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

[LucVdB]

@Tinnekeisabella Some people really don't have an iota of common sense. I mean on this forum - Remco & Eddy are fine.

 

[memyselfandI]

Eddy Merckx should be removed from the title and any mention of him should be exorcised from the forum and forbidden henceforth

Eddy M should be removed from commentry box me thinks re his comments about RE being this and that..There you have a 'team player Merckx' who is stirring the pot few days before race and with this giving his best for the national team spirits and mental preparation. Yeah I know he knows, just 'ride lots'.

 

[Oldermanish]

Remco reacting to Eddy Merckx’s comment that he thought it had maybe been better to leave Remco home (well ok he is home anyways in Belgium but you get what I mean) as he probably wont ever work for Wout.

Evenepoel reageert op de kritiek van Eddy Merckx: “Heb veel respect voor hem, maar blijkbaar is dat niet wederzijds” https://www.hln.be/wk-wielrennen/evenepoel-reageert-op-de-kritiek-van-eddy-merckx-heb-veel-respect-voor-hem-maar-blijkbaar-is-dat-niet-wederzijds~affff369/

He says that Eddy always has to say something. That he has a lot of respect for Eddy but it is not mutual. That Eddy is probably still mad because he did not join Axel’s team…

I know Eddy can make some irrelevant comments, but there are more people who think he wont work for Wout.…I still believe Remco is one of the biggest talents ever, but someone should tell him that this is not the way to react to comments.

At this rate he is going to be having a lot of enemies in the cyclist world soon. ..

I personally believe we will get the signature Remco attack but he will then do some work for Wout as soon as they are caught.

Hopefully he does try to get things going for Wout and that would make the race exciting. He's a young kid and allowed to respond to Mr. Merckx who, historically has said whatever came to mind as well. I respect Eddy greatly and they appear more alike than ever.

 

[Rackham]

Of course Wout van Aert has to be team leader & favorite (he even has seniority as well), but I can't really ever remember another example of a team with such a fantastic talent (Remco Evenepoel) getting pressured from the outside (including from a "legend" like Merckx)... to clip Evenepoel's wings.

What if Wout van Aert gets a puncture or misses a split? What if Remco Evenepoel has better legs on the day? What if he can go solo at the right moment? He has seconds to make the right call, be offensive & not hesitate. The attitude I'm seeing from some onlookers is more "we must not let Evenepoel race" because apparently they believe that's the winning ticket to make WvA world champion.

I disagree.

 

[Bonimenier]

Of course Wout van Aert has to be team leader & favorite (he even has seniority as well), but I can't really ever remember another example of a team with such a fantastic talent (Remco Evenepoel) getting pressured from the outside (including from a "legend" like Merckx)... to clip Evenepoel's wings.

What if Wout van Aert gets a puncture or misses a split? What if Remco Evenepoel has better legs on the day? What if he can go solo at the right moment? He has seconds to make the right call, be offensive & not hesitate. The attitude I'm seeing from some onlookers is more "we must not let Evenepoel race" because apparently they believe that's the winning ticket to make WvA world champion.

I disagree.

Van Aert himself said that the plan is to let Evenepoel attack, so I'm not sure what some people are complaining about.

 

[memyselfandI]

Yeah just watching U23 race now. Man, it's difficult and technical route. Just small mistake in narrow streets and bad contact to the gutter and snap cracle pop.. Team captain gone and it's plan B then.

 

[Rackham]

Van Aert himself said that the plan is to let Evenepoel attack, so I'm not sure what some people are complaining about.

I'm here for the entertainment, so I don't want a shackled attack with a "I'm only doing this to make other teams chase & work for WvA" sign posted on his back. I want full power. And in recent months, Remco Evenepoel has become one of the go-to riders for entertainment. I don't care about WvA achieving personal glory on Sunday, I just want a good race on TV & that entails Remco Evenepoel going for the world title himself.

If the Belgians ride around in a train & kill the race until the final sprint, then only the most diehard WvA fans or plastic cycling fans with their national flag tattooed on their butts would cheer. I wouldn't.

 

[Oldermanish]

Yeah just watching U23 race now. Man, it's difficult and technical route. Just small mistake in narrow streets and bad contact to the gutter and snap cracle pop.. Team captain gone and it's plan B then.

If that's the case, Remco should spend some time up front so he can see what's coming.

 

[Lequack]

What's up with people getting banned, I've been two posters just from yesterday in this topic getting banned?

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

What's up with people getting banned, I've been two posters just from yesterday in this topic getting banned?

I'm guessing they came from the initially entertaining Patrick Lefevere thread rather than here. Or maybe the Clinic.

