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

[Extinction]

a choice impossible to understand

A guy who won the time trial today means he's not ill, ok he didn't give to other Gc guys minutes but he beated among the best Itt riders in the world like Thomas and Kung

then tomorrow is rest and then two quiet days

Doesn't make sense

Even if he would not have won the Giro he could easily finish in the top 5 or top 10 with 2 stages won and more days in the pink jersey

Such a thing is disrespectful to the race

At the Tour he would not have done it

Clearly he's in no condition to soldier on or he would have. It's likely he feels totally drained, has come down with a fever and, with the expected foul weather ahead, the team foresees a stage where he completely drops out of GC. His morale must be shattered. You don't, as team management, put your star further through an inferno. They invested millions in him to win this, so they must have taken the matter most seriously, given the investments, but they need to make sure he keeps confidence in their decisions made in his best interests.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

No matter how you train, coming down from the mountain earlier and spending a week prepping LBL .

not very relevant now after Covid, but I didn’t quite get this.

According to his Strava he was training at Teide April 20th (the end of a three week camp, first Teide-training on Strava after Catalunya was March 31st) and the Liege was on 23rd.
I don’t get that to be coming down from the mountains early and spend a week preparing for LBL?

 

[how yes no?]

Well, at least now we know it was not the crashes.
Welcome to the "Primož GT luck" experience my dear Remco fans... but since you're already well practiced living in the what-if world, if sure you'll find yourself at home in no time at all.
So much about settling my debates... I guess we wait the autum now.
It sucks for the Giro in whole and Primož also... he would dearly need another non-ineos force, now UAE will need to step up.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1657846482404253700

View: https://twitter.com/EvenepoelRemco/status/1657846482404253700?t=mbPxZwmIt05sMC4Q1UYtPQ&s=19

 

[Netserk]

Even if he would not have won the Giro he could easily finish in the top 5 or top 10 with 2 stages won and more days in the pink jersey

Such a thing is disrespectful to the race

At the Tour he would not have done it

I guess quitting like this after winning the ITT and taking pink makes it easier to mentally handle his inevitable defeat, given his crashes and being ill.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Some of the people on here are truly unbelievable. Does anyone actually think Evenepoel would have willingly quit the Giro if he'd had any faith in his ability to recover from his very obviously symptomatic Covid infection? Can't think of a single rider who would do that, least of all a winner type like Evenepoel.

 

[Red Rick]

not very relevant now after Covid, but I didn’t quite get this.

According to his Strava he was training at Teide April 20th (the end of a three week camp, first Teide-training on Strava after Catalunya was March 31st) and the Liege was on 23rd.
I don’t get that to be coming down from the mountains early and spend a week preparing for LBL?

I was just ball parking. I think the effort of LBL doesn't translate very well to Giro prep. Like Nibali, when he won his most dominant Giro, won Trentino in dominant fashion then he was really bad in Liege. Contador did great in Fleche in 2010 then when he did the Giro in 2011 he got destroyed in Fleche just before.

 

[Red Rick]

Some of the people on here are truly unbelievable. Does anyone actually think Evenepoel would have willingly quit the Giro if he'd had any faith in his ability to recover from his very obviously symptomatic Covid infection? Can't think of a single rider who would do that, least of all a winner type like Evenepoel.

Fans projecting gonna do what projecting fans do

 

[Netserk]

Routine check doesn't sound like they thought he had it before they tested him.

 

[Didinho]

Routine check doesn't sound like they thought he had it before they tested him.

Or they did it the last days but only now it was positive.

 

[Samamba]

Some of the people on here are truly unbelievable. Does anyone actually think Evenepoel would have willingly quit the Giro if he'd had any faith in his ability to recover from his very obviously symptomatic Covid infection? Can't think of a single rider who would do that, least of all a winner type like Evenepoel.

