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

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"Toying" is taking 11s in a stage you could potentially lose minutes. Masnada who loses more than a minute on Evenepoel is now the better option for GC.
Evenepoel is 2nd in GC of favorites, 4s behind Vlasov, but never mind that. And let's forget he came into the Giro undercooked could just as easily improve, as he could crack.

it’s insane to draw any conclusions from today’s stage. For me there is more reason to believe he will be better in week 3 than 1 as he has no racing in his legs.

there is also every reason to believe that Bernal’s back will give out next week.

who knows...maybe Remco loses 20 minutes Thursday or maybe he wins. You sure don’t know from Today.
 
DQS brought 3 guys for GC but none can win. Unless Remco is now like a 1999 Lance. Masnada in Dolomites will be the strongest, they have now to play the cards they have.
They brought 2 guys for GC and Masnada wasn't one of them. He may now see how far he can go considering Almeida is done. But it's utterly ridiculous to state that Evenepoel is "toyed with" since he loses 11s, and no longer an option but somehow in your deluded mind, Masnada who loses 1 minute 15 seconds is not "toyed with" and is a better bet. While Evenepoel is now 1m24s ahead of Masnada in GC. Stay away from drugs.
 
From what he says after the race he's happy with the result. It was an effort where he had to go very deep for a short time, and he hadn't done such efforts in a long time. His body needs to adapt and get used to those efforts again. When the others attacked, how i understand it, he didn't even try to follow but chose to ride his own tempo.

 
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They brought 2 guys for GC and Masnada wasn't one of them. He may now see how far he can go considering Almeida is done. But it's utterly ridiculous to state that Evenepoel is "toyed with" since he loses 11s, and no longer an option but somehow in your deluded mind, Masnada who loses 1 minute 15 seconds is not "toyed with" and is a better bet. While Evenepoel is now 1m24s ahead of Masnada in GC. Stay away from drugs.

You make good points, you're probably right, but I don't see Remco with his aerodynamic frame having fun time on Zoncolan or stage 17, nor on treacherous descents. Masnada should play the Landa role and irritate the other teams
 
You make good points, you're probably right, but I don't see Remco with his aerodynamic frame having fun time on Zoncolan or stage 17, nor on treacherous descents. Masnada should play the Landa role and irritate the other teams
I wouldn't mind, and it would probably be interesting for Evenepoel as well, if Masnada took over the role of Almeida. If only to be able to make tactical plays. But you can't say they toyed with Evenepoel because he lost 11s, and somehow think Masnada who lost a minute more, is better. That exactly the same as saying after today that Bennett has a better chance of winning the Giro than Bernal and Carthy. Doesn't make sense.
 
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From what he says after the race he's happy with the result. It was an effort where he had to go very deep for a short time, and he hadn't done such efforts in a long time. His body needs to adapt and get used to those efforts again. When the others attacked, how i understand it, he didn't even try to follow but chose to ride his own tempo.

Yeah, that's what it looked like. He never was able to put himself on the front of the group where he had been most of the day, so I think he was in some trouble frankly. Looked like he was fighting just to be there. I guess the question is whether he'll be able to round into more form or tire from deep efforts. It will be interesting.
 
At least his presence makes the Giro a lot more exciting. So far it has been a very standard Giro without the Remco narrative imo.

What do you expect? There was a time trial, won beautifully by the World Champion. Then a flat stage, won by Tim Merlier of Alpecin, a team which does a GT for the first time. Then a stage where Taco from Intermarché, the only WT team without a win, held off a closing peloton. And now a stage that was rather closely won by a guy from the break and where there were some smaller differences between the many major contenders, which already give us hints. I don't think one can complain in general?
 
What do you expect? There was a time trial, won beautifully by the World Champion. Then a flat stage, won by Tim Merlier of Alpecin, a team which does a GT for the first time. Then a stage where Taco from Intermarché, the only WT team without a win, held off a closing peloton. And now a stage that was rather closely won by a guy from the break and where there were some smaller differences between the many major contenders, which already give us hints. I don't think one can complain in general?

Personally I think this Giro is pretty standard so far. Not bad. Not boring. And personally I feel that having Remco there with an interesting narrative (will the prodigy come back strong?) makes it more exciting. Especially for fans, but I feel like even neutral observers can think that is an interesting narrative to follow. It makes it more exciting. It's definitely fair to raise other things that were exciting about this Giro but for me those are not enough to distinguish it yet. Also I bet you can make a similar post overselling each stage for other GT's you've seen. Like c'mon the Prologue really was not that special.

I think you are reading a bit too much into my comment. I even added an 'imo' at the end.
Of course this is coming from a fanboy, hence why I post it in this thread.
 
lots of great points here.

it is unknown how remco will fare the rest of the way. yes, he could improve or he could have a day like almeida.

the key is he is nowhere near where he was stage 4 of poland last year -- dropping everyone (including simon yates) by a lot. that remco would have had no issue dictating the pace on the last climb today.

perfectly normal, considering where he is coming from.

whether remco can actually contend, i have my doubts.

however, i do hope we see the remco of stage 4 in poland before the end of the giro, just to know he is fully back.
 
I told everyone here that Masnada is a better option than Almeida and already it shows to be true. Soon the same will become apparent with Remco and DQS will have to go all in for Fausto. Remco looking nervous and cold as Escarabajo said, Landa and Bernal already toying with him.

Obviously you are right. They should form Ineos-ish trains with Remco and Almeida pulling on the mountainstages for Masnada as he obviously is the true GC star of not only DQS but of this entire Giro.
Never mind the guy wearing the pink jersey for 15 days last year or the boy wonder from Belgium. If lefevre has any sence in him, he'd put all his eggs in Masnada's basket.
 
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Good day for Evenepoel. Seems to be in shape to fight for podium but its uncertain how will he take the third week especially given that he is coming from injury.
Really hope that he can continue to improve and reach the peak on the third week.
 
Evenepoel performed well today, given the terrible circumstances (but the same for everybody) and the fact those are his first days of competition. But, as I wrote yesterday, the fact that he rode on a high rear the day before, in the uphills, wasn't a good sign. And he looked terrible in the final. Sunken eyes, dark bags under the eyes. But he showed character and drove wisely. If he can recover in the next, flat stage, he could maybe survive the next mountainstage at thursday. If it doesn't rain all day. He clearly has problems with that.
I also think he and his coach/fysical coach made a mistake by let him lose too much weight. In the Tour, where it is often hot, that's OK. But in Italy, the first half of May, it's often rainy and cold, especially in the mountains.
 

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