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

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...but I can't stop thinking about what a great entertainment it would have been, and what great drama we missed out on. Personally, this Giro is becoming a dud, a bust, or a fizzle... So I only have one question: Can Remco compete in the 2022 Tour de France and maybe win it?

yes, i regret what might have been last year...four stage races won. clearly the strongest in lombardy, youngest winner of the Giro and then he would have been favored to at least medal in the ITTs at the Olympics and Worlds. It could have been an unbelievable season. and for a 20 year old.

Remco has to first return to poland 2020 abilities. he is so clearly way under that right now.

until he shows that again, there should be no discussion.

it is true that the TDF does not generally have the upper gradients of the other GTs. however, it would also depend on TT kms.
 
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yes, i regret what might have been last year...four stage races won. clearly the strongest in lombardy, youngest winner of the Giro and then Olympics and Worlds. It could have been an unbelievable season. and for a 20 year old.

Remco has to first return to poland 2020 abilities. he is so clearly way under that right now.

until he shows that again, there should be no discussion.

it is true that the TDF does not generally have the upper gradients of the other GTs. however, it would also depend on TT kms.

Okay, tell me again people how it's just the media and DQ's fault that he's overhyped..... This guy would be awarding him a Giro, Olympic gold and a world championship if it wasn't for his crash.
 
Ok so Remco is very popular, has many supporters, a large fan base (including myself). Deep down and not so deep, many of us were hoping for a real battle between him and and the top riders in the Giro. It's pretty obvious now that it won't happen, but I can't stop thinking about what a great entertainment it would have been, and what great drama we missed out on. Personally, this Giro is becoming a dud, a bust, or a fizzle. And btw there is still a small chance, very small, that this Giro will become exciting in the last week (one can always hope). So I only have one question: Can Remco compete in the 2022 Tour de France and maybe win it? Before you jump all over me for such a crazy question, and I know how far in the future I am talking about, I know how many ifs and what ifs must become visible to answer such a question, but let's say he acquires the descending skill and positioning ability within 9 to 12 months from now (if that's even possible), will he have such great odds to win it like the odds that were given to him by Las Vegas or the odds-makers? We must also wait to see what parcours the 2022 Tour will look like. I guess I am just trying to look into the future; it's what I do when I don't like the present. Sorry for the long message...and go Remco!!! And I think he has done a superb job in this Giro.
Remco is a rather polarizing figure it seems. Many fans, and just as many people waiting for him to fail.
As for you question, we basically know as much now as we did last month. Let's first see how he handles his actual season goals (Olympics) and perhaps the Vuelta. If he rides the Vuelta, we should be able to see some clear improvements over his Giro performance. If not, then it doesn't bode well.
As for his bikehandling skills and descending skills, i can only hope he gets some practice. I think like many technical things, really perfecting it takes time and lots of practice, but if you suck at it, you should be able to improve rather quickly towards mediocrity. Going from mediocrity to mastering, is much harder, i would assume.
 
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wow.

pray tell me h
ow fulsgang who was unceremoniously destroyed by remco the week before was going to beat him?

remco didn't even have his mouth open on the steep climb before the accident.

you are serious dumba$$. no doubt.

and you are now on ignore.
Judging by this Giro, probably in the Civilgio descent.

Pretty sure numbers wise Evenepoels level is actually higher than in Burgos 2020
 
Remco is a rather polarizing figure it seems. Many fans, and just as many people waiting for him to fail.
As for you question, we basically know as much now as we did last month. Let's first see how he handles his actual season goals (Olympics) and perhaps the Vuelta. If he rides the Vuelta, we should be able to see some clear improvements over his Giro performance. If not, then it doesn't bode well.
As for his bikehandling skills and descending skills, i can only hope he gets some practice. I think like many technical things, really perfecting it takes time and lots of practice, but if you suck at it, you should be able to improve rather quickly towards mediocrity. Going from mediocrity to mastering, is much harder, i would assume.
Thank you Logic
 
Okay, tell me again people how it's just the media and DQ's fault that he's overhyped..... This guy would be awarding him a Giro, Olympic gold and a world championship if it wasn't for his crash.

lol.

my bad. i see that i wrote that wrong. i do think that in the dominating shape he was in lombardy and the giro (with all those TTs) would have honestly been a cakewalk.

i did not mean to suggest that he would have won the olympics or worlds. however, he would have been favored to at least medal in the TTs for both that year.
 
