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

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It's hard to tell what actually went wrong. Was it really his bike handling skills or did he fear falling during those downhills sections? Many times when they zoomed in on him there was a gap of 5-10m with the cyclist in front of him so he must have spent a lot of energy. But was this sufficient to have that collapse at the end? Maybe he also experienced a dip at the same time? It was his first rest day ever so he doesn't know how his body react to this, certainly not after such a long absence from pro cycling. Also, that frustration didn't help him either although you could see why he was angry. Almeida was not helping him when he dropped and he lost him a second time as well. Apart from those 2 dips, he did put up a good fight. During the last 5km he basically kept the same pace as Bernal and Buchmann while the others lost 30 seconds.
 
Panda Claws

You were the one who said to anyone who tried to bring any realistic view of Evenepoels chances in his first GT should eat crow

you decided about the whole crow eating rubbish

no one else

Yeah I am sure I said that 'anyone who brings a realistic view of Evenepoels chances in his first GT should eat crow' lmao. You can't be serious?

You can probably quote me multiple times stating that we should at least wait until his second GT. The people that I mentioned as should-be crow-eaters are those who have continually shifted goalposts on when they would take Remco seriously as a prospect. Wait until he goes pro, wait until it is WT, wait until it goes uphill etc. . And until his crash he had often proved them wrong. But instead of admitting they would shift the goalposts.

Therefore I wanted to say that those who were willing to put an explicit claim out there that Remco would be crushed on Zoncolan, or because of a lack of recovery etc. should - this time at least - admit to being wrong if Evenepoel actually did do well.

In this thread the overwhelming sentiment even by the fanboys (like me) has been that we want to see Evenepoel confirming our hopes in the mountain stages and concerning recovery. But that because of preparation and it being his first GT we should be careful with the expectations we put on him. And unless the situation is crystal-clear wait until he does a GT with proper preparation. I feel like the people here mostly just belief in Remco's potential and that he can do well in the GC even now. Winning it has always been a different story.

What we did not do was blankly state that Evenepoel would crush or get crushed on the Zoncolan or anything like that. Because we don't know. But if you are going to put claims out there you need to be willing to admit when you are wrong. The benefit of being able to say 'I told you so' comes with the caveat of 'I was wrong'.

Your argument is probably that you think that the thought of Evenepoel being good for three weeks and finishing high up in the GC is a completely unrealistic view of his chances in his first GT. And yes then I will admit that I believe that I think it is realistic that Evenepoel will do well in the GC over three weeks. I am willing to admit that that was too optimistic if Evenepoel completely tumbles out of the GC in the third week. But I really have zero problems with figuratively eating crow. But it has to be because of something I actually said.

But if that is your view you will also have been too pessimistic if he does stay high up in the GC. Also, you could have made all these remarks before today lol. Now it just feels like waiting until you smelled blood. This is really just such a specific stage too lmao. I think almost everyone expected that this would not be a strength of his.
 
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He descended like an amateur. I even wondered if he had the wrong tires because it seems he had zero confidence in going around a corner without braking superhard. I cannot understand the way he took some curves, and how afraid he was following wheels: if you lack the technical skills, at least try to follow the line of the rider in front of you.

He lost contact on a (not even fast) descent. I cannot understand that a guy like Almeida wasn't just around him when he was losing contact with the group.
He looked spent just because he had to close all his self-made gaps, and for a moment I thought he would loose closer to 3-4 minutes than the 2 minutes it was in the end.
His downhill technique on dirt was a lot worse I ever imagined. A combination of fear, wrong tires and a a teammate who clearly rebelled and did not accompany him in the group or set the correct lines and curves. And initially refused to drop out of the group to help his teammate having lost contact. I don't think Almeida will race after the Giro..... Lefevere cannot bear such a behavior.
 
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It's hard to tell what actually went wrong. Was it really his bike handling skills or did he fear falling during those downhills sections? Many times when they zoomed in on him there was a gap of 5-10m with the cyclist in front of him so he must have spent a lot of energy. But was this sufficient to have that collapse at the end? Maybe he also experienced a dip at the same time? It was his first rest day ever so he doesn't know how his body react to this, certainly not after such a long absence from pro cycling. Also, that frustration didn't help him either although you could see why he was angry. Almeida was not helping him when he dropped and he lost him a second time as well. Apart from those 2 dips, he did put up a good fight. During the last 5km he basically kept the same pace as Bernal and Buchmann while the others lost 30 seconds.
What went wrong? Very simple, his legs.
 
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There simply weren't enough false flat sections, pretty obvious.

But he held on well after being dropped. Lost 55" in the last mountain? Look at how much others lost to Bernal there, Ciccone, Soler.
Yep. That climb was only like 4.5% average. So plenty of false flat sections for huge engines Almeida & Evenepoel to make up time. Only about 3.5 kms at over 7 %
 
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His downhill technique on dirt was a lot worse I ever imagined. A combination of fear, wrong tires and a a teammate who clearly rebelled and did not accompany him in the group or set the correct lines and curves. And initially refused to drop out of the group to help his teammate having lost contact. I don't think Almeida will race after the Giro..... Lefevere cannot bear such a behavior.
To be fair to Almeida....it's up to Remco to select his lines unless he wants to end up in a ditch. It's not like he's riding in the dark. Almeida may also have lost patience with a teammate that continually wasn't equipped to stay on the wheel, forcing him to close multiple gaps (I don't have any video so I'm speculating on the accounts of you folks). That kind of riding suggests that Remco was not up to it today. See what tomorrow brings.
 
