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

[Extinction]

Anyone know what Geraint Thomas's unflattering nickname is for Remco ?

As for Remco and this Giro ...his fans on here are insane . Its he is either going to win everything in sight and trash everyone (which is super annoying to have in your face all the time) or he is going to lose everything and its a disaster

Can you not stop the histrionics. There is a long way to go yet and even another TT. no one has lost or won the Giro

Nobody thought he'd win everything and, no, no one is talking disaster. It's just cold analysis of the performances. Right now he looks unlikely to win the Giro, whereas after the opening TT things looked promising as much as the opening stage of a GT can appear. Nothing more.

 

[Didinho]

It's not peaking to early, because they said weeks beforehand that they're aiming specially for the 3th week.
The crashes having some impact, now it's guessing how he will feel the next days. Hope he can switch it around again so we're in for a great Giro. A lot of strong guys close to eachother, would've signed for this before the race started.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Way premature to talk about peaking too early or ilness or whatever. The most plausible explanation is what we actually saw happen, which is the crashes. In fact now thanks to the crashes you probably can never confidently claim he peaked too early after the fact.

That said, if he started his ITT according to a pacing plan, that first time split wasn't even particularly impressive compared to the stage 1 ITT, which does make me think a 40+ minute ITT is longer than perfect for Evenepoel.

First part (2.5k) was with wind from straight behind. Though admittedly, i thought it was a longer section.
Also https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/world-championship-itt/2019/result

 

[Red Rick]

It's not peaking to early, because they said weeks beforehand that they're aiming specially for the 3th week.
The crashes having some impact, now it's guessing how he will feel the next days. Hope he can switch it around again so we're in for a great Giro. A lot of strong guys close to eachother, would've signed for this before the race started.

No matter how you train, coming down from the mountain earlier and spending a week prepping LBL and racing LBL and then recovering from LBL will have an effect down the line.

That said, I don't agree with @Mayomaniac specifically referring the last LBL-Giro double being 16 years ago, because a number of other riders have also done well in Liege prior to doing very well at the Giro, including Purito and Valverde, who actually did the full Ardennes program.

 

[HelloDolly]

Nobody thought he'd win everything and, no, no one is talking disaster. It's just cold analysis of the performances. Right now he looks unlikely to win the Giro, whereas after the opening TT things looked promising as much as the opening stage of a GT can appear. Nothing more.

You must not be reading this form then . There were so many post about how remco is going to win by extraordinary margins

And above there are post which say its over

If only it were 'cold analysis'

 

[Extinction]

You must not be reading this form then . There were so many post about how remco is going to win by extraordinary margins

And above there are post which say its over

If only it were 'cold analysis'

No, I haven't read such things.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

You must not be reading this form then . There were so many post about how remco is going to win by extraordinary margins

And above there are post which say its over

If only it were 'cold analysis'

Win what? The TT, yes. The Giro? No. Unless you can't sense sarcasm/memes. The ones claiming he would be dominating were not his fans.

 

[Oldermanish]

Way premature to talk about peaking too early or ilness or whatever. The most plausible explanation is what we actually saw happen, which is the crashes. In fact now thanks to the crashes you probably can never confidently claim he peaked too early after the fact.

That said, if he started his ITT according to a pacing plan, that first time split wasn't even particularly impressive compared to the stage 1 ITT, which does make me think a 40+ minute ITT is longer than perfect for Evenepoel.

He may have been encouraged to take that pace only to discover his upper end is diminished from 8 race days. The fact that he could do that pace is evidence that he wasn't that impacted by the crashes other than uncomfortable sleeping conditions: fatigue. This is only week 2 of constant press in-your-face and sketchy, wet racing conditions.
The Tour is much, much harder on those counts.

 

[Salvarani]

oh by the way stop with all the excuses . Its undignified. He won the stage

Apparently he never had a chance of winning this Giro, going by what some people are saying... after he has just won the stage today.

Before the Giro... he would easily beat Roglic, just like in the Vuelta.

Giro isnt over and he is in the lead. People should have a little more faith, but maybe they are too caught up in always putting down others with their takes to think rationally.

 

[wickedw]

To me he looked tired before even starting the TT, like someone who didn't sleep good. Considering that the drop in form appeared after the crashes, we can likely assume it's due to that. If he will recover to be at a good enough level, time will tell.

If we use the vuelta as a comparison, he recovered afterwards and even managed to beat, a very much in form, Mas (who i rated a much better climber than roglic last vuelta, and was impressive at lombardia). That's an encouraging thought. Hope we'll get to see it.

On the topic of SQS... i dont have anything good to say about that team. The word that mainly comes to mind is amateur. If only he would join Ineos..

 

[Netserk]

No matter how you train, coming down from the mountain earlier and spending a week prepping LBL and racing LBL and then recovering from LBL will have an effect down the line.

That said, I don't agree with @Mayomaniac specifically referring the last LBL-Giro double being 16 years ago, because a number of other riders have also done well in Liege prior to doing very well at the Giro, including Purito and Valverde, who actually did the full Ardennes program.

Purito, yes. Valverde, no.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Apparently he never had a chance of winning this Giro, going by what some people are saying... after he has just won the stage today.

Who said that?

Before the Giro... he would easily beat Roglic, just like in the Vuelta.

Who said that?

 

[Red Rick]

Purito, yes. Valverde, no.

I don't believe you believe Valverde would have won that Giro if he did the Catalunya-altitude-Tour of the Alps - GIro route

 

[Extinction]

Who said that?