 

[Red Rick]

I'm here for the entertainment, so I don't want a shackled attack with a "I'm only doing this to make other teams chase & work for WvA" sign posted on his back. I want full power. And in recent months, Remco Evenepoel has become one of the go-to riders for entertainment. I don't care about WvA achieving personal glory on Sunday, I just want a good race on TV & that entails Remco Evenepoel going for the world title himself.

If the Belgians ride around in a train & kill the race until the final sprint, then only the most diehard WvA fans or plastic cycling fans with their national flag tattooed on their butts would cheer. I wouldn't.

Damn now I want Van Aert to win a sprint.

 

[topcat]

Remco will attack, create a lot of excitement, get caught and Alaphillipe will beat Wout in the sprint because DQS is the classics team.

 

[red_flanders]

Of course Wout van Aert has to be team leader & favorite (he even has seniority as well), but I can't really ever remember another example of a team with such a fantastic talent (Remco Evenepoel) getting pressured from the outside (including from a "legend" like Merckx)... to clip Evenepoel's wings.

What if Wout van Aert gets a puncture or misses a split? What if Remco Evenepoel has better legs on the day? What if he can go solo at the right moment? He has seconds to make the right call, be offensive & not hesitate. The attitude I'm seeing from some onlookers is more "we must not let Evenepoel race" because apparently they believe that's the winning ticket to make WvA world champion.

I disagree.

At a bare minimum it seems really dumb to publicly announce that a contender won't be given room to go for the win.

 

[Red Rick]

At a bare minimum it seems really dumb to publicly announce that a contender won't be given room to go for the win.

If I were a contender I wouldn't give a rats ass what they were saying in the press I wouldn't let Evenepoel get a gap if he attacked and I was near the front myself.

I actually think Evenepoel following others isn't a good way to use him at all, and it's better if he either attacks solo or he paces the group for Van Aert and tries to bring him to a sprint.

 

[postmanhat]

Just noticed the Giro D'ell Emilia (next Saturday) has been added to his schedule. Apologies if already mentioned

 

[johnymax]

If I were a contender I wouldn't give a rats ass what they were saying in the press I wouldn't let Evenepoel get a gap if he attacked and I was near the front myself.

I actually think Evenepoel following others isn't a good way to use him at all, and it's better if he either attacks solo or he paces the group for Van Aert and tries to bring him to a sprint.

The important thing is him going solo. If he brings other strong riders with him, he better be sure he can drop them later or he'll be only doing other teams a favor with his action.

 

[Bonimenier]

Just noticed the Giro D'ell Emilia (next Saturday) has been added to his schedule. Apologies if already mentioned

The field of that race is pretty stacked. Should be a fun race.

 

[red_flanders]

If I were a contender I wouldn't give a rats ass what they were saying in the press I wouldn't let Evenepoel get a gap if he attacked and I was near the front myself.

I actually think Evenepoel following others isn't a good way to use him at all, and it's better if he either attacks solo or he paces the group for Van Aert and tries to bring him to a sprint.

Both things are true. No, you're not going to pay much attention to it, and it's still dumb to announce it.

 

[LesDiablesRouges]

The Belgian coach wasn't pleased with Evenepoel's kamikaze attack at the Olympics, if you read between the lines. It would surprise me if Evenepoel went rogue this time. This about says it all:

“It’s not a main goal to win fans back but I think it’s good for him at his age, with a World Championships in Belgium, with everyone together,” Vanthourenhout told Cyclingnews.

I mean can you really call that move at the Olympics an attack? It was more like a feint to see who was ready to go.

 

[LesDiablesRouges]

Both things are true. No, you're not going to pay much attention to it, and it's still dumb to announce it.

Agreed, but we all know that the easiest way to ensure a Belgian victory is to mimic what happened at the Belgian National Road Race Championships. Use Evenepoel to blow up the field and have him tow Van Aert to the line for a sprint victory.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

1/ They should make the race as hard as possible well before the final. Else it doesn't make sense to have Evenepoel attack. He doesn't have the zip or punch to drop other WT riders when they aren't on the limit. Else every Tom, D!ck and Harry could simply get in his wheel and he'll have a hard time getting rid of them. It also makes no sense to attack if the entire peloton is fresh and can get organized easily. If Italy, Netherlands, France, Denmark... all have one or two fresh domestiques in the chase, they can keep him within reach without breaking a sweat. However if the race has taken its toll, and he attacks from a group of 40, with teams being diminished to 2 or 3 guys, getting organized will be a lot harder. In that case, he will force bigger names to commit to the chase, which is in favor of Van Aert.

2/ If he can't get away solo and has some other strong riders with him, he should ride until there is a sizable gap, and then stop cooperating. He doesn't have a sprint, his leader is in the chasing group, he has no incentive to ride once the gap is established. He has nothing to gain from further distancing his leader, and towing rivals to the finish for him to be beaten. If his companions keep riding, he can attack them and try to get away solo after all.

