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

[Red Rick]

Can't believe they're going to give Merlier leadership for the Vuelta. I mean, if no Remco, not sure what the other options are, but he's not performed well enough to deserve it.

Merlier is honestly a WTF signing if you're sitting on Evenepoel and Jakobsen.

 

[houtdffan]

Can Merlier do donkey duty on the flats or something? No clue why he was signed

 

[proffate]

Can't believe they're going to give Merlier leadership for the Vuelta. I mean, if no Remco, not sure what the other options are, but he's not performed well enough to deserve it.

Lefevere can turn almost any sprinter into a winner and even moreso at the vuelta where the level is lowish

 

[Extinction]

You are acting like the media is a rationally thinking person, not the machine, trying to generate as many clicks as possible, it really is.

Well, how is the media supposed to turn into a "failure" Remco saying I'm not here for GC, but just to gain experience?

 

[Extinction]

In that Golden Era you also had a few that would do all 3 tours. They had some dedicated and medicated riders back then, too.
It is a good training and experience bloc to do the Giro and start the Tour with a definite and disclosed early departure date. Getting super-fatigued can compromise more than one season if a young rider isn't careful. Having a plan would allow Remco to see the difference in media pressure and intensity with a mandated exit strategy. The press would, hopefully, cut him enough slack to take it all in and enjoy it.

The age issue might be valid, but then again Remco has prooved remarkable for his years. I don't think getting over-fatiuged to the point of compromising the next season is frankly an issue for him.

 

[houtdffan]

Giro/Vuelta is the best double for his age. Would set up an epic 2024 TDF if he pulls off that double

 

[Oldermanish]

The age issue might be valid, but then again Remco has prooved remarkable for his years. I don't think getting over-fatiuged to the point of compromising the next season is frankly an issue for him.

The stress factor for maintaining any position or strategy in the Tour is exponentially greater than anything he's faced. Whether he does well or has an off day he'll have free-for-all media in his face and there's little buffer for it. Getting a more casual exposure is the best way to learn to deal with that stress which is as real as having 3-4 serious contenders fighting each stage. He's shown more maturity but he hasn't been in the deep end yet. That stress causes every rider sleepless nights.

 

[DNP-Old]

Well, how is the media supposed to turn into a "failure" Remco saying I'm not here for GC, but just to gain experience?

Oh lawdy, you’re not familiar with some of the Belgian press, are you? Wim Vos, in his permanent state of intoxication, can’t tell up from down, let alone have the ability to write a somewhat rational article.

 

[rghysens]

Merlier is honestly a WTF signing if you're sitting on Evenepoel and Jakobsen.

He can take away some pressure by winning a couple of those small Belgian one day races.

 

[Extinction]

The stress factor for maintaining any position or strategy in the Tour is exponentially greater than anything he's faced. Whether he does well or has an off day he'll have free-for-all media in his face and there's little buffer for it. Getting a more casual exposure is the best way to learn to deal with that stress which is as real as having 3-4 serious contenders fighting each stage. He's shown more maturity but he hasn't been in the deep end yet. That stress causes every rider sleepless nights.

Well he better start getting used to it, because in whatever capacity he takes on the Tour, he will have the Belgian media alone obsessively on his back. The casual approach is precisely what I was referring to in my initial post. Let's just say for argument's sake he wins the Giro, he could then go to the Tour without pressure on himself or the team for experience. The media circus at that point becomes a obnoxious side show, comic diversion. Can this be done? Can Remco and his team actually show up at the Tour blasé about his performance beyond a learning curve and impervious to all the media hype and attention, to see then how his head and legs respond to it all? I think it's possible with Jackebson helped for the sprints and Evenepoel given a free card to play without pressure for results.

 

[Extinction]

Giro-Tour is the dumbest thing you can do.

You also can not frame going to the Giro as some form of "not only peaking for the Tour" because the Tour fits in a season with spring and fall classics better.

There's 2 reasons to do the Giro over the Tour.

1. You want to do Giro-Vuelta.
2. You estimate the odds of winning the Giro are far greater than winning the Tour.

It's not the dumbest thing if going to the Tour without stated ambitions, which would perhaps be the only way Evenepoel could enter the French race exempt from the highest expectations placed on his shoulders by external forces, at least partially. Yet mine is mostly provocative, as I'm well aware the team won't do it. But fortune favors the bold. On the other hand, the last rider to ride a strong Giro to then go on to light up the Tour (at least while it lasted) was Ricardo Ricco and that ended badly in a jail cell now didn't it.

 

[tobydawq]

Giro/Vuelta is the best double for his age. Would set up an epic 2024 TDF if he pulls off that double

He'll probably say he'll go to the 2024 Tour as a learning experience even in that case...

 

[Volderke]

500 pages. Congrats to all involved.
The book will be available in a bookstore nearby, soon!