To be fair to Almeida....it's up to Remco to select his lines unless he wants to end up in a ditch. It's not like he's riding in the dark. Almeida may also have lost patience with a teammate that continually wasn't equipped to stay on the wheel, forcing him to close multiple gaps (I don't have any video so I'm speculating on the accounts of you folks). That kind of riding suggests that Remco was not up to it today. See what tomorrow brings.
But it's also the duty of a good domestique to help his leader when in trouble.
 
In the cn report on the front page (which usually includes a lot of mistakes though) they said Almeida declined to help him in the beginning - are there any true hints for that?
Well, it looked just like that at the moment when Remco started to loose contact. Almeida was nowhere close to him for a very long time. I really doubt it was a miscommunication/radio problem while such an explanation may will be given officialy by DQS I expect.
 
In the cn report on the front page (which usually includes a lot of mistakes though) they said Almeida declined to help him in the beginning - are there any true hints for that?
The fact that he was not helping could be a hint.

Had he started helping sooner, they might not have wasted so much energy.

What went wrong? Very simple, his legs.
Very simply, wrong. Just like 2 years ago in Adriatica Ionica, he lacks the bikehandling skills for this terrain, and wasted energy.
 
Very simply, wrong. Just like 2 years ago in Adriatica Ionica, he lacks the bikehandling skills for this terrain, and wasted energy.

Feels a little like searching for excuses though. Racing on cobbles/gravel is probably not the most critical skill for a pro cyclist, but it's something you should be capable at if you're aiming at a GT career and at least make an effort to learn it.
 
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Feels a little like searching for excuses though. Racing on cobbles/gravel is probably not the most critical skill for a pro cyclist, but it's something you should be capable at if you're aiming at a GT career and at least make an effort to learn it.
Did you not see him dangling at the back on every sterrato sector? Closing gaps of 10-20 meter until there was another turn, and he got distanced again. Do that for 2 hours and i think you'll understand. He should be able to ride on gravel better, sure. But he doesn't, and that's not an excuse, it's a simple fact.
 
Did you not see him dangling at the back on every sterrato sector? Closing gaps of 10-20 meter until there was another turn, and he got distanced again. Do that for 2 hours and i think you'll understand. He should be able to ride on gravel better, sure. But he doesn't, and that's not an excuse, it's a simple fact.

Simon Yates dangled on the back on every sterrato sector. And we had four Sterrato sectors out of which Evenepoel wasn't even in the front group for about 2,5 of them. So how does he dangle on the back end on every sterrator sector?
 
Feels a little like searching for excuses though. Racing on cobbles/gravel is probably not the most critical skill for a pro cyclist, but it's something you should be capable at if you're aiming at a GT career and at least make an effort to learn it.

I agree on the effort to learn it, but keep in mind the guy who is only recently racing(in term of years) spend most of the time between his last race and now off the road bike due to injury. So we can't really blame him for not improving his bike handling when he barely rode a bike. But I agree, he should do specific training on that since that is probably something that can gain him the most time for the least effort.
 
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
You know I wasn’t talking about Evenpoel but rather using that as an example for folks who should eat crow about COVID?
 
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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
Look it's nice to have discussions, pro and contra arguments, but what you just posted is simply saying this forum shouldn't exist.

The 'fanboys' are just sharing a combination of thoughts and dreams, there are huge believers yess, and there are some sceptical people, and most of the people try to go deep into arguments. Now what else would you expect from a forum like this? Should there only be talked about results in the past? Or should expectations for the Giro be like 'I hope he can just finish the first time trial'? Of course there are some big expectations, but do we put any pressure on him just sharing our enthousiasm on a forum?

Also If you're irritated by the hype, think about why this hype exists: Name 1 rider driving better results before age 20 and some days. Now it's up to you to come up with arguments against the hype.

Just don't hate, it's nice sharing and discussing here.
 
Look it's nice to have discussions, pro and contra arguments, but what you just posted is simply saying this forum shouldn't exist.

The 'fanboys' are just sharing a combination of thoughts and dreams, there are huge believers yess, and there are some sceptical people, and most of the people try to go deep into arguments. Now what else would you expect from a forum like this? Should there only be talked about results in the past? Or should expectations for the Giro be like 'I hope he can just finish the first time trial'? Of course there are some big expectations, but do we put any pressure on him just sharing our enthousiasm on a forum?

Also If you're irritated by the hype, think about why this hype exists: Name 1 rider driving better results before age 20 and some days. Now it's up to you to come up with arguments against the hype.

Just don't hate, it's nice sharing and discussing here.




No one said the forum shouldn't exist ? Exaggeration much ?

So you guys can say whatever you like but hey let no one disagree or pull you up or they are haters

I really cant be arsed with level of intelligent arguments
 
So Evenepoel got dropped in the 2nd sector? I must have seen another race.

He got dropped in the first sector where he was able to be paced by his team mates. Stayed on in the second, which is the one full sector where he dangled on the backend of a group, then stayed on for a little less then half the sector on the third one, but since i didn't want to calculate whether it was 1,2238792 or 1,5 i rounded it up in his favor.

I am sure he needed to put in a lot of effort today because he is simply not that good at racing in these conditions, but he did not dangle a lot on the backend of groups.
 

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