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

[steffr222]

Can't win this TT by a huge margin cornering like Evenepoel did.

And a 2nd week just may make form taper off even more.

In the Olympics, the ITT is after the road race, and at the Olympics, the Tour de France riders all sucked at the ITT while doing well while dominating the road race.

In top form he does win this, but then this is without Van Aert, and Ganna throwing a big stinker.

Guess preparation would and could have been a lot better in that case though. Foss is pretty much the perfect example

 

[Didinho]

His worst TT result of the year.

 

[The fridge in the blue trees]

and then to cap off the first half of the Vuelta he crushed all GC opposition in a short ITT by larger amounts than anyone really expected.

It's this kind of post that makes the thread so hilarious. The constant rewriting of history. He pretty much won the Vuelta - ITT with the expected results. Some did better than expected, Lopez, some worse, Ayuso, Almeida, Arensman. But vs Mas was pretty much the expected result, if anything very very slightly less (looked like much less for a while, then Mas ran out of energy). Roglic 30"-1' could be expected, closer to 30", was closer to 1', so there he won slightly more than could be expected but certainly nothing sensational considering Roglic's way to the Vuelta at least.

 

[Extinction]

His worst TT result of the year.

He did look disappointed on the podium. At any rate, if cornering was an issue, with all those that were on the course, it may well have cost him 6, 7, 8 secs and who knows, perhaps more, Whereas Kung was impecable through the corners and so was Foss evidently, although there wasn't much coverage of him to see.

 

[IndianCyclist]

His worst TT result of the year.

But he beat Pogacar and that is what matters for the future

 

[Extinction]

It's this kind of post that makes the thread so hilarious. The constant rewriting of history. He pretty much won the Vuelta - ITT with the expected results. Some did better than expected, Lopez, some worse, Ayuso, Almeida, Arensman. But vs Mas was pretty much the expected result, if anything very very slightly less (looked like much less for a while, then Mas ran out of energy). Roglic 30"-1' could be expected, closer to 30", was closer to 1', so there he won slightly more than could be expected but certainly nothing sensational considering Roglic's way to the Vuelta at least.

That's a fair assessment, although Roglic's perfomance on stage 4 suggested he was in top shape, even if he was slightly off on the first mountain stages.

 

[Winnen]

His worst TT result of the year.

Just read an interview with Remco. He says this was his best TT ever if he considers only his power output. So he has kept his Vuelta form (even improved?). He and WvA should be a mighty combination next week.

 

[Didinho]

He did look disappointed on the podium. At any rate, if cornering was an issue, with all those that were on the course, it may well have cost him 6, 7, 8 secs and who knows, perhaps more, Whereas Kung was impecable through the corners and so was Foss evidently, although there wasn't much coverage of him to see.

He looked disappointed after the finish when he heard who won and by what margin. He did his best power output ever, but there were so many corners so he was fresher on the straights, which is normal. With fewer corners he could be closer or won, he said afterwards. But no excuses with Vuelta or so. The wind was a lot more in the 2nd lap.

 

[bNator]

That's a fair assessment, although Roglic's perfomance on stage 4 suggested he was in top shape, even if he was slightly off on the first mountain stages.

Stage 4 is Roglič's favourite terrain and if he didn't win there that would mean he's in terrible shape. I think many stages in this Vuelta suggest that Roglič was not in top shape that we were used to in the last couple of years, at least not in the first part of the Vuelta. If nothing else, getting dropped by Mas on more than one occasion is quite an indication. Not to say that Roglič in top shape would beat Remco in TT - but he would be closer that he was IMO.

 

[Red Rick]

Just read an interview with Remco. He says this was his best TT ever if he considers only his power output. So he has kept his Vuelta form (even improved?). He and WvA should be a mighty combination next week.

I'm sure he had time for data analysis in the 3 minutes between finishing the race and the interview.

 

[topcat]

I'm sure he had time for data analysis in the 3 minutes between finishing the race and the interview.

Excel pumps it out as fast as you can enter it. Feelings, Rick, all we're left with is feelings.

 

[Extinction]

H will have indeed been pissed. if his power output was that high, which means if he cornered poorly he has every reason to be frustrated with himself. Although its better to finish third than crash out going for the win.

 

[tobydawq]

H will have indeed been pissed. if his power output was that high, which means if he cornered poorly he has every reason to be frustrated with himself. Although its better to finish third than crash out going for the win.

He also didn't overtake a rider, unlike Küng and Foss.

It wouldn't have given him 10 seconds, but between that and the cornering, there probably are 10 seconds to find.

 

[peterfin]

It was an ITT where technical details such as cornering speed mattered a lot. I had the impression that Remco took more margin than Kung and Foss. There was little opportunity to play the aero game. What I don't understand is WVA's absence? This could have been his title.

Overall I conclude that it is again a great performance of Remco. His consistency in getting time trials podiums is really remarkeable.

