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

[Volderke]

I know this is a joke but you realize he actually has lost a lot of 1-week stage races, including his last one?

That’s why I wrote “as good as” 😊

 

[tobydawq]

Some people on here are so weird. Clearly they pulled him because they felt he was too sick to responsibly carry on riding the Giro. How this is in any way controversial is beyond me

And if that assessment had not been made 38 hours before the next start - right after winning a Grand Tour stage, no less - I wouldn't have been so befuddled and annoyed.

 

[Blanco]

some random thoughts:

• Remco is still as good as unbeatable in 1-week stage races (this first week of the Giro proves it)

Of the 7 biggest one-week stage races, he started in 5, finishing 76, 11, 4, 11, 2.
Is there some new criterium for unbeatable that I'm not aware of?

 

[Didinho]

And I still don't get why they couldn't wait till Tuesday.

We don't know when he started getting bad/ill. Maybe they already waited till after the TT and it only got worse the next stages.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

He really is the new Merckx now. Eddy was the last Maglia Rosa, that left the race because of testing positive. He then came to the Tour and destroyed everyone. So be afraid...

 

[nightowl]

And if that assessment had not been made 38 hours before the next start - right after winning a Grand Tour stage, no less - I wouldn't have been so befuddled and annoyed.

That’s my point. Clearly they thought he was sick enough that the extra day didn’t matter so they made the call and had him start to recover. I don’t expect them to reveal the details of the extent of his sickness to “prove” it to anyone. Their team, their doctors, their decision.

And he won the stage because of his exceptional aerodynamic abilities on the bike - he was obviously significantly below his best watts-wise.

 

[Blanco]

Some people on here are so weird. Clearly they pulled him because they felt he was too sick to responsibly carry on riding the Giro. How this is in any way controversial is beyond me

How is not controversial is beyond me?!
If he was too sick, what the hell was he doing on the start line?
If he was too sick how the hell did he won that TT?
If they found out how sick he was only after the TT, so why the hell they not wait for tuesday morning? He maybe recovers a bit... Why the rush?
To me it looks like it was mainly his decision.

 

[peterfin]

Mama en papa Evenepoel vernamen opgave van hun zoon via… zijn verzorger: “Remco zei: ‘Wil jij mijn papa bellen? Ik kan het niet’”

Patrick Evenepoel, die zijn zoon zijn tweede tijdrit zag binnenhalen in deze Giro, was samen met zijn vrouw en Oumi speciaal voor deze tijdrit afgezakt naar Italië. Voor mama Agna was de trip zelfs een complete verrassing voor Moederdag. Maar later op de avond viel alles in duigen, ook Remco...

www.nieuwsblad.be

360W is very low for Remco. He did TT of 30min with >390W avg.

Seems like he was missing 20W in that TT. (or 0.3W//kg)

20w difference would be ~45s faster over the total distance.

 

[Berniece]

If he was too sick how the hell did he won that TT?

Because it’s Remco Evenepoel

 

[Extinction]

How is not controversial is beyond me?!
If he was too sick, what the hell was he doing on the start line?
If he was too sick how the hell did he won that TT?
If they found out how sick he was only after the TT, so why the hell they not wait for tuesday morning? He maybe recovers a bit... Why the rush?
To me it looks like it was mainly his decision.

Because viruses don't work that way, but progressively worsen until rest leads to recovery. And heading into the second and third weeks of a Giro doesn't facilitate this. Winning the second TT just shows how good his starting form was for the initial phase of Covid not to prevent him from marginally winning the second TT. Imagine what his performance would have been had he remained healthy.

 

[wickedw]

How is not controversial is beyond me?!
If he was too sick, what the hell was he doing on the start line?
If he was too sick how the hell did he won that TT?
If they found out how sick he was only after the TT, so why the hell they not wait for tuesday morning? He maybe recovers a bit... Why the rush?
To me it looks like it was mainly his decision.

Pro athletes tend to continue on against better judgment quite often. Probably convinced himself that he could power through it and came out much worse on the other side. Jumbo let Roglic ride several tour stages, including a tactical attack run against pogi in the Tour. He had 2 broken vertebrae at the time.

The only reason he won that TT is because he's just that much better. A healthy remco would have taken atleast another minute and would never have lost time on saturday. But he also looked like an absolute wreck afterwards. He could likely feel that after that he was getting increasingly worse and decided to pull the plug. Why stay in the Giro and risk the rest of your season?

 

[topcat]

help you with anything?

We need a calm balanced view on Remco’s “controversial” withdrawal. I nominate SirFly. Anyone know where he is?

 

[Nick2413]

My take on it is that he was symptomatic enough to not be quite at his best, and they felt he was going south so pulled the plug.

