Was reading this article on him in la Gazzetta dello Sport this morning and, apart from misquoting his weight as 61 kg, at 1.71 m in the sidebar, which was his weight at last year's Giro (whereas it is stated correctly as 63 kg in the article), something occurred to me. Remco himself, following the line of thought of his trainer, maintains that his weight of 61 kg at last year's Giro came at the expense of power: "My preparation for the Vuelta has been completely different compared to the Giro. The power to weight relationship is better. In 2021 I weighed less, but I was missing the necessary power. Now my weight is a bit higher and I have it."
Ok, however, and this is my query, did he perhaps not have the sufficient power to weight ratio at last year's Giro, because, as he and everyone else knows, he was "robbed" of nine months after mid-August Lombardia and thus his preparation was simply rushed and woefully inadequite, as he hadn't even raced once since the accident, and not because his weight was too low?
In other words, much ado is being made about the actual weight issue, which is only a difference of 2 kg, and not about the dreadful circumstances that preceeded his GT debut last year. Frankly this is perplexing, as one would imagine that the lack of power experiencd at 2 kg less last year would be at the same weight overcome/compensated by adequite prep and another year's racing in the legs this time around. Unless at his present weight he gains massively in watts to kg ratio, it's difficult to image, again with the right prep and racing beforehand, he would not enjoy the watts of today at last year's Giro weight. But evidently, according to the line of thinking at QS, this is not the case.