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

[Jan the Man]

Lipowitz was amongst the 4 riders that remained, he is co-leader with remco in the Tour. I'm not seeing the problem.
Lipowitz isn't a climber with disaster level TT skills. Van Gils was there as well. I'm not seeing a future TTT problem with Red Bull.

Agreed- tactically it makes sense. Why would you not play two cards rather than one. Natural selection will happen, if one happens to be substantially weaker than the other than the other fine. Otherwise the road and tactics will decide. Obviously Remco has the pedigree as a GT winner but Lipo put in some good climbing performances at the Tour so further improvement can be expected

 

[Berniece]

I'd rather like to see them shred the peloton in the hard middle part of the race and see what/who is left after Coll de Soller and take it from there.

Apparently this race (Trofeo Serra Tramuntana) has been won by a Belgian rider 6 times out of the last 9 editions (with Wellens winning 4 (!) of them). It's only logical that Remco would continue this tradition.

Van Gils isn't on the startlist.

Yeah would be nice, it will probably be a sprint in a small group

 

[KoopaCycling]

It's just that in the TDF the TTT will be different. Every rider has his own time. So UAE/Visma will ride in such a way that Pogacar or Vingegaard might finish solo, or with only 1 rider beside them because the whole team rode for them.

For RBH, Evenepoel and Lipowitz should stay together, because you can't start the first day with an internal leadership battle already. Which means, more than likely, Evenepoel can't go full throttle, and already loses seconds to Pogacar/Vingegaard.

Fair enough but Lipowitz is a strong(ish) TT'er. You might not even need to spare him in the early stages to allow him to hold on to Remco wheel on the final kms when Remco goes all out. Lipo will probably be capable to take a pull every now and then so as to give Remco legs a small breather.

Ganna+Remco is faster time than Remco solo. I'm not convinced that arriving solo is always the best option.

 

[vappaxbipmv]

It's just that in the TDF the TTT will be different. Every rider has his own time. So UAE/Visma will ride in such a way that Pogacar or Vingegaard might finish solo, or with only 1 rider beside them because the whole team rode for them.

For RBH, Evenepoel and Lipowitz should stay together, because you can't start the first day with an internal leadership battle already. Which means, more than likely, Evenepoel can't go full throttle, and already loses seconds to Pogacar/Vingegaard.

Why wouldn't Remco be able to go full throttle? He can just take longer pulls, which is beneficial to the his time anyway, and finish with Lipowitz

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Indeed, chances are already extremely slim they can take the win, but they are higher with 2 leaders than just 1

But are they higher still with 8 leaders?

 

[Cycling111]

He doesn't necessarily have to be disadvantaged.

Pogacar won Paris-Nice in 2023, but Jumbo won the time trial. In this TTT team time trial tram is more important than the final section.
Pogacar was only able to close the gap because Jumbo had a significant leadover UAE at the first intermediate point. He reduced the gap, but the gap was insurmountable for victory.

Taking Paris-Nice TTT as a reference, a cohesive time trial team remains the most important factor in this discipline. The last rider, in any case, minimizes losses, but if his team isn't the strongest, he's unlikely to win.

 

[Berniece]

Why wouldn't Remco be able to go full throttle? He can just take longer pulls, which is beneficial to the his time anyway, and finish with Lipowitz

He might drop Lipowitz, or you would expect both give their all an put equal effort in, which isn't possible then. So Evenepoel has to do more work. If he was the sole leader, he wouldn't have to do as much work, and could finish faster.

Not advocating for this btw. 2 leaders is best. Just saying, that this already has implications during TTT

 

[vappaxbipmv]

He might drop Lipowitz, or you would expect both give their all an put equal effort in, which isn't possible then. So Evenepoel has to do more work. If he was the sole leader, he wouldn't have to do as much work, and could finish faster.

Not advocating for this btw. 2 leaders is best. Just saying, that this already has implications during TTT

I don't see any way how any of the GC guys would fibish fresh(er) on this TTT

 

[pablohidalgo7]

Lipowitz finished the Paris-Nice TTT like a bullet last year, and yesterday I got the feeling he was almost on par with Remco in the few turns of him that we were able to watch. Honestly, I don't think it will be easy for Remco to shake him off in the Tour de France TTT, even going all out. Most likely, they'll both reach the final KM together without too much trouble, especially considering that Remco spend too much of energy in them from the first turn, which sometimes leaves him a bit tired by the end.

