than he actually won. He wanted to win Paris-Nice, Basque, at least 1 race from Fleche, Amstel, LBL, He would have wanted to go into the dauphine with better form needing only to finetune. Thus allowing him to win Belgian TT on the trot just by being able to show up.

I'm not saying Remco did not have a great season. he had, cause of how special that Olympic double is. But without that OG double I personally believe he would look back on this season with some dissapointment i'm sure. Happy with the TT WC title, and the podium but not fully satisfied. Now with OG double he will be satisfied with this season when looking back.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

I'm not saying Remco did not have a great season. he had, cause of how special that Olympic double is. But without that OG double I personally believe he would look back on this season with some dissapointment i'm sure.

But this basically go for every single rider if you remove the biggest results, so it's a pretty meaningless measurement.

For MvdP this season would be horrible without the RVV-Roubaix double, for Roglic this season would be really bad without the Vuelta win, Remcos 2023 season wouldve been a big disappointment without the Liege and WC ITT title. and so on for basically everyone else than Pogacar.

 

[AmRacer]

But this basically go for every single rider if you remove the biggest results, so it's a pretty meaningless measurement.

For MvdP this season would be horrible without the RVV-Roubaix double, for Roglic this season would be really bad without the Vuelta win, Remcos 2023 season wouldve been a big disappointment without the Liege and WC ITT title. and so on for basically everyone else than Pogacar.

Everyone who won something have had a great season?

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Everyone who won something have had a great season?

Im impressed you seem to think this is what I mean.

 

[AmRacer]

Im impressed you seem to think this is what I mean.

Everyone who won something worth mentioning, have had a great season?

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Everyone who won something worth mentioning, have had a great season?

I have no idea why you would think this way based on my posts.

I just said that if you remove the biggest wins a rider takes, the season for most riders looks a lot worse. I think that's pretty straight forward and logical.

 

[AmRacer]

I have no idea why you would think this way based on my posts.

I just said that if you remove the biggest wins a rider takes, the season for most riders looks a lot worse. I think that's pretty straight forward and logical.

And that makes everyone who won something having a great season. It's logical. Remove the win(s) and the season isn't great, same for Pogi the 🐐.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

And that makes everyone who won something having a great season. It's logical.

No it doesn't at all. There is literally no correlation between "if you remove the biggest wins a rider takes, the season for most riders looks a lot worse" and "everyone who won something having a great season".

Remove the win(s) and the season isn't great, same for Pogi the 🐐.

Yes, that's exactly my point. That it's a stupid measurement to remove the biggest victories...

 

[Red Rick]

Ofcourse it's a great season for Evenepoel. But at the same time it's not encouraging in other ways that he's only managed to peak for 2 races this year and that Pogacar essentially covers his entire range of big targets he can win and more.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Ofcourse it's a great season for Evenepoel. But at the same time it's not encouraging in other ways that he's only managed to peak for 2 races this year and that Pogacar essentially covers his entire range of big targets he can win and more.

To be fair we didnt get to see him in his planned spring peak as he crashed out of in Itzulia. A season with an Ardenne peak, a Tour + Olympics peak and a somewhat half peak good enough for WC ITT gold and 5th in road race would've looked pretty good.

Problem is of course that Pogacar is on a complete different level.

 

[Salvarani]

Ofcourse it's a great season for Evenepoel. But at the same time it's not encouraging in other ways that he's only managed to peak for 2 races this year and that Pogacar essentially covers his entire range of big targets he can win and more.

He has to improve and take it as motivation to be able to win more in the future. Pretty simple.

 

[AmRacer]

No it doesn't at all. There is literally no correlation between "if you remove the biggest wins a rider takes, the season for most riders looks a lot worse" and "everyone who won something having a great season".

Some riders who managed to win something worth mentioning, have had a great season?

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Some riders who managed to win something worth mentioning, have had a great season?

Not necessarily.
If Toms Skuijns win RvV it's been a great season no matter what he does otherwise. If Pogacar wins Liege but nothing else it's not been a great season for him. I think that's pretty obvious.

Still this is not at all relevant to my point about "removing the big wins" a rider actually won to argue the season doesn't look that good.

 

[AmRacer]

Not necessarily.
If Toms Skuijns win RvV it's been a great season no matter what he does otherwise. If Pogacar wins Liege but nothing else it's not been a great season for him. I think that's pretty obvious.

Still this is not at all relevant to my point about "removing the big wins" a rider actually won to argue the season doesn't look that good.

Riders who managed to win something they target, more than 1 win is required for some riders, or win something unexpected, have a great season?

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Riders who managed to win something they target, more than 1 win is required for some riders, or win something unexpected, have a great season?

There isn't one objective measurement for a great season that applies for all riders. I honestly have no idea what you're on about, and why you are spamming me with these questions that are not related to what I said in the posts that led to you asking these "important questions"

 

[AmRacer]

There isn't one objective measurement for a great season that applies for all riders. I honestly have no idea what you're on about.

For some riders, there's a subjective measurement for how the season rates.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

For some riders, there's a subjective measurement for how the season rates.

For all riders there are subjective measurements for how the season rates.

 

[Berniece]

I'd love him to have a more balanced (crashless) season in which he's 100% prepared for the WC & the Italian classics.

What would your preferred season be for him next year? Assuming Pogi/Vingegaard both do a bit of spring racing and then TDF, Vuelta and WC

 

[stekelegel]

like I said before, he is not a natural rider like Pog that can rather easy get to 80/90% and then just ride a few races to become top. Not saying these guys have it easy, but Remco needs more. He always seems to need a rather longish and perfect preparation to get to top form. Might be that he was unlucky a few times, or that falls/ injuries were worse then thought but still. If this continues I don’t see him having a very long career. It will take more out of him each time to even get close to Pog, Vinge, let alone beat them. Doesn’t seem like the guy that will do this 12 times and never win.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

What would your preferred season be for him next year? Assuming Pogi/Vingegaard both do a bit of spring racing and then TDF, Vuelta and WC

Algarve, Tirreno, San Remo
Altitude
Amstel, Liege
Giro
Holiday
NC
Altitude
Clasica San Remco + Pologne
Altitude
WC
Italian classics

 

[AmRacer]

Wining 1 of the big 7 one-week races, 1 classics, and podium a GT. And WC.

 

[houtdffan]

Possible season for Remco as per the likely double

UAE Tour
PN
MSR
Altitude
FW
LBL
Giro
Play with Oumi on Mauna Kea
TDF
Play with Oumi
World TT
World RR
GDL

 

[KoopaCycling]

Maybe i'm guilty of slightly overrating Remco, or expecting to much. But if you told me at the start of 2024 that Remco would finish the season without 1 semi-classic/classic win and without 1 major GC win. I would have had a hard time believing that. That crash & coming back obviously cost him. And what he did achieve was great. But i do believe the Olympics saved his season.