 

[Didinho]

It was an ITT where technical details such as cornering speed mattered a lot. I had the impression that Remco took more margin than Kung and Foss. There was little opportunity to play the aero game. What I don't understand is WVA's absence? This could have been his title.

Overall I conclude that it is again a great performance of Remco. His consistency in getting time trials podiums is really remarkeable.

With these corners even Mathieu could do well here, if prepared.

 

[Red Rick]

With these corners even Mathieu could do well here, if prepared.

Van der Poel got beaten by Simon frigging Yates on a much shorter super technical TT that supposedly suited him perfectly.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Van der Poel got beaten by Simon frigging Yates on a much shorter super technical TT that supposedly suited him perfectly.

True, but he was never really great that Giro

 

[Big Doopie]

'Today was the first day I started to feel a bit normal'

He said he felt terrible after the trip and had to be careful how he got out of the blocks (I guess in case he imploded). He then said that he was only “good” during the race.

still hoping he can play a part in a week.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

He also didn't overtake a rider, unlike Küng and Foss.

It wouldn't have given him 10 seconds, but between that and the cornering, there probably are 10 seconds to find.

In case the cornering was indeed a problem, then you could well lose more than 10 seconds over the course of the TT. Taking a high speed corner too wide, or slow down too much, going into the corner at less than optimal speed and having to make up for that coming out of the corner, will cost you 10 meters or more. You start losing distance by braking too soon/hard, you lose distance by a less than ideal trajectory, and you lose distance coming out of the corner too slow and it will take longer to get back to top speed.

Though we did see Evenepoel take some corners less than great, i don't think we got to follow him closely enough to be able to determine whether this was an issue throughout the race. But if it was, then he could certainly have lost the race there.

EDIT: If you look at this strava Segment, you can see he loses a full 2 seconds in just the last corner to Bissegger, who takes the actual corner almost 10kmh faster. So it does look like he did indeed lose this in the technical sections of the course.

https://www.strava.com/segments/31348012?filter=overall

 

[Berniece]

Based on his performance today in the ITT, I expect a lot of him on Sunday. I don't see them being able to drop him, but also not sure he's able to drop others, and he won't win the sprint.

Belgium has to decide if they want to make it really difficult with high pace all day, which is bad for Wout, but better for Remco.

 

[Extinction]

In case the cornering was indeed a problem, then you could well lose more than 10 seconds over the course of the TT. Taking a high speed corner too wide, or slow down too much, going into the corner at less than optimal speed and having to make up for that coming out of the corner, will cost you 10 meters or more. You start losing distance by braking too soon/hard, you lose distance by a less than ideal trajectory, and you lose distance coming out of the corner too slow and it will take longer to get back to top speed.

Though we did see Evenepoel take some corners less than great, i don't think we got to follow him closely enough to be able to determine whether this was an issue throughout the race. But if it was, then he could certainly have lost the race there.

EDIT: If you look at this strava Segment, you can see he loses a full 2 seconds in just the last corner to Bissegger, who takes the actual corner almost 10kmh faster. So it does look like he did indeed lose this in the technical sections of the course.

https://www.strava.com/segments/31348012?filter=overall

The coverage I watched was RAI Italia, although I presume it was the same everywhere. At any rate, the rider that got the most screen time seemed to be Kung and Alessandro Petacchi kept remarking how well he was navigating the turns and was stunned that Foss, who wasn't seen as much, was faster. Hence, I think Kung and Foss really drilled it throughout every turn, whereas I do remember one of the sharper bends Remco negotiated in particular, where it was like, ahh man, he didn't do that fast enough (based on Kung as a reference).

 

[Wyndbrook]

Never mind, they can all look forward to riding in the rain next year.

 

[Big Doopie]

View: https://youtu.be/WQQaCyscH38

 

[Riek s]

Remco said he was tired/sleepy. His legs maybe felt ok, but as far as his cornering is concerned i wonder if him being tired/not slept well/feeling the jetlag has anything to do with that. (hard to judge when to break/corner when your mind isn't completely at the same location). He also seemed to have a harder time to stay in aero tuck but that could also be due to the parcour, always preparing for the next twist.

All in all he did a good TT given the circumstances (I was expecting top5 would already be hard given the jetlag and the not so positive signs about his 'legs'). If it would have been in europe, he might have had a bigger shot at becoming champion.

Stilla bronze medaille. (Without all the context around it, his best place was when he was 19, rather remarkable)

 

[Unchained]

Have not reviewed all of my posts about Remco but I feel really good about the state of young riders finding form right now. Even in the Vuelta dominance, other riders attacked him, And that was also the case in the TDF, w the eventual winner being attacked. The current parity is fantastic w races more fun to watch in my opinion with lots of possible winners, deep talent, speed, resumes that show that they can win..I surely don't see one rider,Remco included door matting everyone else.. Seeing the TT times from Australia blew my mind!! People are flying like never before!! Awesome.