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

Page 998 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Should we change the thread title?


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A tempo climber is not explosive and try to ride at his own pace instead of going in crazy accelerations.
Indurain, Basso, etc.
Nowadays, guys like Thomas and Almeida are perfect to show how is a tempo climber.
In that case Evenepoel is also not a tempoclimber and similar to Roglic. Both have a punchy sprint. But when i see both Evenepoel or Roglic climb on their own, i can't really recall either climbing like Contador or Pantani. When they climb on their own, they climb from the saddle and at a steady pace. For me the fact that they both have a punchy sprint, doesnt change how they climb. But if you guys want to use a different label, that's totally fine. The point is that they are similar.
 
Reached the stage where actual Grand Tour winners aren't considered Grand Tour riders and the other guy who won the best weeklong stage race of the year with 2 stage wins is considered a disaster.

Is either rider going to win The Tour this year? Probably not, but it would be great wouldn't it, seeing the underdog pull off an upset. Seen the same thing on social media all week, 'there's no way these guys can beat Pogacar/Vingegaard.' every 20 seconds. Who gives a ***, well done for choosing the massive odds-on favourite. People too concerned with being correct on the internet that they've lost the capacity to dream.

On the topic of Evenepoel, I remember him talking last year I think with Lanterne Rouge about how he should ride a bit more like the extremely popular Geraint Thomas at times, when I saw him at the Dauphine it looked completely within himself, like you can usually tell quite easily with the guy when he's toast, on the road and especially in his interviews afterwards, but he looked pretty unphased. I would think relevant to his plan things are on track, but whether that plan is actually a good one is less clear.
 
In that case Evenepoel is also not a tempoclimber and similar to Roglic. Both have a punchy sprint. But when i see both Evenepoel or Roglic climb on their own, i can't really recall either climbing like Contador or Pantani. When they climb on their own, they climb from the saddle and at a steady pace. For me the fact that they both have a punchy sprint, doesnt change how they climb. But if you guys want to use a different label, that's totally fine. The point is that they are similar.
I agree with this view. In our “either-or” society folks want to place someone in a single box/characteristic. Just looking at what a rider does in the km of a long climb doesn’t help describe what type of rider they are for the other 90% of a climb or the other 99% of a race.
In addition, saying someone isn’t a tempo climber if they’re not like Basso or Indurain is a pretty narrow window to fit in.
 
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Reached the stage where actual Grand Tour winners aren't considered Grand Tour riders and the other guy who won the best weeklong stage race of the year with 2 stage wins is considered a disaster.

It's all about expectations isn't it? You can always make them up so that people fail. It's a game I remember my teachers playing very well indeed. We were always failures, because there was no way to succeed. I think it made them feel good, and I guess this is what motivates a lot of people in trying to ridicule a win for example.

Is either rider going to win The Tour this year? Probably not, but it would be great wouldn't it, seeing the underdog pull off an upset. Seen the same thing on social media all week, 'there's no way these guys can beat Pogacar/Vingegaard.' every 20 seconds. Who gives a ***, well done for choosing the massive odds-on favourite. People too concerned with being correct on the internet that they've lost the capacity to dream.

Interesting take. Formally correct statements can be much better controlled than creativity. And I have the feeling people have given up controll about so many things in their imaginative life, that they cling onto the bit's they think they can have power over. Like a discussion on the internet about some fact, blown out of proportion to figurate as proof of xyz's superiority, for example.
 
Nov 28, 2021
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Don't even know what that has to do with this.
It seems to be a double standard. Pog needs to win all his races against the “lesser competition” (and dominant as AGR 2023 are so often brought up). But Remco is somehow allowed to only win 1/3 races against the “lesser competition”
 
It seems to be a double standard. Pog needs to win all his races against the “lesser competition” (and dominant as AGR 2023 are so often brought up). But Remco is somehow allowed to only win 1/3 races against the “lesser competition”
You can / you have to strive for excellence. That doesn’t mean you ignore the reality. There is only one pog. Always comparing to the golden standard takes away the merits and brightness of your own achievements. Pog has had (only) one serious injury / crash that kept him away from racing when he broke his wrist. He almost didn’t race back then, until the tour, so he didn’t face the scrutiny either.
Remco on the other hand fell off a bridge, broke a collarbone and already anbandoned the giro with COVID while in the leaders jersey. That doesn't imply Remco would have gotten a similar amount of big wins, but it's to illustrate everyone is different, has different talents, setbacks, physique, preparation and thus a different path in life / career / wins /.... Like it said before, it is what it is and you can disagree or even be mad at it, but it’s not going to change with that.
 
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We're getting agonizingly close to 1000 pages and a forum meltdown.
I saw on the previous page the average (or is it fixed?) number of posts is 25, so based on that, post #24975 (plus / minus some, depending on very long posts by some forum users that nobody reads), should do it. So 10 to go!
 
We're getting agonizingly close to 1000 pages and a forum meltdown.
I saw on the previous page the average (or is it fixed?) number of posts is 25, so based on that, post #24975 (plus / minus some, depending on very long posts by some forum users that nobody reads), should do it. So 10 to go!
The number of posts per page is fixed at 25. But I guess the forum also survived the Contador thread reaching 2000 pages.
 
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It's pretty clear he's not the best mountain climber. He's a good puncheur and world champion TT. I supose if he's 100% prepared he should hang on in most mountain stages and gain time in TT and boni GC sprints.