3/ He has to attack before leaving the Flandrien circuit. He can tire his companions out if he takes the time, but not on 10 or 15 km. Having him attack in one of the last local laps makes no sense unless he can go solo, but at that point nobody is going to let him leave and the local laps aren't hard enough for him to get away solo anyway. Attacking from further out will invite b-tier or c-tier favorites to try and go with him, while the biggest guns will probably not feel comfortable going in the offensive too soon, risking to put everything in an attack that has a high likelihood of getting caught, especially with Evenepoel not towing them to the line, like he did Colbrelli two weeks ago.

4/ He doesn't have to attack too soon either. The sooner he attacks, the bigger the peloton will still be, the easier to control him. Having him attack with 100k to go is not credible, even for him, unless he's part of a bigger break initially, that might get some freedom from the peloton, when rival countries assume they have a guy up there who can keep up and outsprint Evenepoel.


So, make the race hard before his attack. It has the added bonus of choking (or dropping) guys like Ewan and getting rid of a lot of domestiques, meaning the bigger names will have to get their hands dirty sooner than they'd have hoped. Attack from further than what most of Van Aert's rivals would deem comfortable, so that they would not try to go with Evenepoel at that point, meaning he doesn't get the cream of the crop in his wheel, but guys he might be able to drop eventually on this course.

 

[Sandisfan]

Eddy Merckx should be removed from the title and any mention of him should be exorcised from the forum and forbidden henceforth

I could see an argument to remove the Merckx reference.

Earlier in in this thread I suggested the Evenepol Experiment but now think that changing it to Evenepol Experience for the action in this Thread would be appropriate.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I could see an argument to remove the Merckx reference.

Earlier in in this thread I suggested the Evenepol Experiment but now think that changing it to Evenepol Experience for the action in this Thread would be appropriate.

Evenepoel.

Then just change the title when needed like:
The Evenepoel Identity.
The Evenepoel Supremacy.
The Evenepoel Ultimatum.

 

[Savant12]

Merckx is just upset because he saw the title of this thread after watching Bambi at the Giro.

 

[Red Rick]

1/ They should make the race as hard as possible well before the final. Else it doesn't make sense to have Evenepoel attack. He doesn't have the zip or punch to drop other WT riders when they aren't on the limit. Else every Tom, D!ck and Harry could simply get in his wheel and he'll have a hard time getting rid of them. It also makes no sense to attack if the entire peloton is fresh and can get organized easily. If Italy, Netherlands, France, Denmark... all have one or two fresh domestiques in the chase, they can keep him within reach without breaking a sweat. However if the race has taken its toll, and he attacks from a group of 40, with teams being diminished to 2 or 3 guys, getting organized will be a lot harder. In that case, he will force bigger names to commit to the chase, which is in favor of Van Aert.

2/ If he can't get away solo and has some other strong riders with him, he should ride until there is a sizable gap, and then stop cooperating. He doesn't have a sprint, his leader is in the chasing group, he has no incentive to ride once the gap is established. He has nothing to gain from further distancing his leader, and towing rivals to the finish for him to be beaten. If his companions keep riding, he can attack them and try to get away solo after all.

3/ He has to attack before leaving the Flandrien circuit. He can tire his companions out if he takes the time, but not on 10 or 15 km. Having him attack in one of the last local laps makes no sense unless he can go solo, but at that point nobody is going to let him leave and the local laps aren't hard enough for him to get away solo anyway. Attacking from further out will invite b-tier or c-tier favorites to try and go with him, while the biggest guns will probably not feel comfortable going in the offensive too soon, risking to put everything in an attack that has a high likelihood of getting caught, especially with Evenepoel not towing them to the line, like he did Colbrelli two weeks ago.

4/ He doesn't have to attack too soon either. The sooner he attacks, the bigger the peloton will still be, the easier to control him. Having him attack with 100k to go is not credible, even for him, unless he's part of a bigger break initially, that might get some freedom from the peloton, when rival countries assume they have a guy up there who can keep up and outsprint Evenepoel.


So, make the race hard before his attack. It has the added bonus of choking (or dropping) guys like Ewan and getting rid of a lot of domestiques, meaning the bigger names will have to get their hands dirty sooner than they'd have hoped. Attack from further than what most of Van Aert's rivals would deem comfortable, so that they would not try to go with Evenepoel at that point, meaning he doesn't get the cream of the crop in his wheel, but guys he might be able to drop eventually on this course.

Yeah he isn't winning a solo if the peloton is too big. What I'm curious about is if the circuit in Leuven helps him but I'm not sure there. It makes chasing hard but it's also a lot of stopping and starting and very technical, and the hills aren't nearly long enough to make up for his lack of explosivity.