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

[dobrien]

indeed.

if you look at PCS, his best year was 2022 at age 22, despite that for most of the spring he was still returning from Lombardy crash after having his first injury-free winter. same year he won velo d'or.

he desperately needs a couple of healthy years.

And he needs them right now. We know how athletes careers go; one minute we're calling him 'the kid', then we blink and he's 30. He has no more time to waste frankly. Really hoping for him.

 

[Andre]

I strongly believe that even if he doesn't win the stage tomorrow, he will put in some good gaps on Lipowitz, Vauquelin, and Johanesen. Onley and Roglic won't lose that much. But anyway that's my prediction and you know about my predictions, Ils ne sont pas fameuse

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

A smarter man than the combined brains at SQS said he can't understand that they did not recon these stages. According to Lodewyck though, that's not a problem.

 

[Berniece]

And yet Pogacar was about that age when he suddenly took an other step. The big problem for Evenepoel is that he has a big crash nearly every year and has to start over too often.

I would find it very questionable if Evenepoel would take such a step suddenly

 

[Krzysztof_O]

He's still in front of Roglic, which is the main thing.

Screw Lipo and co. This is what really counts.

 

[Keldergoat]

indeed.

if you look at PCS, his best year was 2022 at age 22, despite that for most of the spring he was still returning from Lombardy crash after having his first injury-free winter. same year he won velo d'or.

he desperately needs a couple of healthy years.

Albeit with a tiny margin, but both 2023 and 2024 were better years for Evenepoel than 2022 according to PCS. 2024 was even his best.

 

[Peyroteo94]

indeed.

if you look at PCS, his best year was 2022 at age 22, despite that for most of the spring he was still returning from Lombardy crash after having his first injury-free winter. same year he won velo d'or.

he desperately needs a couple of healthy years.

His best year was 2022 because he somewhat got lucky to avoid aliens in top shape. I don't believe he would beat Pogacar in LBL 2022, let alone Vingegaard or Pogacar in the Tour 2022. He won the Velo d'Or (with merit) but it's clearly the best rider in 2022 was Pogacar.

 

[Berniece]

His best year was 2022 because he somewhat got lucky to avoid aliens in top shape. I don't believe he would beat Pogacar in LBL 2022, let alone Vingegaard or Pogacar in the Tour 2022. He won the Velo d'Or (with merit) but it's clearly the best rider in 2022 was Pogacar.

Yeah, Evenepoel is always lucky when he wins something significant.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Yeah, Evenepoel is always lucky when he wins something significant.

Yeah, this is exactly what I said...

 

[Berniece]

Yeah, this is exactly what I said...

You literally said he was lucky that he avoided Pogacar in LBL, or Pogacar/Vingegaard in the Vuelta. And we ignore that he beat everyone at the WC. But that also doesn't count for some reason.

He clearly was the best rider in 2022.

 

[Peyroteo94]

You literally said he was lucky that he avoided Pogacar in LBL, or Pogacar/Vingegaard in the Vuelta. And we ignore that he beat everyone at the WC. But that also doesn't count for some reason.

He clearly was the best rider in 2022.

Keep believing in that.
Do you really think he would beat Pogacar or Vingegaard in the Tour 2022? ROFL.

 

[Berniece]

Keep believing in that.
Do you really think he would beat Pogacar or Vingegaard in the Tour 2022? ROFL.

What does that have to do with anything? It's about a whole season, not about a single race.

 

[Red Rick]

You literally said he was lucky that he avoided Pogacar in LBL, or Pogacar/Vingegaard in the Vuelta. And we ignore that he beat everyone at the WC. But that also doesn't count for some reason.

He clearly was the best rider in 2022.

Level wise or achievement wise? That's a clear distinction to make.

He was fully deserving of Velo d'Or but despite that I don't think many backed him to have a better 2023 than Pogacar.

 

[Peyroteo94]

What does that have to do with anything? It's about a whole season, not about a single race.

