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

[SafeBet]

I had no doubt today was gonna be a big challenge for him. His bike handling is still as bad as I remembered it. You could see how scared he was as soon as the sterrato started. He probably didn't have his best legs today, but having to close gaps after gaps after every corner or downhill sector will eventually make you pay the price. That's how these roads work.

He was also mentally unprepared to face such a difficult situation. He was close to give up at one point, but in the end he kept fighting, which was very good to see thinking about his future as a GT rider.

Only two minutes lost, still 7th in GC. I don't know why the team should pull him unless he's sick or completely spent. This is what GTs are about. Having bad days, learning how to deal with them. And recovering.

 

[Bonimenier]

Hopefully this was a one time thing this Giro so we can see him attacking and making the race more exciting.

 

[kingjr]

I think it does take a lot out of you being so tense in every corner

 

[Froome]

Podium is theoretically still in range, he just about avoided complete disaster today. But difficult to be optimistic for what's coming after this...

Top 5 is a nice result for remco, it's his first grand tour, he's young, he needs to improve in a lot of things, and he's comeback from a serious crash. Obviously remco would never win this giro.

 

[KZD]

The most concerning part was the difficulty that he had on the last climb but that might have been due to the time that he spent alone.
If he still has a good shape he could still do top10 or win a mountain stage.

 

[Panda Claws]

The most concerning part was the difficulty that he had on the last climb but that might have been due to the time that he spent alone.
If he still has a good shape he could still do top10 or win a mountain stage.

What do you mean? He barely lost time on the last climb.

 

[Red Rick]

What do you mean? He barely lost time on the last climb.

He lost a lot of time there.

 

[Panda Claws]

He lost a lot of time there.

Wasn't he already 2 minutes behind before he even started the climb?

 

[TomBonnen2005]

What do you mean? He barely lost time on the last climb.

Impossible to tell with the constantly changing television gaps. Good indication though is that he finished just after Ciccone/Nibali

 

[houtdffan]

Wasn't he already 2 minutes behind before he even started the climb?

The GPS timing was fluctuating big time. It was varying by 30 seconds over a half km

Not sure how much time he actually lost on the final climb.

Surprised he only lost 2 minutes today. I thought it was going to be 4-5

 

[HelloDolly]

Yeah it's sometimes annoying that people have constantly typed 'wait until he rides a WT race' 'wait until it's not Tour de Pologne' and yet never have to publicly eat crow for it. But that's the internet for you.

If there was any justice in having to eat crow for making stupid remarks without consequences, I would be serving it up to all the “It’s just like the flu” loudmouths from a year ago, including a couple at my worplace!

Maybe some of the mega hype makers on here should eat some crow

The kid is talented and exciting but the hype is overly annoying . Lets face it he is no Bernal or Pogacar yet
He maybe but he may not be...nobody knows yet but that didnt' stop the over the top rubbish on here
The pressure on the kid has been immense and mostly ridiculous
I like Remo not so hot on his fans though

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Belgian Simon Spilak.

 

[Red Rick]

Wasn't he already 2 minutes behind before he even started the climb?

I think it was more like 1'20 and it grew to way over 2' on top of the climb, and I think he limited his losses on the flats well enough.

 

[Gigs_98]

I honestly cannot tell what exactly the issue was today. His legs were clearly lacking but was it psychological because he couldn't follow on the descents, was it because he can't handle restdays or is it just his shape that is getting worse. I suppose we'll get our answer on the Zoncolan at latest and maybe tomorrow already

 

[LesDiablesRouges]

I had no doubt today was gonna be a big challenge for him. His bike handling is still as bad as I remembered it. You could see how scared he was as soon as the sterrato started. He probably didn't have his best legs today, but having to close gaps after gaps after every corner or downhill sector will eventually make you pay the price. That's how these roads work.

He was also mentally unprepared to face such a difficult situation. He was close to give up at one point, but in the end he kept fighting, which was very good to see thinking about his future as a GT rider.

Only two minutes lost, still 7th in GC. I don't know why the team should pull him unless he's sick or completely spent. This is what GTs are about. Having bad days, learning how to deal with them. And recovering.

It's really strange to see someone be so bad at sterrato when they are such a good rouler.

I knew things were bad when he didn't push to the front around the first bend.

DQS literally blew up trying to get him back to the main group after the first downhill section.

He has to ride cyclocross this offseason for the simple reason that he needs to get more explosion and needs to deal with downhills.

The funny thing is that he's not completely out of it unless he's incapable of attacking.