On the one hand its funny because of the ridiculous people who assured everyone he was going to walk it without any evidence to back it up or support their position. On the other he basically a child who is suffering and being put under unfair pressure and that gives me no joy.
But laughing at the acolytes does make me happy.
 
Pretty sure numbers wise Evenepoels level is actually higher than in Burgos 2020

really? and you base this exactly on what?

and what about poland?

at least we have some comparison there.

he destroyed simon yates there. dropped him like a lead balloon. and now simon yates is dropping him.

is simon yates so much better now than a year ago. at least that is a comparison based on something. yours is just your wish.
 
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Too much hyperbolic expectation on the young man. He's climbing great and riding super well for a first GT. Expecting him to blow Bernal and Yates out of the water on the Zoncolan is pretty crazy.
The third week will be interesting.....I suspect he may lose quite a bit of time somewhere, but we'll see.
 
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I'm trying to assess yesterday's performance objectively.
He finished 11th of the GC riders at the top of Zoncolan. Is this a bad results, considering everything that happened in the past 10 months? Does anyone believe pre crash Remco would have been the best of the GC guys on such a climb?

To have a clearer picture about his first GT i need to wait Milan (if he ever gets there, and if he doesn't it'll be quite a disappointment for me). He has never ridden a multimountain Alpine stage so it'll be interesting to see how he handles Monday's stage and how it compares to an all out 15 minutes effort like the final 3km of the Zoncolan. Final time trial will give some more indications about his recovery.

The major takeout is surely his terrible bike handling which needs to be addressed. He's way too vulnerable and at this point every other major contender knows he is.
 
At this point I just hope the multiple mountain stages aren’t going to cause issues for him longterm. I expect nothing dramatic of course, but how smart is it for him to do this race now? He is not at the right level, that much is clear now. If he continues what will it do for his mindset and maybe even his physical progress? Will it help to make him stronger mentally or will it be too much? It’s a big ask to do this race after injury and after such a long time out of competition.
 
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I wonder if he hasn't lost too much of that TT ability by losing that weight. Doesn't feel like we are looking at the same guy as a year ago, but I guess it's unreasonable to expect that. Dude hasn't been in competition for 9 months and it wasn't even clear beforehand if he would even be in decent shape for the Giro. Not sure if finishing the Giro should be important for him tbh, if he still feels fresh I guess he could still see if he can hold on to a top 10 spot or perhaps win the TT. If he's feeling knackered though, perhaps it would be more wise to quit, take some rest and start building for the rest of the season.
 
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He is not at the right level, that much is clear now.
Define right level.

He's in the top10 after two weeks of his first GT. He's not at the right level only if people expect him to win every race he enters from now till the end of his career. Otherwise I think he's fine. He's not cracking. He's just going slower uphill than a few other great climbers (some of whom would have probably beaten him even before his crash on a climb like Zoncolan).

Again, he should leave the race only if he's ill or if the team sees abnormalities in his numbers. Otherwise, this is a learning experience.
 
Maybe some of the more experienced riders used Pologne as prep for their real targets ...
Yes, but mainly the difference in routes in those races. Poland was a few short, steep hills where Evenepoel took almost all his time on the flats. Meanwhile, Il Lombardia is generally decided on a ~13 minute 10% climb and its descent.

The insistence that he'd win fully ignoring the difficulty of the Civiglio descent is what confuses me the most.
 
The descending of Evenepoel today is not the descending of Evenepoel before his crash... if you look at some of the highlight of his first pro-year and now during descents... it is a huge difference. (He was below average before, but now he just a flopping fish on a bike).
 
I'm trying to assess yesterday's performance objectively.
He finished 11th of the GC riders at the top of Zoncolan. Is this a bad results, considering everything that happened in the past 10 months? Does anyone believe pre crash Remco would have been the best of the GC guys on such a climb?

To have a clearer picture about his first GT i need to wait Milan (if he ever gets there, and if he doesn't it'll be quite a disappointment for me). He has never ridden a multimountain Alpine stage so it'll be interesting to see how he handles Monday's stage and how it compares to an all out 15 minutes effort like the final 3km of the Zoncolan. Final time trial will give some more indications about his recovery.

The major takeout is surely his terrible bike handling which needs to be addressed. He's way too vulnerable and at this point every other major contender knows he is.
I think it mainly shows how weird it was to hype someone as future dominant GT winner after barely any big climbs at top level races. Meanwhile his wins were generally ITTs and hilly races where he beats a group on the flats, and I think this has been extrapolated to GTs way too much. In all honesty I think the crazy expectations and goal post moving is the main reason why Evenepoel is a polarizing figure to begin with.
 

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