Because his Vuelta win influenced significantly his win of the Velo d'or. No way, he wins with only LBL and WC on his palmares.
His win also got influenced by Vingegaard being able to beat Pogacar in the Tour, if he didn't, Remco would not win the Velo d'Or.
C'mon, it's not hard to understand but let's agree to disagree on this one. I think you are not impartial in your judgment, you believe the opposite. Let's really move on.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Level wise or achievement wise? That's a clear distinction to make.

He was fully deserving of Velo d'Or but despite that I don't think many backed him to have a better 2023 than Pogacar.

Not hard to understand. Level wise he wasn't close to Pogacar's level.

 

[Stablo]

Yea he has been around way too long to expect any kind of significant jumps in performance, although he is still a young rider, but he has been at least extremely near his peak for years already.

Well pog made that +10% jump in performance in one winter while 25 years old and already world no1. Is he the only tider capable or allowed to do that?

Edit. @AlpRaid and @Logic-is-your-friend beat me to it, but will leave it here anyway 😅

 

[Red Rick]

Because his Vuelta win influenced significantly his win of the Velo d'or. No way, he wins with only LBL and WC on his palmares.
His win also got influenced by Vingegaard being able to beat Pogacar in the Tour, if he didn't, Remco would not win the Velo d'Or.
C'mon, it's not hard to understand but let's agree to disagree on this one. I think you are not impartial in your judgment, you believe the opposite. Let's really move on.

Probably might have won.

Didn't Van Aert get 2nd that year? I remember that was the hot topic, not Evenepoel winning. At least Roglic not winning that Vuelta spared us a domestique winning Velo d'Or. This isn't Ballon d'Or ffs.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Not hard to understand. Level wise he wasn't close to Pogacar's level.

Pogacar showed great level across various races of the season: from Flandres to Tour. it was the highest level overall. His victory list in the biggest races was modest though (only Lombardy) and that's why he lost the award to Remco (who won 3 important events).

 

[Berniece]

Not hard to understand. Level wise he wasn't close to Pogacar's level.

Except that he completely destroyed Pogacar at the WC. He was indeed not close to Pogacar's level, because he was better.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Except that he completely destroyed Pogacar at the WC. He was indeed not close to Pogacar's level, because he was better.

Let’s agree to disagree. I don't bother to have a different opinion from you. Ultimately, your opinions and predictions are a little bit off. I'm still waiting for the third best climber in the world to show he actually is the third best climber in the world and I'm waiting for Vingegaard to win easily the Tour like you said in May. You can still be right but it's not looking good.

 

[Berniece]

Let’s agree to disagree. I don't bother to have a different opinion from you. Ultimately, your opinions and predictions are a little bit off. I'm still waiting for the third best climber in the world to show he actually is the third best climber in the world and I'm waiting for Vingegaard to win easily the Tour like you said in May. You can still be right but it's not looking good.

I'm also still waiting on 1-2 seasons without a crash for Evenepoel. It might take a while before I'm right.

Vingegaard is not winning the Tour, that's clear to me now that he can't even reach TDF 2022 level of performance.

 

[Berniece]

Evenepoel is riding on his climbing bike with TT handlebars on top of it, that are positioned a bit higher so it's easier to breath. I guess that means he'll ride the full 11km's in those handlebars.

 

[Peyroteo94]

I'm also still waiting on 1-2 seasons without a crash for Evenepoel. It might take a while before I'm right.

Vingegaard is not winning the Tour, that's clear to me now that he can't even reach TDF 2022 level of performance.

Last year, you said you were sure Remco would be as good or even better (3 years at most) than Pogacar/Vingegaard in the Tour. So you still have 2026 and 2027 to be right. However, you also said Remco would close the gap this year to 5-6 minutes (this will not happen of course unless Pogacar crashes) and you also said he would be the third best climber in the race (by far).
Again, your predictions are really wrong. Just because you wish a thing so bad, it doesn't mean it will happen. Maybe you should look more to numbers and facts presented in real life.

 

[Lequack]

What's that tape on his left side? For the radio or something else?

 

[Berniece]

However, you also said Remco would close the gap this year to 5-6 minutes (this will not happen of course unless Pogacar crashes) and you also said he would be the third best climber in the race (by far).

Yeah, I expected less impact of the winter crash. Apparently it still has a big toll on him. Lucky for Pogacar really.