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

[SafeBet]

To me the only real concern is his bike handling / descending skills.
At one point Ineos will try to exploit this, have the whole team attack on a descent and see what happens. If Remco gets distanced and Ineos still has Ganna/Castro/Moscon in the valley it's game over.
Plus I hope he's well prepared for the strade bianche stage. That's a key point of the race. Gaps could be very big, especially in bad weather.

His climbing level is obviously very good already.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

I heard Masnada is training in the Giro in order to lead DQS at the Tour?

Too many kms of ITT for Masnada at the Tour, I am a realist. A shame to waste him today, maybe he is not as strong or exciting as remco but it was pointless for him to pull

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

It's only the Giro... Wait till he rides the Tour.

Only Bernal, no Roglic.
Only Roglic, no Pogacar.
Only Pogacar, no Masnada.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

To me the only real concern is his bike handling / descending skills.
At one point Ineos will try to exploit this, have the whole team attack on a descent and see what happens. If Remco gets distanced and Ineos still has Ganna/Castro/Moscon in the valley it's game over.
Plus I hope he's well prepared for the strade bianche stage. That's a key point of the race. Gaps could be very big, especially in bad weather.

His climbing level is obviously very good already.

Wheelsucking Bernal in a headwind and make 0 pulls doesnt indicate anything about his climbing level, but he is smart. We see his true climbing level on the Giau and the Zoncolan.

 

[Sciatic]

Yeah it's sometimes annoying that people have constantly typed 'wait until he rides a WT race' 'wait until it's not Tour de Pologne' and yet never have to publicly eat crow for it. But that's the internet for you.

If there was any justice in having to eat crow for making stupid remarks without consequences, I would be serving it up to all the “It’s just like the flu” loudmouths from a year ago, including a couple at my worplace!

 

[Volderke]

Wheelsucking Bernal in a headwind and make 0 pulls doesnt indicate anything about his climbing level, but he is smart. We see his true climbing level on the Giau and the Zoncolan.

I agree. Begin a pretty good wheelsucker myself, I can only testify that it enables me to follow anyone on the biggest climbs with ease.

 

[railxmig]

Plus I hope he's well prepared for the strade bianche stage. That's a key point of the race. Gaps could be very big, especially in bad weather.

It's still a week to go but for now there's no rain forecasted.

 

[Lui98]

Wheelsucking Bernal in a headwind and make 0 pulls doesnt indicate anything about his climbing level, but he is smart. We see his true climbing level on the Giau and the Zoncolan.

Well, he was capable of following Bernal on a climb, a thing that all the other GC riders except himself, Martin and Ciccone didn't do.
I don' t know how he will perform in the Zoncolan, but I think this performance says a lot about his climbing level. He is good.

 

[GuntherL1]

Wheelsucking Bernal in a headwind and make 0 pulls doesnt indicate anything about his climbing level, but he is smart. We see his true climbing level on the Giau and the Zoncolan.

If following Bernal says nothing about the climbing level, why were Yates and Vlasov distanced?

 

[Netserk]

While I think the hype can be a bit OTT (and make it a bit difficult to discern what the honest expectations are), it's extremely pleasant to have him in the race and in this shape, as his strong ITT will affect the race dynamics. I hope both he and Bernal will hold up the entire Giro. Now there's two medium uphill finishes before the Montalcino stage, and then Zonc will show if we should expect him to win this bike race.

 

[Walter1234]

Evenepoel seemed to follow Bernal easily.
Not sure if Bernal couldn't do any better or if he was happy with the situation.
If Roglic was there he would have gone for the stage win. Now it seemed that the GC riders were all happy with the situation.

I wonder if Bernal has an idea on how to beat Evenepoel. The few boni seconds will not help him in the ITT.

Will we still see Ineos riding in front like we did today deal?
And is Knox being saved for the 3th week?

 

[spalco]

I wonder if Bernal has an idea on how to beat Evenepoel.

I think bernal did have more power left. Had he already made a gap he would have increased it on the last 2km. But he didn't get the gap, so it was pointless to fight against the wind and give up the bonus seconds.

How to beat remco? Attack attack attack on the steepest slopes and hope you're strong enough that it sticks.

 

[Andre]

Remco looked very strong. He just followed the top guys and kept a lot in reserve. He is stronger day by day. Bernal looked tired and a few times I saw him favouring his back. We might be in for a good Giro. I thank Ineos for the strong pace that broke Vlasov and Yates and company to a certain degree. I'm sure the 2 will have better stages. Horrible what happened to Serry.

 

[Skalman]

The hype is real, so far he has performed a lot better than i expected. Now he is the clear favorite to win this Giro, how absurd isn't that?
No matter that the other favorites really doesn't seem to have hit their form, its still super impressive

 

[Panda Claws]

Still no real clue about his recovery though.

By the way, do we have a good example of a rider who can consistently maintain a high GC level for 1-2 weeks but then gets shafted by his medicore recovery? Perhaps someone like Luis Léon Sanchez in his prime, but I never really followed that one?