 

[Berniece]

Lipowitz finished the Paris-Nice TTT like a bullet last year, and yesterday I got the feeling he was almost on par with Remco in the few turns of him that we were able to watch. Honestly, I don't think it will be easy for Remco to shake him off in the Tour de France TTT, even going all out. Most likely, they'll both reach the final KM together without too much trouble, especially considering that Remco spend too much of energy in them from the first turn, which sometimes leaves him a bit tired by the end.

Was Lipowitz also doing 90s pulls?

 

[AmRacer]

Third in 2025.

That's not a better result than they have achieved.

 

[AmRacer]

He might drop Lipowitz, or you would expect both give their all an put equal effort in, which isn't possible then. So Evenepoel has to do more work. If he was the sole leader, he wouldn't have to do as much work, and could finish faster.

Not advocating for this btw. 2 leaders is best. Just saying, that this already has implications during TTT

And that's why they'll finish together, as earlier posts mention.

 

[AmRacer]

Was Lipowitz also doing 90s pulls?

That's why they will finish together

 

[pablohidalgo7]

Was Lipowitz also doing 90s pulls?

I didn´t timed it, but after Denz pulled only for some seconds Lipo did a pull of more than a minute carrying great speed. Although is possible that he is in best shape than the rest of Red bull Mallorca riders, he is coming from altitude.

 

[Berniece]

I didn´t timed it, but after Denz pulled only for some seconds Lipo did a pull of more than a minute carrying great speed. Although is possible that he is in best shape than the rest of Red bull Mallorca riders, he is coming from altitude.

I think the sole purpose of Denz was to stay as long as possible on Evenepoel's wheel and keep everyone else out of the wind, otherwise Evenepoel would ride his own teammates oblivion. Denz is quite big, and having him behind Evenepoel means the rest has enough cover. Which is probably why he only did 2s pulls.

 

[Berflamand]

I didn´t timed it, but after Denz pulled only for some seconds Lipo did a pull of more than a minute carrying great speed. Although is possible that he is in best shape than the rest of Red bull Mallorca riders, he is coming from altitude.

Van Gils said after the race that Remco did 90s pulls and Lipowitz 60s pulls.

Denz' role was indeed to just stay in the wheel of Remco and only pull for a couple of seconds to keep the pace intact and shelter everyone else. Denz said it was almost the same power output for him to stay in the wheel of Remco as to take a pull.

The plan was for Remco to pace the small climb at the end and for Denz to do a 'dead pull' over the top of the climb and then drop out.

For Remco to be able to pace the whole climb however, Cattaneo had to do a longer pull (on instructions of Patxi Vila) right before the climb which made him drop on the climb, which in turn made it necessary for Denz to still get back in line after his dead pull as they needed him as their fourth guy.

For what it's worth.

 

[pablohidalgo7]

Perfect explanation, thanks. Finn was a bit the weak point I would say, dropping even before Moscon (wich normally is out of shape in this arly months) but still managed to be with the team and contribute for more than half of the TTT despite his inexperience and light weight, not bad. Van Gils was a positive surprise looking good at the end.

 

[AlpRaid]

We need a report for that?

Because they were not shown on tv much, that’s all. As one poster was complaining.

 

[Wvv]

Remco doing Remco things.

 

[fenns]

why doesn't Remco do Milan San Remo? He'd possibly be favourite

 

[Cycling111]

Although he's fit, his physique is still different from Pogacar's, and Vingeggaard is even smaller than Pogacar, but Pogacar has a more climber physical than Remco. I suppose he'll lose weight for the Tour but I think he's going to have the same difficulties in the mountains against them.

His next step is to catch Vineggaard, but I find it hard to see him doing that in the high mountains. He has to wait for Almeida to make things difficult for Vingegaard in the Giro to arrive exhausted to the Tour.

 

[Berniece]

Easy win, 2 down 1 to go. I guess he'll try to do the same tomorrow on Coll de Puig Major. A bit steeper so we'll see if it'll be easier to drop others.

 

[peterfin]

Easy win, 2 down 1 to go. I guess he'll try to do the same tomorrow on Coll de Puig Major. A bit steeper so we'll see if it'll be easier to drop others.

He is in 'confidence building' mode so I wouldn't be surprised if he has his mind set on the hattrick.

 

[Lequack]

Can anyone beat him this season?

 

[chickenlips]

Suppose it's good training for him with his new team. Get to know them better in a race environment.