You guys are very optimistic. whenever the race gets harder Remco loses time and you still think that he will overcome the difference in the TT. It's not logic to think like that. The most likely scenario is that Remco will continue to lose time, The big mountains are still ahead and I can't think of a scenario where Remco doesn't lose even more time. He is very tired and not in a good shape to face the competition and that's just natural.
Each time he lost time, there has been a definable reason for it, which does not necessarily have an impact on the rest of the race. He lost 11 seconds in the first hilly stage. There was in initial attack by Landa, Bernal reacted there was a gap and once the gap was established, Remco did not keep losing time. He has never been a punchy rider, and especially now with a short preperation and training, there was no more time to train his short efforts.
First MTF he did not lose time to Bernal, only boniseconds. Same problem here, he was outsprinted. It's not his thing.
Two days ago he lost time on the final gravel section. He was badly positioned and again he does lack the punch that Bernal has.
Today he was wasting energy due to a lack of technical and bikehandling skills on the gravel sections. You can make up for that, closing gap after gap, moving to the front again after every turn and corner, but you have to do a lot bigger efforts than your rivals and at a certain point you run out of energy. Also, after being dropped and Bernal going all out, he only lost 2 minutes, caught Bardet & Martinez, and nearly Soler and Ciccone. He he really been done and dusted, i don't think he would have been able to lose so little time.
While it's completely possible that he'll drop further back, due to a too short training period, the time he lost does not necessarily point to that being the case. There are enough reasonable explanations for each time he has lost time.
I think some of you are really exaggerating negatively.
He's still in 7th place. He lost two minutes, not 15.
Before the race I didn't expect him to be in contention for the win because of the lack of training, but then I got drawn in a bit in the hype, not only by you, but also because his team sounded pretty confident (and you must be very confident for GC if you leave Alvaro at home!!).
But so far this is no reason to pull him out of the race, unless he feels very fatigued. In terms of results a top10 would always be very strong with this preparation. There are quite a few good guys behind him.
The way I saw it he lost the time on the sterrato (only), I didn't watch him all of the time, but I saw him losing like 15 meters once on one of the gravel descents, that was clearly not because his legs are generally bad (at this point), but of course the repeated effort and maybe also the mental side drained him.
Anyway, we will see how he does in the next days. There is no need to be overdramatic at this point, and in no way does it say anything about his future abilities. He wasn't totally cooked for good, he seemed to have caught himself after a little while. Maybe he did not only struggle with the technical side but also with the repeated short punchy efforts, where on tarmac he is able to hold on but on gravel you have less slipstream effect/ more rolling resistance.
About the Almeida thing, I still don't understand and would honestly very much like to know what was going on. Could Almeida really be so bastardly? Did the team fight before this stage? Or was it more like Carolina suggested?
Who knows, but as Bonimenier said, according to the team, there were technical issues with communication. It's a flimsy excuse honestly, since he (Almeida) shouldn't need to be told to begin with, that he should look after Evenepoel, but on the other hand, he did do a lot of work once he went to help.
But i agree about Remco, it's not the end of the world, only a minute off podium. He didn't completely tank either, even caught guys from the first group. If he can bounce back, still a lot is possible. The main question is, were these the signs that he's running on fumes, or is nothing the matter and was it a bad day due to woeful bikehandling, making him burn through his energy reserves.
Maybe not, João had to ease the pace at least 2 times while pulling him so I think that the legs weren't there but we'll never know for sure
Had he started helping earlier, Remco would not have lost so much time in the first place. Both of them would have wasted less time and energy, and possibly even been able to (perhaps temporarilly) bridge the gap.
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