Many parts of it are messy, from pulling the plug exactly when they did, their whole mishmash of bizarrely claiming he is asymptomatic, and the question of just how bad you need to be to pull out, and general abundance of caution. All those things are up for debate and will be controversial and everyone will have their own perspective.

But the bottom line seems to be they thought he was better off not continuing, whether they should’ve waited or not.

 

[houtdffan]

Lefevre says too early to decide if Remco will do the tour

 

[King Of The Wolds]

He really is the new Merckx now. Eddy was the last Maglia Rosa, that left the race because of testing positive. He then came to the Tour and destroyed everyone. So be afraid...

No way he rides the Tour. Lefevre doesn't have the firepower. SS, Worlds, Vuelta, Lombardia

 

[how yes no?]

Its not only his fans that want him to do well, his anti-fans are doing the oposite thing everytime his performance isn't the best.
QS has very bad experience with Covid and keep on racing. (heart issues). You don't gamble over something like that.

There should be a question, why he even has anti-fans, big part of the answer also explains their behaviour.
I would hazzard in the direction, that people like big claims backed up. There is no shame in not being the best if you don't claim you're the best. If you say, anyone can claim anything, it just means that their claims are worthless in the first place. Please don't try to read more than what I wrote.
I regard him as a very good cyclist, one of the best of the young generation, who will probably dominate many TTs for years to come and also be a very considerable force in the hilly classics, a probable 4-5 star favourite each time. I don't yet have an opinon on his GT future, but it seems likely he'll not stay only at the vuelta win if he will keep trying, but he has not yet shown the level necessary to win a tour vs current level of competition (or any GT with top-level competition).

 

[Krzysztof_O]

No way he rides the Tour. Lefevre doesn't have the firepower. SS, Worlds, Vuelta, Lombardia

JV and UAE will be his trains. All he needs to do is beat Teddy and Skeletor at the end.

 

[kingjr]

We need a calm balanced view on Remco’s “controversial” withdrawal. I nominate SirFly. Anyone know where he is?

He got sick and quit, as he should. At your service

 

[Bonimenier]

There should be a question, why he even has anti-fans, big part of the answer also explains their behaviour.
I would hazzard in the direction, that people like big claims backed up. There is no shame in not being the best if you don't claim you're the best. If you say, anyone can claim anything, it just means that their claims are worthless in the first place. Please don't try to read more than what I wrote.
I regard him as a very good cyclist, one of the best of the young generation, who will probably dominate many TTs for years to come and also be a very considerable force in the hilly classics, a probable 4-5 star favourite each time. I don't yet have an opinon on his GT future, but it seems likely he'll not stay only at the vuelta win if he will keep trying, but he has not yet shown the level necessary to win a tour vs current level of competition (or any GT with top-level competition).

If winning every big goal you set yourself for over a season isn't backing up your claims, I don't know what is.

 

[nightowl]

My take on it is that he was symptomatic enough to not be quite at his best, and they felt he was going south so pulled the plug.

Many parts of it are messy, from pulling the plug exactly when they did, their whole mishmash of bizarrely claiming he is asymptomatic, and the question of just how bad you need to be to pull out, and general abundance of caution. All those things are up for debate and will be controversial and everyone will have their own perspective.

But the bottom line seems to be they thought he was better off not continuing, whether they should’ve waited or not.

I’m pretty sure the whole asymptomatic and routine test thing is just Quickstep trying to avoid any negative PR that might come from them knowing he was sick but still having him ride

 

[Red Rick]

Lefevre says too early to decide if Remco will do the tour

I'd honestly expected him to say no straight away

 

[how yes no?]

If winning every big goal you set yourself for over a season isn't backing up your claims, I don't know what is.

It's not that much about his claims, but about the claims others (fans) make about him.
They (you?) (at least indirectly) claim he is the best in the world, no competition.
He would need to set bigger goals to back that up, its close to what someone above has said, he only races the races where team and him have a strong belief he can win and if he by any chance doesn't, there must be some explanation, that very rarely includes him just not being good enough, which makes it looks like an excuse, which is a problem in it's own, because if he was not regarded as the best, he would need no excuse in the first place.

If he would be regarded the way I just wrote that I regard him, I (for example, but I don't count myself as his anti-fan) would have no problem whatsoever with any of his fans, and would cheer along with them.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

I'd honestly expected him to say no straight away

Really? No way he comes out and says, "we aren't strong enough to support him in the Tour".

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Meanwhile, what's the conspiracy theory about why Rogoberto Uran didn't wait til tomorrow morning to pull out of the Giro?

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Meanwhile, what's the conspiracy theory about why Rogoberto Uran didn't wait til tomorrow morning to pull out of the Giro?

And Ganna, and the others. He's sick from Covid, let's hope they all recover soon, with no lingering consequences.