 

[Jagartrott]

Zoncolan will for sure be very interesting. I don't think he has ever climbed anything like that in a race, right? I would think that mountain would not be his favourite type, but then again, he's lighter than ever and knows how to pace himself. Still, Bernal without back pain would be expected to gain time there.

 

[Big Doopie]

[QUOTE="Skalman, post: 2557067, member: 126481]
Now he is the clear favorite to win this Giro, how absurd isn't that?
[/QUOTE]

Hmm. Not sure about that. Bernal so far is the strongest. Remco has suffered at high gradients. Zoncolan may be tough. The lack of TT really plays into Bernal’s strengths. In fact, why last years giro would have been a cakewalk for Remco.

However, if Remco shows good recovery (which I think he will), and gets close to where he was in Poland last year, then he has a chance. For now, though, Bernal is my favorite to win.

 

[Skalman]

[/QUOTE]

Hmm. Not sure about that. Bernal so far is the strongest. Remco has suffered at high gradients. Zoncolan may be tough. The lack of TT really plays into Bernal’s strengths. In fact, why last years giro would have been a cakewalk for Remco.

However, if Remco shows good recovery (which I think he will), and gets close to where he was in Poland last year, then he has a chance. For now, though, Bernal is my favorite to win.
[/QUOTE]
There is no lack of TT, there is a 30k TT at the end which Remco probably gains 1.20-1.30 on Bernal

 

[Big Doopie]

There is no lack of TT, there is a 30k TT at the end which Remco probably gains 1.20-1.30 on Bernal

I really do not mean to be insulting but how old are you?

38kms of TT is an historical low.

This giro favors climbers by far. If Remco is competitive it is even more impressive...

 

[Anybody_but..]

The hype is real, so far he has performed a lot better than i expected. Now he is the clear favorite to win this Giro, how absurd isn't that?
No matter that the other favorites really doesn't seem to have hit their form, its still super impressive

It looked like so easy, he has to follow Bernal till Milan ITT.
But we must wait at least till next Sunday even till Zoncolan. After that, if he manage to survive... yes, it would be Remco Giro.

 

[Skalman]

I really do not mean to be insulting but how old are you?

38kms of TT is an historical low.

This giro favors climbers by far. If Remco is competitive it is even more impressive...

Nice are you ok?
Lol, that is hardly lack of a TT then is it ?when one of the favorites are so clear favorite in that discipline compared to the rest of the favourites.
You have to take that account, as I'm sure the other favorites are.
If you choose to ignore that, you choose to ignore a factor that might decide this years Giro.
1.30 isn't dogshit if this Giro is tight.

 

[Panda Claws]

Nice are you ok?
Lol, that is hardly lack of a TT then is it ?when one of the favorites are so clear favorite in that discipline compared to the rest of the favourites.
You have to take that account, as I'm sure the other favorites are.
If you choose to ignore that, you choose to ignore a factor that might decide this years Giro.
1.30 isn't dogshit if this Giro is tight.

You took 'lack of TT' way too literally. It's embarassing. Everyone else knew perfectly what Big Doopie meant.

 

[Skalman]

You took 'lack of TT' way too literally. It's embarassing. Everyone else knew perfectly what Big Doopie meant.

So it doesnt matter? we can just ignore it?

 

[Big Doopie]

Nice are you ok?
Lol, that is hardly lack of a TT then is it ?when one of the favorites are so clear favorite in that discipline compared to the rest of the favourites.
You have to take that account, as I'm sure the other favorites are.
If you choose to ignore that, you choose to ignore a factor that might decide this years Giro.
1.30 isn't dogshit if this Giro is tight.

i really think you are missing the point.

38 total kms of TT is ridiculously low and favors pure climbers. Why do you think Bernal, Carthy, Martin, Landa, Yates, etc... are among the favorites.

There was a time that you had over (even well over) 100 kms of TT in a GT. And the winners were more well-rounded because of it. The above riders would have been mentioned as having top ten/climbers jersey potential. In recent years there has been a move away from TTs in GTs that has favored pure climbers. At one point Carapaz, Yates and Bernal were the holders of the GTs. that is simply unheard of in cycling history.

having one TT to re-coup 1.30 mins is chicken sh!t for the rider who has all-around capabilites. why do you think remco is forced to drop weight.

remco would have strolled all over last year's giro. and he had a better chance of winning this year's TDF than this giro -- in terms of parcours.

 

[Extinction]

Remco is clearly in good shape. Sunday's finish at Campo Felice on the sentiere I think will say something more. I know the climb and that last 1.5 klm on the sterrato have perhaps been understimated in terms of difficulty. Some riders could falter. Then the Montalcino stage is another huge test, as well as of course the Zoncolan. If Remco is still with Bernal into the last week then he becomes the real favorite, because of the final TT. But it is still too early to forecast.