My point is that you and couple of others around here are overhyping this kid massively.
He indeed might become greatest rider of his generation, he has a great potential, but he also showed couple of flaws which could affect his development heavily, like not having a sprint, not being explosive, and being a bad descender. He needs to work on this hard, cause if he doesn't correct this things significantly, he's not going to be the one you around here are expecting to be.
It would help greatly if people differentiated between those who hype with no nuance and those who simply state facts but also admit to grey areas and unknowns.
1. fact: remco by age 20 showed as much potential as any rider in the history of cycling (let’s all also be sure to understand what “potential” actually means. It does NOT mean that it WILL happen)
2. fact: Pog has a much better palmares by age 22 than remco will ever have now at that same age. He is also my pick to win a 2nd Tdf this summer. So the gap is likely to grow between them before remco actually closes it (if he ever does)
3. fact: remco has been out and recovering from a very serious injury for 9-10 months. Unless someone tells me differently, he was therefore unable to add to his 2020 successes
4. fact: I thought it was a really stupid idea to line him up for the giro and believe it smacked of arrogance on the part of all involved
5. fact: remco can climb
6. fact: whether he can climb successive mountains or days is absolutely still in question
7: fact: we still have no evidence that he can recover over three weeks. However to judge him on THIS giro is absolutely ludicrous considering his prep
8. fact: he needs to work on his bike handling skills and his descending (perhaps never exactly a strength) is now horrendous due likely to fear from his terrible crash
opinion:
they/he should never have rushed back. Why not Ruta del sol then 9 days at dauphine with TT and successive high mountains?
(and those who are quoting eddy merckx need to be aware that he is notoriously the absolute worst prognosticator in cycling. And that is actually documented)