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

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If Evenepoel manages to win the Giro and do well in Liège there is a possibility of him having a current CQ score of over 4000 points which I believe would be a first.
He would need 1098 points from the Ardennes + Giro.
Probably the most realistic shot I have seen yet too. Note that Remco got 1020 points from last years' Vuelta.
(Of course he would probably immediately dip below 4000 after losing his 257 points from Tour of Norway but still)

Pogacar can theoretically reach 4000 after the Ardennes as well but he would need to pretty much win Dwars Door Vlaanderen, Ronde van Vlaanderen, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Do people see CQ as some sort of authority, or is it basically like PCS points?
 
I lost sight of Remco here, and that the thread should be about him and his greatness.

He had an injury that is reminiscent of Merckx's in '70, he's Belgian like Merckx, and yes we all know that he's not Merckx (sorry for the beliebers) and that he will have to deal with Pog to achieve legendary status. Seriously, he can't hide much longer.
 
I lost sight of Remco here, and that the thread should be about him and his greatness.

He had an injury that is reminiscent of Merckx's in '70, he's Belgian like Merckx, and yes we all know that he's not Merckx (sorry for the beliebers) and that he will have to deal with Pog to achieve legendary status. Seriously, he can't hide much longer.
He's got plenty of time. After all, even Pinot achieved legendary status.
 
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I lost sight of Remco here, and that the thread should be about him and his greatness.

He had an injury that is reminiscent of Merckx's in '70, he's Belgian like Merckx, and yes we all know that he's not Merckx (sorry for the beliebers) and that he will have to deal with Pog to achieve legendary status. Seriously, he can't hide much longer.
Remco hides from nobody. The last to hide was Tadej at the UAE tour.
 
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i understand but disagree with this narrative.

all-rounders always crushed the climbers in TTs. Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, Anquetil -- the riders with the most TDFs all crushed their opponents in TTs and largely "resisted" in the mountains.

the problem with today's routes is that instead of being happy with 2-4 possible GC winners, the designers believe that they need to have 10-15. so riders like landa, pinot, gaudu, mas etc... have been made to seem like GCers at some point in their career when really they are not.

you need only two evenly matched all-arounders to make a stage race exciting: Merckx vs. Ocana, Merckx vs. Thevenet, Hinault vs. Lemond, Hinault vs. Fignon. Lemond vs. Fignon. Pog vs. Rog. Pog vs. Vingo. Rog vs. Remco.

it is in trying to superficially create more contenders that route designers have diluted the test of stage racing.
It's not my narrative, but analysis of what I think they did to keep the competition tighter. They should, however modify things now to suite the current crop of talents.
I lost sight of Remco here, and that the thread should be about him and his greatness.

He had an injury that is reminiscent of Merckx's in '70, he's Belgian like Merckx, and yes we all know that he's not Merckx (sorry for the beliebers) and that he will have to deal with Pog to achieve legendary status. Seriously, he can't hide much longer.
Merckx would not be Merckx today, so athletic wise Evenepoel could be even better, without achieving a similar palmarès. As far as hiding from Pog is concerned, who is hiding? Pog just chose not to do the Giro. :) At any rate, there is Liege coming soon...
 
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I often write that I think that if riders embrace too much ego heavy weight to add to your time trial bike. and a big fat swollen head makes it near impossible to carry up the mountains of France.. especially if you try to do it consistently.. God's miracle consecutively..
Before Remco can be held to a Merckx metric probably best to win 1 a Tour d France..
Head to head has each guy wearing hand washed wool shorts, down tube friction shifters,tires that fall off in hot weather.. and let's not talk diet,trainers, buses, hotel, neutral support.
I love apples and oranges.. Seldom compare
 
I often write that I think that if riders embrace too much ego heavy weight to add to your time trial bike. and a big fat swollen head makes it near impossible to carry up the mountains of France.. especially if you try to do it consistently.. God's miracle consecutively..
Before Remco can be held to a Merckx metric probably best to win 1 a Tour d France..
Head to head has each guy wearing hand washed wool shorts, down tube friction shifters,tires that fall off in hot weather.. and let's not talk diet,trainers, buses, hotel, neutral support.
I love apples and oranges.. Seldom compare
Oh but that's easy to fix, in a fantasy, put one on the other's regime and vice versa. The point is also, however, the sport is more global, thus the talent pool is larger. Imagine in 1970 two Slovenians arriving as phenomena? It simply wouldn't have happened.
 
In any case, with most of it's vocabulary finding it's origin in Latin and French, the initial statement that English relates much more to Dutch than French, which is why French speakers have a harder time to understand the language, is simply not true.

But let's agree to disagree.
Well, interesting insights at least. Thanks for that. I do still believe there is a clear advantage for Dutch speakers, be it also accent wise. But yes it has more parameters than only - or even not at all - the origins of the languages. And those, we covered quite well in our previous messages.