But until this day, we still haven't seen Remco's biggest strenght in a big one week race or a grand tour. A genuine Remco raid in a hilly stage or semi mountain stage, preferably in the last week of a grand tour. The stage will have to have the right profile and preferably most domestiques must be dropped before his raid, but I do wonder if he'll ever succeed in hijacking a grand tour in that way.
 
It's pretty clear he's not the best mountain climber. He's a good puncheur and world champion TT. I supose if he's 100% prepared he should hang on in most mountain stages and gain time in TT and boni GC sprints.

But until this day, we still haven't seen Remco's biggest strenght in a big one week race or a grand tour. A genuine Remco raid in a hilly stage or semi mountain stage, preferably in the last week of a grand tour. The stage will have to have the right profile and preferably most domestiques must be dropped before his raid, but I do wonder if he'll ever succeed in hijacking a grand tour in that way.
Remco won't drop Jonas, Tadej and Primoz.
 
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Geez Rechtschreibfehler what kind of teachers did you have ? Sound positively ghastly .

The kind for example, where the three times I said something wrong in history class, in my 5 years as that teachers student, are stilled burned into my memory, because his stare was so hateful and condescending. One who rips not just your homework to shreds, but your entire writing block, because it has quad paper and not ruled paper. While -and this important - yelling that it was only for our good, because if we write on squad our handwriting would suffer.

To give you a general idea of our standings as students in the eyes of the school I can give you the following example If it is to hot in summer, you get Hitzefrei (free day because of heat) if the temperature reaches a certain degree: The temperature was always taken in the principles office by the principle, the only room in the entire school with an AC. We never had Hitzefrei ever, while the rest of the city's schools was on a free day.

A more funny story to finish:
One of the sports teacheres wasn't fired for touching the girls, or being absent when he should be observing what we were doing in sports class, or throwing out a student for having a cold, or solving a snow-ball-fight by throwing snow balls at students, or putting snow on their face (he'd approach them from behind for that). No, he was fired because he regularly used the emergency telephone of the sportstrak to call sex-hotlines in Thailand.
 
It's pretty clear he's not the best mountain climber. He's a good puncheur and world champion TT. I supose if he's 100% prepared he should hang on in most mountain stages and gain time in TT and boni GC sprints.

But until this day, we still haven't seen Remco's biggest strenght in a big one week race or a grand tour. A genuine Remco raid in a hilly stage or semi mountain stage, preferably in the last week of a grand tour. The stage will have to have the right profile and preferably most domestiques must be dropped before his raid, but I do wonder if he'll ever succeed in hijacking a grand tour in that way.
Because the race needs to be long and hard enough. A 160km stage with a lot of hills won't be enough for him to drop others.
 
It's pretty clear he's not the best mountain climber. He's a good puncheur and world champion TT. I supose if he's 100% prepared he should hang on in most mountain stages and gain time in TT and boni GC sprints.

But until this day, we still haven't seen Remco's biggest strenght in a big one week race or a grand tour. A genuine Remco raid in a hilly stage or semi mountain stage, preferably in the last week of a grand tour. The stage will have to have the right profile and preferably most domestiques must be dropped before his raid, but I do wonder if he'll ever succeed in hijacking a grand tour in that way.

he also can ride others off his wheel when he is on form. That was how he won the Vuelta. Same way Indurain took time in the mountains
 
I understand what you are saying, but are you not contradicting yourself by saying Remco will suffer the consequences during the Tour, but then you say that Remco will or can be 99 percent ready for the Tour? I mean 99 percent is extremely good for any rider
99 % is fine, with the possibility to improve during the Tour. But 100 % is better provided that 100% is only reached just before the start of the Tour. Riders at 100 % during the Dauphiné will get in trouble during the second half of the Tour. But I don't think Roglic, Jorgenson, Rodriguez were at 100 % (Maybe Gee was). But they will be at 100 % at the start of the Tour. Evenepoel and Vingegaard probably at 99 %. With Pogacar it will be difficult to determine, after the Giro and a short period of recovery. I think he will be near his Giroshape. Enough to take time on the Galibier. But with the risk of fatique and fading during the last, but very hard week of the Tour.
 
I propose we print all of the pages in this thread and give it as a coffee table book to Remco.

The issue is though, if he takes it out of his bookshelf every day, he will become a heavyweight bodybuilder due to all the book lifting.

So maybe it's better to make a .pdf and provide him with the kindle edition?
 
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In that case Evenepoel is also not a tempoclimber and similar to Roglic. Both have a punchy sprint. But when i see both Evenepoel or Roglic climb on their own, i can't really recall either climbing like Contador or Pantani. When they climb on their own, they climb from the saddle and at a steady pace. For me the fact that they both have a punchy sprint, doesnt change how they climb. But if you guys want to use a different label, that's totally fine. The point is that they are similar.
Roglic doesn't resemble Evenepoel (and Indurain) at all in terms of physique, metabolism, riding style and attacking spirit. He specializes in sitting very low in the wheel of others and thus staying out of the wind. He rarely takes the lead. Finally, to attack during the last few hundred meters, aided by his natural explosiveness. Without Ciccone, he would have lost the dauphiné. When he has to ride alone for a long time (in pursuit), he gets into trouble.
Evenepoel has not the natural explosiveness. But he has trained on it. Not having the legs, he will not succeed to outsprint the opponents in an uphill sprint. Roglic, even not being at his best, is able to win an uphill sprint when he sees the finish.
So, Roglic not at all similar to Indurain. We are still curious about the current rider (outside Evenepoel) who resembles Indurain in terms of qualities, riding style, weight (considering the lenght).