Who said that?

Nobody, it's just nonesense. He went into the race, with Roglic, as the bookies odds-on favorite (i.e. in independent betting terms), came good (better than the most optimistic expectations) in the opening TT, then had a setback and now looks less likely. All the rest is BS.

 

[vwpe]

Sure, he won 48s on the 10th stage? in the Vuelta, but now he can't manage breaking in 9days. ( And those stages in the Vuelta were harder, Roglic was there).

Edit: I shouldn't bother responding to this

Man how is it hard? you think roglic was any good that vuelto duo to the crash ? he rode the vuelta as training basicly and woulda still beaten remco if not for the fall...like stop making a narrative to fit your agenda....
And thats roglic were talking about which again is second tier to vingegaard and POG. But sure that one stage out of all hes GT's he was good he sure is good in the mountains in the GT...
Im the one who shouldnt bother responding to you since you clearly lack some insight or knowledge in general around this but its okei you will see in time like some other evenpoel fans....again in the inner circle of cycling NOONE absolutely noone rate him in the high mountains and thats purely out of data and insight they have...again you can find ur own narrative tho

 

[vwpe]

Lol what? G isn't good?

G isnt really good in the hight mountains is he now if you compare him up to Vingegaard and POg its another universe...Perspective boys .....
G is really really good in the hight mountains compared to you and me tho....holymoly is it hard to for some people this stuff

 

[Netserk]

I don't believe you believe Valverde would have won that Giro if he did the Catalunya-altitude-Tour of the Alps - GIro route

I meant he didn't do well in Liège.

 

[victorschipolrijk]

It doesn't bode well for Remco.

Today's stage shoulda been a blowout win for him.

To win it by a meager 1 sec got to be demoralizing.

I'm sure he was expecting to have a full 2 mins lead on Roglic.

Something is amiss, just not normal.

 

[Red Rick]

I meant he didn't do well in Liège.

***

Did win Fleche though.

I blame the snow in Liege that year

 

[Extinction]

It doesn't bode well for Remco.

Today's stage shoulda been a blowout win for him.

To win it by a meager 1 sec got to be demoralizing.

I'm sure he was expecting to have a full 2 mins lead on Roglic.

Something is amiss, just not normal.

The problem is if he's hurt, has an infection (which I bet we won't know till after the Giro or if he pulls out following a dive in GC), the risk of losing 24 minutes in Dolomites stage becomes very real.

 

[Netserk]

***

Did win Fleche though.

I blame the snow in Liege that year

Whoops, I forgot Purito sucked/blew in Liège too. Wasn't he with Iglinsky in 2012 on Saint-Nicolas?

 

[DNP-Old]

Rumour has it he's ill, though it is unknown whether he is going into a sickness or if he's just coming out of it.

 

[Cookster15]

The wolves will be salivating after the stage 1 demolition but then conceding so little today. Maybe we can compare to how he fared in the Vuelta where he came good. But the detrimental effects of no two crashes are the same, so hard to explain, except illness?

If it’s illness then that is an interesting and unique aspect of grand tour bike racing. You don’t let your rivals know for sure you are sick as that will encourage them to attack. I think Roglic and Ineos will attack to get time before he possibly recovers.

 

[Riek s]

Man how is it hard? you think roglic was any good that vuelto duo to the crash ? he rode the vuelta as training basicly and woulda still beaten remco if not for the fall...like stop making a narrative to fit your agenda....
And thats roglic were talking about which again is second tier to vingegaard and POG. But sure that one stage out of all hes GT's he was good he sure is good in the mountains in the GT...
Im the one who shouldnt bother responding to you since you clearly lack some insight or knowledge in general around this but its okei you will see in time like some other evenpoel fans....again in the inner circle of cycling NOONE absolutely noone rate him in the high mountains and thats purely out of data and insight they have...again you can find ur own narrative tho

ok so just trolling.

 

[Gigs_98]

Way premature to talk about peaking too early or ilness or whatever. The most plausible explanation is what we actually saw happen, which is the crashes. In fact now thanks to the crashes you probably can never confidently claim he peaked too early after the fact.

That said, if he started his ITT according to a pacing plan, that first time split wasn't even particularly impressive compared to the stage 1 ITT, which does make me think a 40+ minute ITT is longer than perfect for Evenepoel.

I don't know. Taking his first time split as the reference for his pacing plan seems pretty arbitrary to me. If he realized he cannot go as fast as planned he might have reduced his pace after 2km already for all we know. After all it's not like he blew himself up, riding the final part at the same pace as Thomas.

About the why, I just can't think it's anything other than the crashes, maybe together with other factors like high pressure and bad weather wearing him down. The recent comparisons to the last two stages (stage 1 and LBL) are just too on the nose to ignore. You don't just go from arguably the most dominant performance in a hilly classic in a decade to being dropped by multiple guys on the exact same kind of climb. Just like you don't just go from putting half a minute to a minute into all your opponents in an 18 km TT just to be on par with them in one twice as long. If you think he peaked too early than maybe that's a 2nd explanation, but I simply cannot believe a rider in the modern peloton would mess up his peak that badly.

And on another note, as the comparison to his 3rd week in the Vuelta, where he bounced back from suffering in the 2nd week, is quite obvious, I'm a little sad we didn't get to see another all out battle in that 3rd week as a reference point. Sure, he looked pretty good again, even winning one of the stages, but he didn't have another climbing performance like in week 1 where he was really climbing head and shoulders above his competition. We don't really know if he was actually back to his week 1 level in week 3.