I mean sure, but why aren't they just saying that? Just say that he wasn't feeling well and did a test because of it. Now it just sounds like they're randomly testing him without him being sick.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

As for how much more aero he is: turns out 20watts worth of aero compared to Thomas.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1657789798642270208

View: https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/1657789798642270208

 

[Akuryo]

I was just ball parking. I think the effort of LBL doesn't translate very well to Giro prep. Like Nibali, when he won his most dominant Giro, won Trentino in dominant fashion then he was really bad in Liege. Contador did great in Fleche in 2010 then when he did the Giro in 2011 he got destroyed in Fleche just before.

That was also in a time where riders prepped for like 2 races to be at 110% and mediocre the rest of the year. Right now the guys like Evenepoel or Pogacar seem to go back to "just keep a very high base level with few spikes for certain goals" and perform all year long. Both of these dudes played with their opposition from February onwards. That was never the Nibali or Contador approach to a season.

 

[Netserk]

Some of the people on here are truly unbelievable. Does anyone actually think Evenepoel would have willingly quit the Giro if he'd had any faith in his ability to recover from his very obviously symptomatic Covid infection? Can't think of a single rider who would do that, least of all a winner type like Evenepoel.

I'm sure that he doesn't have much faith in recovering with his GC intact, but fighting tooth and nail to see if there's any hope of recovering would see him quit Tuesday morning.

I think it's a case of all or nothing, and now he doesn't believe that he can win the Giro.

 

[dgodave]

Not a Remco fan per se. But I like his style of racing and his post race comments, generally.

Was looking forward to other riders trying to crack him in the coming weeks.... and if they couldn't, then his victory.

 

[nightowl]

Wow what a massive blow for Remco and for the race as a whole. He clearly hasn’t been feeling right the last couple days so it’s obviously the right choice to pull out imo. Even if he were to get over it before the big mountains start he wouldn’t suddenly be back to his peak shape and wouldn’t really have a hope of winning the Giro. So it’s better to pull out than put your body through the stress of riding a grand tour while being sick.

This leaves Quickstep with quite the dilemma though regarding the tour. It would be tough but not undoable for him to be there in shape provided he gets over COVID quickly - but will Quickstep be willing to piss off their current tour team to build a team around Remco, and would they even be able to get a half-decent team around him?

 

[dobrien]

Eagerly waiting for Remco's statement.

Now we know nothing more about his high altitude climbs, or his 3 week recovery. But he looked really strong the first days, I'll take the positive from that. This could've been an epic fight with multiple contenders.

I'm still in awe.

Until his crashes he looked like he was hardly feeling the pedals; I had very high hopes and really do believe we've been deprived of an epic battle.

 

[SafeBet]

Terrible news for the race.
I imagine Giro is not Remco's favorite race right now (two partecipations, two DNF), but I hope he'll come back to win it one day.

As for this season, still plenty of goals to aim for. Forza!!!

 

[Tim Cahill]

2023 Mauri was looking like a different animal in Oman to be fair, set the record on Green Mountain, as was Knox in Basque. Both very sharp and looking like they were really ready to kick on.

 

[Extinction]

If a rider is known to have Covid, whatever the rule is, he can't continue in the peloton as if nothing were wrong, with no respect towards his colleagues.

 

[Nick2413]

As for how much more aero he is: turns out 20watts worth of aero compared to Thomas.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1657789798642270208

View: https://twitter.com/VelonCC/status/1657789798642270208

Does he publish his own power data currently or was this something specifically coordinated with the race organizers for this stage?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Pogacar and Vingegaard already getting nervous.

 

[Didinho]

2023 Mauri was looking like a different animal in Oman to be fair, set the record on Green Mountain, as was Knox in Basque. Both very sharp and looking like they were really ready to kick on.

Wait till Mauri learns how to ride straight!

 

[Netserk]

If a rider is known to have Covid, whatever the rule is, he can't continue in the peloton as if nothing were wrong, with no respect towards his colleagues.

Of course he can. Plenty riders do with all kinds of infections.

 

[KOM]

It really sucks how often we get robbed of presumably epic showdowns as cycling fans cant really think of another sport where its that blatantly the case