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Oh lawdy, you’re not familiar with some of the Belgian press, are you? Wim Vos, in his permanent state of intoxication, can’t tell up from down, let alone have the ability to write a somewhat rational article.

The thing is, that Vos is known to be a joke and nobody remotely takes him seriously. A guy like Vandeweghe who is writing for a "reputable" newspaper and regarded as something of an authority, is far worse. This guy does zero fact-checking, states hearsay and delusions as facts, and appears to think he can alter reality after it already occurred. This guy is a toxic cesspool and gets invites to serious TV shows on Canvas, to further cement his credibility, unlike Vos and the likes.

 

[Salvarani]

It's not the dumbest thing if going to the Tour without stated ambitions, which would perhaps be the only way Evenepoel could enter the French race exempt from the highest expectations placed on his shoulders by external forces, at least partially. Yet mine is mostly provocative, as I'm well aware the team won't do it. But fortune favors the bold. On the other hand, the last rider to ride a strong Giro to then go on to light up the Tour (at least while it lasted) was Ricardo Ricco and that ended badly in a jail cell now didn't it.

Dumoulin rode a pretty good Giro and Tour in 2018. 2nd in both.

Froome in the same year went 1st and 3rd.

Roglic 2nd and 1st in 2020. Tour/Vuelta that time though. Vuelta started 1 month after the Tour.

Landa in 2017 was also very good. He was super-strong in the 3rd week of the Giro. Had he not crashed earlier in the race and lost time, he might have fought for the victory. Later finished 4th in the Tour, as a super-dom for Froome, and just missed the podium.

Landa also finished 4th and 6th in 2019. Giro/Tour.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Dumoulin rode a pretty good Giro and Tour in 2018. 2nd in both.

Froome in the same year went 1st and 3rd.

Roglic 2nd and 1st in 2020. Tour/Vuelta that time though. Vuelta started 1 month after the Tour.

Landa in 2017 was also very good. He was super-strong in the 3rd week of the Giro. Had he not crashed earlier in the race and lost time, he might have fought for the victory. Later finished 4th in the Tour, as a super-dom for Froome, and just missed the podium.

Landa also finished 4th and 6th in 2019. Giro/Tour.

None of them were 23.

 

[tobydawq]

None of them were 23.

You really can't compare what a cyclist can do at a given age now with what they could do six-seven years ago at the same age.

 

[Extinction]

Dumoulin rode a pretty good Giro and Tour in 2018. 2nd in both.

Froome in the same year went 1st and 3rd.

Roglic 2nd and 1st in 2020. Tour/Vuelta that time though. Vuelta started 1 month after the Tour.

Landa in 2017 was also very good. He was super-strong in the 3rd week of the Giro. Had he not crashed earlier in the race and lost time, he might have fought for the victory. Later finished 4th in the Tour, as a super-dom for Froome, and just missed the podium.

Landa also finished 4th and 6th in 2019. Giro/Tour.

Yea, but I was talking about fireworks. None of those qualify. Ricco, by contrast, set the course ablaze.

 

[Red Rick]

It's not the dumbest thing if going to the Tour without stated ambitions, which would perhaps be the only way Evenepoel could enter the French race exempt from the highest expectations placed on his shoulders by external forces, at least partially. Yet mine is mostly provocative, as I'm well aware the team won't do it. But fortune favors the bold. On the other hand, the last rider to ride a strong Giro to then go on to light up the Tour (at least while it lasted) was Ricardo Ricco and that ended badly in a jail cell now didn't it.

There is no point in Tour after Giro when you can just take a 50% + shot at the Vuelta instead of a grand 0% shot at the Tour.

 

[Bonimenier]

You really can't compare what a cyclist can do at a given age now with what they could do six-seven years ago at the same age.

I can and I will

 

[Extinction]

There is no point in Tour after Giro when you can just take a 50% + shot at the Vuelta instead of a grand 0% shot at the Tour.

Well, apart from the fact that the UCI messed everything up in 1995, it's sad that such a take flies in the face of the campionissimi!

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

You really can't compare what a cyclist can do at a given age now with what they could do six-seven years ago at the same age.

And yet not even Pog, who already turned 24, has done it. Only Arensman, who didn't ride (successfully) for GC at the Giro, and Almeida, who had to quit the Giro (and wasn't in top form in either GT) of the new generation recently did it. We're talking about trying to compete for the win, not finish top 10.

 

[Oldermanish]

None of them were 23.

And none of them won both. It's possible one of the Young Guns will find a way but the racing is so all-out for each stage there is no margin for error.

 

[tobydawq]

And yet not even Pog, who already turned 24, has done it. Only Arensman, who didn't ride (successfully) for GC at the Giro, and Almeida, who had to quit the Giro (and wasn't in top form in either GT) of the new generation recently did it. We're talking about trying to compete for the win, not finish top 10.

Well, that hardly proves anything.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Well, that hardly proves anything.

About as much as saying you can't compare to 6 years ago.