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

[Bolder]

He defended himself quite well.

Indeed, and while there will be some handwringing, this is how he should be racing. Limit losses on steep climbs and take time in the ITT. We'll see if it's enough to win...

 

[Gigs_98]

I wouldn't be shocked if he is injured. We certainly cannot take his word for it, the crash looked pretty bad and his drop in performance is certainly weird. But at some point you do have to start wondering if Evenepoel has really high peaks but is simply struggling to sustain those over many days. Every time it happens he has a really good excuse, but it's still suspicious just how often days like today happen to him.

I guess the silver lining is that when he had bad days in the 2nd week last year he came back and was once again the strongest climber in week 3.

 

[Netserk]

7th from the peloton today.

 

[Berniece]

Limit his losses. Ended much better than it looked at first. Hopefully nothing wrong and just his (only) bad day.

Vervaeke was already riding decently again, Vingegaard also had the virus. He might already be much better by Saturday

 

[Oldermanish]

I wouldn't be shocked if he is injured. We certainly cannot take his word for it, the crash looked pretty bad and his drop in performance is certainly weird. But at some point you do have to start wondering if Evenepoel has really high peaks but is simply struggling to sustain those over many days. Every time it happens he has a really good excuse, but it's still suspicious just how often days like today happen to him.

I guess the silver lining is that when he had bad days in the 2nd week last year he came back and was once again the strongest climber in week 3.

Unfortunately the JV team are still in it at this point.

 

[witeken]

A bit weird. At first he looked like Pogacar in the Tour, but improved again and in the last km he was faster than Rog and Vingegaard.

If he is really ill/injured, he should have just continued to lose more time, and his stage victory has shown he has no trouble with accelerations. If this was just a random weak moment, not much can be concluded from this result, and just looking at the last km indicates the Vuelta won't just become a Vismafest, if he can reach/maintain his best level at least.

 

[peterfin]

The race exposes the limits of his team. He needs domestiques that can put in a higher pace on a steep climb. An explosive attack is dangerous especially if he goes in his red zone and needs to recover for 4-5 minutes (what I assume happened today. A mistake or a bad moment?). Once it is a mano a mano fight between the GC guys he can pace him self and limit the damage.

 

[Red Rick]

When he gets dropped it looks like this nearly every time. Looks like completely breaking then limits the damage

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Clear sign of weakness when he dropped so early. Sign of strength (mentally) when he defended himself so well. He can’t afford many days like this tho.

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

The race exposes the limits of his team. He needs domestiques that can put in a higher pace on a steep climb. An explosive attack is dangerous especially if he goes in his red zone and needs to recover for 4-5 minutes (what I assume happened today. A mistake or a bad moment?). Once it is a mano a mano fight between the GC guys he can pace him self and limit the damage.

Tbf I thought they were okay today. They're obviously not as strong as JV and UAE but paced the lower part of the climb well. When Vingegaard and roglic set off there just aren't that many teams that can do anything.

 

[peterfin]

Tbf I thought they were okay today. They're obviously not as strong as JV and UAE but paced the lower part of the climb well. When Vingegaard and roglic set off there just aren't that many teams that can do anything.

The team was ok but not good enough. When the pace is higher, Roglic would at least wait longer to make his move. It would be too risky to attack.

 

[Oldermanish]

When he gets dropped it looks like this nearly every time. Looks like completely breaking then limits the damage

Part of this is actually attributable to his strengths as a TT specialist. Steady-state suits him and today's grade varied heavily. Today could've been worse but it appeared Roglic slowed when Vingo was stressed and maintained an even tempo to the line. Being ahead of Remco in GC isn't relevant at this point and there wasn't enough road to add to the damage.
If the pattern continues we'll know that Remco will need to commit to a race like the Tour at a possible compromise to some of his major skills. Vingegaard and Pogacar seem to be the rare examples of GC guys that can do several things very well. Remco can beat them in TT's, for the most part but climbing with them at their best is the goal to win a Tour.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Le Patron has been too outspoken regarding his tactics recently: speaking about getting rid of the red jersey and sticking to Jonas wheel. So JV attacked with Kuss in the breakaway and then with Primoz on the last climb! Le Patron still isn't realizing that those yellow guys he was chasing are merely doms of the mighty Sepp!

 

[IndianCyclist]

Vervaeke was already riding decently again, Vingegaard also had the virus. He might already be much better by Saturday

Aha! Vingegaard the Virus infected Remco's Rockets causing them to Fizz out. The world is right again.

 

[The fridge in the blue trees]

That was surprising... after Roglic not being anywhere close to Remco in Andorra, thought if somebody were to lose time would be Roglic today, not Remco. Looked like it would be way over a minute at some point, but he reacted very well after that. Maybe he's better without a guy making tempo for him? But now an additional problem, Kuss.... Almost 3' to Sepp is not something you get back that easily... and Jumbo will for the moment be ok with having Kuss there, have Remco do the work to get back time on him. UAE+Quick vs Jumbo now? Normally those 3' can be taken back of course, Kuss is not THAT good either, but will require work and will allow Jumbo to just sit back until it gets close.
'

 

[Riek s]

I wouldn't be shocked if he is injured. We certainly cannot take his word for it, the crash looked pretty bad and his drop in performance is certainly weird. But at some point you do have to start wondering if Evenepoel has really high peaks but is simply struggling to sustain those over many days. Every time it happens he has a really good excuse, but it's still suspicious just how often days like today happen to him.

I guess the silver lining is that when he had bad days in the 2nd week last year he came back and was once again the strongest climber in week 3.

Being injured is possible. We know riders don't tell the whole truth in that sense. Last year vuelta he said he was ok and he wasn't, in the giro he said he had heavy injuries while they weren't. (you see the same with other riders)
If its an injury it might be recoverable.
If is the stomach issue that goes around it will also be recoverable.

but it might also just be a regular bad day or just the way the stage came to be. Very hard, under pressure, riding in the front to much causing him to waste more energy than the others who stayed more in the body of the peleton (which saves a lot of energy).
My thought before the Vuelta was he would struggle on longer/steeper climbs due to his prep, which might also be the case. Think he dropped on the steepest part before holding pace).

He held up well at the end, just don't like his 'movements' at the end, but could be because of the effort before.
Lets see how it goes in the weekend, besides Kuss he is still in front of all the other favorites.

 

[Netserk]

(maybe he is just overrated as a climber)

 

[Gargamel35]

(maybe he is just overrated as a climber)

Oh no you didn't.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

This was surprising. Basically a stage with one significant climb: a 30-minute intense effort in the first week of a GT. This is where Remco should be stronger than this - he has a very good fresh bazooka w/kg. It won't be easier for him during multi-col stages later in the race but he has to hope it was just an off day. His GC situation definitely got worse.

 

[laarsland]

 

[Riek s]

(maybe he is just overrated as a climber)

or not, because he isn't rated as the best climber in the peleton. while today he did well for being a bad day (for whatever reason)

 

[Riek s]

How can they spell primož so wrong.

 

[Berniece]

(maybe he is just overrated as a climber)

 

[ManicJack]

or not, because he isn't rated as the best climber in the peleton. while today he did well for being a bad day (for whatever reason)

What happens if today was actually a good day?

 

[pelotonIQ]

It is a well known ''secret'' that Remco does bad on consistently steep gradients, anything above 8% looks to be his weakness.

Last 5kms of this climb was 10%