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

[Berniece]

I think that if it had been Liège today, Remco would have destroyed these riders with the same heat.

I don't believe in the "he isn't build for double digit steep mountains". He showed before he has no issues with this. There needs to be an explanation why he finished 18th, behind Graat Tijmen.

I already know that the excuse that will be used is going to frustrate me, and most people will see it as a weak excuse.

 

[Didinho]

I think so too, but it's his 8th professional season already. These things shouldn't be happening anymore.

New team, new clothes and supplies. Roglic was also struggling in the first rain and hot weather. But yeah this should’ve been sorted out already. Sometimes this happens. I ride 15k/year and also often forget to drink/eat early on, everyone knows you have to but happens sometimes.

 

[Rou]

I don't believe in the "he isn't build for double digit steep mountains". He showed before he has no issues with this. There needs to be an explanation why he finished 18th, behind Graat Tijmen.

I already know that the excuse that will be used is going to frustrate me, and most people will see it as a weak excuse.

He is over focusing on being the best time trialist in history. I know it sounds weird but I firmly believe it is limiting his climbing potential.

 

[KoopaCycling]

If he needs to be in 'Tour' shape then they're doing his prep wrong. He was great on Lo Port in the Tour of Catalunya back in 2023 versus Rog so I don't buy the whole (Tour prep or bust) idea. There's something else.

Something else? I dunno. If the climb stayed like it was during the first part of it, i think remco more than finishes well. The higher gradients blew him up imo. Not the length of the climb. I'm not sure how you can change that without a metamorphosis. Less Muscle/weight. They seemed to have gotten it more or less right in 2024. I'm hoping Red Bull can finetweak that, or bring him back to that level when he is doing a GT. Outside of GT, i don't think it's feasible to keep him in GT shape for long. And they should focus on what suits him most in current shape. Anything without those long steep climbs basically.

 

[Andre]

you can't win every day...Remco will be ok. Still not bad for February

 

[jotafap]

I mean, there’s no excuse. You can’t keep creating all sorts of scenarios in which he wins, and when he fails miserably, blame it on this or that. What happened today is nothing we haven’t seen time and time again, regardless of the outlier occasions when it didn’t happen, TdF 24 and Vuelta 22.

Nevertheless, it’s obviously not a stage in February that allows us to conclude whether his season will be a success or a failure.

 

[Rackham]

Something else? I dunno. If the climbs stayed like it was during the first part of it, i think remco more than finishes well. The higher gradients blew him up imo. Not the length of the climb. I'm not sure how you can change that without a metamorphosis. Less Muscle/weight. They seemed to have gotten it more or less right in 2024. I'm hoping Red Bull can finetweak that, or bring him back to that level when he is doing a GT. Outside of GT, i don't think it's feasible to keep him in GT shape for long. And they should focus on what suits him most in current shape. Anything without those long steep climbs basically.

Two minutes lost though. He won UAE back in 2023 as well so... irrespective of the climb profile it's not outlandish to suggest he can do way better.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

you can't win every day...Remco will be ok. Still not bad for February

Yeah, might be nothing, but the consistency with which he underwhelms at these occasions is worrying no matter when it happens, especially since he had a proper winter for once, did he not?

 

[saunaking]

Maybe drank not enough in the easy part of the stage, seemed like cramping. Looked good when he bridged to the front, but you knew he was done when he got dropped again.

Curious what he’ll say about it himself.

Looked good? A 10 second effort before any real effort had been put out?
Looked dumb in hindsight

 

[Berniece]

Looked good? A 10 second effort before any real effort had been put out?
Looked dumb in hindsight

You don't make that effort if you were thinking everything will be fine. He blew up out of nowhere and lost to Graat Tijmen... Obviously there must be a reason for that.

 

[kingjr]

You don't make that effort if you were thinking everything will be fine. He blew up out of nowhere and lost to Graat Tijmen... Obviously there must be a reason for that.

I think he saw van Wilder attack and he didn't like the optics of his former helper riding away from him after he switched teams to get better support.

 

[KoopaCycling]

You don't make that effort if you were thinking everything will be fine. He blew up out of nowhere and lost to Graat Tijmen... Obviously there must be a reason for that.

I don't think he knew the climb at all. My thought, his plan was to follow the danger men and blew himself up doing so.
Like the broadcasters he though Del Toro did not have it, and needed to look at Gall, ... . A miscalculation to say the least.
Most of those that went early paid the price. In hindsight he should have paced himself and tried to minimise the damage.
Unfortunately, i still think he loses a minute today, regardless, as he did not seem to have it today.