Sorry for the linguistics side trip lads, although I'm always interested in these kind of backgrounds. Anyway, let's head back to this Schepdaal kid.
 
I often write that I think that if riders embrace too much ego heavy weight to add to your time trial bike. and a big fat swollen head makes it near impossible to carry up the mountains of France.. especially if you try to do it consistently.. God's miracle consecutively..
Before Remco can be held to a Merckx metric probably best to win 1 a Tour d France..
Head to head has each guy wearing hand washed wool shorts, down tube friction shifters,tires that fall off in hot weather.. and let's not talk diet,trainers, buses, hotel, neutral support.
I love apples and oranges.. Seldom compare
And also don't forget we have to see how Remco performs when he takes doping if we really want make the comparison properly
 
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Well what Bruyneel first said is that Remco is 4kg above his lowest ever weight. I think this may actually be true but we need to bear in mind that allegedly his lowest ever weight was around 60kg in the Giro 2021 while in the Vuelta last year he was 63kg or just a bit lower so if his Vuelta weight is the target he won't shed more than 1-2kg.
 
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I remember being ridiculed last year by another forum member because it was my opinion that he (Evenepoel, not the other forum member) needed to lose more weight, and that 63 which was said to be his target Vuelta weight was still too much. After the Vuelta it was revealed he actually lost considerably more weight than that and he lost 3 extra kg compared to his Liège weight, which was (according to him and the team) around 64kg. He also looked considerably skinnier during the Vuelta than Liège.

Anyway, i think he is now already skinnier than he was last year during Liège. So i have a hard time believing he is going to drop another 4kg. Two seems realistic, though Evenepoel himself is talking about "that last kilo".
 
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Well, interesting insights at least. Thanks for that. I do still believe there is a clear advantage for Dutch speakers, be it also accent wise. But yes it has more parameters than only - or even not at all - the origins of the languages. And those, we covered quite well in our previous messages.

Sorry for the linguistics side trip lads, although I'm always interested in these kind of backgrounds. Anyway, let's head back to this Schepdaal kid.
I’ve learned a lot from the linguistics insights and debates here, but I’m probably in a small minority in that regard :)
 
Well what Bruyneel first said is that Remco is 4kg above his lowest ever weight. I think this may actually be true but we need to bear in mind that allegedly his lowest ever weight was around 60kg in the Giro 2021 while in the Vuelta last year he was 63kg or just a bit lower so if his Vuelta weight is target he won't shed more than 1-2kg.
Yes, according to one interview prior to the 2021 Giro, he said he was a bit below 60kg. Next day he was already above 60kg, lol. They've blown smoke about his weight a few times. If he is now indeed 64kg, then he could be close to his Liège '22 weight which was also said to be 64. In that case he could actually lose 2-3 kg according to how much he claims he lost for the Vuelta.

4 kg heavier? That sounds absurd.

According to their own claims, he was nearly 67kg at the start of last season, 64kg at Liège and 61kg in the Vuelta. But like i said, they have blown smoke concerning his weight quite often.
 
I remember being ridiculed last year by another forum member because it was my opinion that he (Evenepoel, not the other forum member) needed to lose more weight, and that 63 which was said to be his target Vuelta weight was still too much. After the Vuelta it was revealed he actually lost considerably more weight than that and he lost 3 extra kg compared to his Liège weight, which was (according to him and the team) around 64kg. He also looked considerably skinnier during the Vuelta than Liège.

Anyway, i think he is now already skinnier than he was last year during Liège. So i have a hard time believing he is going to drop another 4kg. Two seems realistic, though Evenepoel himself is talking about "that last kilo".
I mean, you just had to look at the pictures of him after winning Donostia before the Vuelta. He looked a lot thinner than during spring, actually gc rider thin.
Yeah, I think I remember that we've talked before about how the team has always talked lot of bs about his weight/target weight and retconned things multiple times afterwards (see 2021 Giro).
 
I remember being ridiculed last year by another forum member because it was my opinion that he (Evenepoel, not the other forum member) needed to lose more weight, and that 63 which was said to be his target Vuelta weight was still too much. After the Vuelta it was revealed he actually lost considerably more weight than that and he lost 3 extra kg compared to his Liège weight, which was (according to him and the team) around 64kg. He also looked considerably skinnier during the Vuelta than Liège.

Anyway, i think he is now already skinnier than he was last year during Liège. So i have a hard time believing he is going to drop another 4kg. Two seems realistic, though Evenepoel himself is talking about "that last kilo".

Does anyone have any recent photographs of Remco? Maybe a photo taken during last years Vuelta and a photo taken this year? But he's never looked really cut to me - at least compared to other pros? The leanest these days can look skeletal. And what does Remco's BMI work out to compared to others?