While it looks like Bernal has it in the bag, Remco is capable of closing down the gap if he throws caution to the wind. Who cares if he finishes 2 1/2 minutes down or 20.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

I honestly cannot tell what exactly the issue was today. His legs were clearly lacking but was it psychological because he couldn't follow on the descents, was it because he can't handle restdays or is it just his shape that is getting worse. I suppose we'll get our answer on the Zoncolan at latest and maybe tomorrow already

The issue is that this is the Giro d'Italia, not Baliose Belgium tour or Vuelta Burgos, its not nice February Beach race like Algarve. You need to be able to steer your bike, to fight for position, to ride gravel and hard climbs on repetitive days, to have a team that puts you in the best position at all times, to descend well etc. Not just attack the nice smooth easy belgian roads while the others warm up for bigger objectives.

 

[limak_]

I think it was more like 1'20 and it grew to way over 2' on top of the climb, and I think he limited his losses on the flats well enough.

But then also at some point, Bernal's group eased the pace for a considerable amount of time, looking at each other

 

[ppanther92]

Wasn't he already 2 minutes behind before he even started the climb?

I think he quite lost some time in the beginning of the last climb when Almeida dropped him again but then he recovered well.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I honestly cannot tell what exactly the issue was today. His legs were clearly lacking but was it psychological because he couldn't follow on the descents, was it because he can't handle restdays or is it just his shape that is getting worse. I suppose we'll get our answer on the Zoncolan at latest and maybe tomorrow already

The logical answer is him being bad technically, and when youre this bad technically on gravel, youre naturally gonna use lots of power trying to repair constantly losing pace on the gravel, going late it on the sectors and in generel just closing lots of gaps instead of riding a more constant pace. After a few hours of that, youre using way more power than the opponents are youre gonna boom

 

[Red Rick]

I honestly cannot tell what exactly the issue was today. His legs were clearly lacking but was it psychological because he couldn't follow on the descents, was it because he can't handle restdays or is it just his shape that is getting worse. I suppose we'll get our answer on the Zoncolan at latest and maybe tomorrow already

They showed some Velon data after the first gravel section that was useful for the first time ever.

It showed Evenepol literally putting out more watts than Bernal despite losing contact in the group. He was clearly wasting more energy. On top of that I think he was fine on the flat gravel sections, though I don't think it's as good for him cause it requires a bit more raw power than aerodynamics, and I think he had his worst moments on steep uphills.

For the larger picture, I don't think this stage means *** for recovery, though I think his trajectory was trending slightly upwards before the rest day.

 

[kingjr]

He lost a lot of time there.

He lost about 55 seconds. Could've been worse the way he looked.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I think it was more like 1'20 and it grew to way over 2' on top of the climb, and I think he limited his losses on the flats well enough.

No, before the final climb the gap was almost 1m40.

I honestly cannot tell what exactly the issue was today. His legs were clearly lacking but was it psychological because he couldn't follow on the descents, was it because he can't handle restdays or is it just his shape that is getting worse. I suppose we'll get our answer on the Zoncolan at latest and maybe tomorrow already

Coming back every time cost him a lot of energy. He was dangling at the back, closing gaps, because he lacked the skills. Doing that for 60km sapped the life out of him. Considering he caught Bardet & Martinez, finished minutes ahead of Formolo, nearly caught Ciccone and Soler, it could have been a lot worse.

 

[AlfaLum]

Maybe it's a bit of a mix. Technically he is quite bad. It's the first stage where he needs to use a lot of power multiple times for a longer time, which is completely different to the shorter one-time power explosions we have seen so far. It might just be that due to his short preparation he also lacks a little bit of hardness to do these big efforts multiple times during a race.

 

[Panda Claws]

Maybe some of the mega hype makers on here should eat some crow

The kid is talented and exciting but the hype is overly annoying . Lets face it he is no Bernal or Pogacar yet
He maybe but he may not be...nobody knows yet but that didnt' stop the over the top rubbish on here
The pressure on the kid has been immense and mostly ridiculous
I like Remo not so hot on his fans though

Why would any of us eat crow lmao.

I don't think you can find any posts about how Remco is going to do well on the Sterrato. The sentiment here is mostly that it is believed that Evenepoel can grow into a first class GC rider capable of winning GT's but that we all still have to wait to see how his recovery is and how he handles big mountain stages. It's even been pointed out multiple times that due to the circumstances, due to this being his first GT, that we might have to wait until at least the second GT to draw massive conclusions.

It's very hard to have to eat crow when expectations are constantly kept in check like this. Sure perhaps you can find some mega fans on here that made crazy predictions but I don't recall reading much of those.

I see no reason to suddenly doubt my assessment of Remco's potential because of what happened today. Ask me again after this Giro and especially ask me again after he rides a GT with proper preparation. I am not shifting the goalposts here just reminding you where they actually stand.

 

[roundabout]

Wasn't he already 2 minutes behind before he even started the climb?

he was something like 1'10 behind exiting the last sector (hand-timed, not GPS)