 

[Berniece]

DS - extraordinair - Lodewyck responded with: "We have no clue what went wrong".

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe tast (voorlopig) in het duister over Remco Evenepoel en krampen: "Ging misschien over de limiet" | sporza

De etappe naar Jebel Mobrah is voor Remco Evenepoel een lijdensweg geworden. De leider verloor 2'04" op de zware slotklim en moet een kruis maken over zijn ambities in de UAE Tour. Kort na de finish kon ploegleider Klaas Lodewyck de vinger nog niet meteen op de wonde leggen. "Misschien ging hij...

sporza.be

 

[Cycling111]

I don't believe in the "he isn't build for double digit steep mountains". He showed before he has no issues with this. There needs to be an explanation why he finished 18th, behind Graat Tijmen.

I already know that the excuse that will be used is going to frustrate me, and most people will see it as a weak excuse.

Saying they have problems in the mountains doesn't mean they can't have good days.

The problem is that Remco has more bad days than good ones. What matters is the trend, and Remco's in the mountains is quite negative.

Although I've already said he can do another Tour like the one in 2024, that kind of preparation is harder for him than for a climber.

 

[jmdirt]

This isn't what I was expecting, but I'm not making any 2026 predictions based on this race day. Two minutes isn't a big deal because once it went bad he shipped it. If it was TdF he would have battled harder to limit time loss.

 

[Berniece]

Although I've already said he can do another Tour like the one in 2024, that kind of preparation is harder for him than for a climber.

I agree with that, but that's the TDF. This is UAE Tour. He shouldn't have issues without an explanation in these kind of races against this opposition if he's able to drop all of them by 10min in the TDF.

 

[Rackham]

Oh man. The gift that keeps on giving. Denk fires Aldag and Gasparotto just to get the latest version of "we don't know what went wrong".

 

[Tim Cahill]

Rolf Aldag-core, they owe him an apology.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Kind of a bummer he'll go into altitude training with a bad result. Hopefully he'll have a better Catalunya.

 

[Berniece]

Kind of a bummer he'll go into altitude training with a bad result. Hopefully he'll have a better Catalunya.

Race isn't over yet. Not to mean he's going to win GC, more like he can still try to go for a stage and salvage something out of this race.

 

[Cycling111]

Race isn't over yet. Not to mean he's going to win GC, more like he can still try to go for a stage and salvage something out of this race.

Next mountain stage is better for Remco, but also for Del Toro. Del Toro is most likely to win in a sprint.

Tiberi will win the GC if he finishes with them that day. He looks strong and should be able to hold on to that climb.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

DS - extraordinair - Lodewyck responded with: "We have no clue what went wrong".

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe tast (voorlopig) in het duister over Remco Evenepoel en krampen: "Ging misschien over de limiet" | sporza

De etappe naar Jebel Mobrah is voor Remco Evenepoel een lijdensweg geworden. De leider verloor 2'04" op de zware slotklim en moet een kruis maken over zijn ambities in de UAE Tour. Kort na de finish kon ploegleider Klaas Lodewyck de vinger nog niet meteen op de wonde leggen. "Misschien ging hij...

sporza.be

'we don't know what went wrong' - Translation - we took a fat rider as leader on a 10km @ 10% climb and he started attacking 7km out

 

[AmRacer]

I agree with that, but that's the TDF. This is UAE Tour. He shouldn't have issues without an explanation in these kind of races against this opposition if he's able to drop all of them by 10min in the TDF.

Is he?

 

[theyoungest]

I don't believe in the "he isn't build for double digit steep mountains". He showed before he has no issues with this. There needs to be an explanation why he finished 18th, behind Graat Tijmen.

I already know that the excuse that will be used is going to frustrate me, and most people will see it as a weak excuse.

I believe you're a native speaker of Dutch, so you should know that this can't be his name. It's Tijmen Graat

Of course Evenepoel can do better than this, but the fact remains that in nearly every stage race, at some point he just cracks on a climb. And there's always excuses, like today it's cramp, tomorrow it's the wrong bike, the day after it's sickness. I don't see why this should be any different this year, it's not like Bora have proved to be miracle workers thus far. Evenepoel is a really good rider, just not a born climber.

 

[Salvarani]

Shocking statement from the DS.

Why not say it wasnt the best day and they will analyse it.

Saying "we have no idea" is very amateurish and straight up laughable. Even if its true, why say it in public?
It does not fill anyone with confidence to say the least.