Eddy Merckx should be removed from the title and any mention of him should be exorcised from the forum and forbidden henceforth
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@Tinnekeisabella Some people really don't have an iota of common sense. I mean on this forum - Remco & Eddy are fine.
Eddy Merckx should be removed from the title and any mention of him should be exorcised from the forum and forbidden henceforth
Eddy M should be removed from commentry box me thinks re his comments about RE being this and that..There you have a 'team player Merckx' who is stirring the pot few days before race and with this giving his best for the national team spirits and mental preparation. Yeah I know he knows, just 'ride lots'.
Hopefully he does try to get things going for Wout and that would make the race exciting. He's a young kid and allowed to respond to Mr. Merckx who, historically has said whatever came to mind as well. I respect Eddy greatly and they appear more alike than ever.
Of course Wout van Aert has to be team leader & favorite (he even has seniority as well), but I can't really ever remember another example of a team with such a fantastic talent (Remco Evenepoel) getting pressured from the outside (including from a "legend" like Merckx)... to clip Evenepoel's wings.
What if Wout van Aert gets a puncture or misses a split? What if Remco Evenepoel has better legs on the day? What if he can go solo at the right moment? He has seconds to make the right call, be offensive & not hesitate. The attitude I'm seeing from some onlookers is more "we must not let Evenepoel race" because apparently they believe that's the winning ticket to make WvA world champion.
I disagree.
What if Wout van Aert gets a puncture or misses a split? What if Remco Evenepoel has better legs on the day? What if he can go solo at the right moment? He has seconds to make the right call, be offensive & not hesitate. The attitude I'm seeing from some onlookers is more "we must not let Evenepoel race" because apparently they believe that's the winning ticket to make WvA world champion.
I disagree.
Bonimenier
BANNED
Van Aert himself said that the plan is to let Evenepoel attack, so I'm not sure what some people are complaining about.
Yeah just watching U23 race now. Man, it's difficult and technical route. Just small mistake in narrow streets and bad contact to the gutter and snap cracle pop.. Team captain gone and it's plan B then.
I'm here for the entertainment, so I don't want a shackled attack with a "I'm only doing this to make other teams chase & work for WvA" sign posted on his back. I want full power. And in recent months, Remco Evenepoel has become one of the go-to riders for entertainment. I don't care about WvA achieving personal glory on Sunday, I just want a good race on TV & that entails Remco Evenepoel going for the world title himself.
If the Belgians ride around in a train & kill the race until the final sprint, then only the most diehard WvA fans or plastic cycling fans with their national flag tattooed on their butts would cheer. I wouldn't.
If that's the case, Remco should spend some time up front so he can see what's coming.
I'm guessing they came from the initially entertaining Patrick Lefevere thread rather than here. Or maybe the Clinic.
Damn now I want Van Aert to win a sprint.
Remco will attack, create a lot of excitement, get caught and Alaphillipe will beat Wout in the sprint because DQS is the classics team.
At a bare minimum it seems really dumb to publicly announce that a contender won't be given room to go for the win.
If I were a contender I wouldn't give a rats ass what they were saying in the press I wouldn't let Evenepoel get a gap if he attacked and I was near the front myself.
I actually think Evenepoel following others isn't a good way to use him at all, and it's better if he either attacks solo or he paces the group for Van Aert and tries to bring him to a sprint.
Just noticed the Giro D'ell Emilia (next Saturday) has been added to his schedule. Apologies if already mentioned
The important thing is him going solo. If he brings other strong riders with him, he better be sure he can drop them later or he'll be only doing other teams a favor with his action.
Bonimenier
BANNED
The field of that race is pretty stacked. Should be a fun race.
Both things are true. No, you're not going to pay much attention to it, and it's still dumb to announce it.
I mean can you really call that move at the Olympics an attack? It was more like a feint to see who was ready to go.
Agreed, but we all know that the easiest way to ensure a Belgian victory is to mimic what happened at the Belgian National Road Race Championships. Use Evenepoel to blow up the field and have him tow Van Aert to the line for a sprint victory.
1/ They should make the race as hard as possible well before the final. Else it doesn't make sense to have Evenepoel attack. He doesn't have the zip or punch to drop other WT riders when they aren't on the limit. Else every Tom, D!ck and Harry could simply get in his wheel and he'll have a hard time getting rid of them. It also makes no sense to attack if the entire peloton is fresh and can get organized easily. If Italy, Netherlands, France, Denmark... all have one or two fresh domestiques in the chase, they can keep him within reach without breaking a sweat. However if the race has taken its toll, and he attacks from a group of 40, with teams being diminished to 2 or 3 guys, getting organized will be a lot harder. In that case, he will force bigger names to commit to the chase, which is in favor of Van Aert.
2/ If he can't get away solo and has some other strong riders with him, he should ride until there is a sizable gap, and then stop cooperating. He doesn't have a sprint, his leader is in the chasing group, he has no incentive to ride once the gap is established. He has nothing to gain from further distancing his leader, and towing rivals to the finish for him to be beaten. If his companions keep riding, he can attack them and try to get away solo after all.
3/ He has to attack before leaving the Flandrien circuit. He can tire his companions out if he takes the time, but not on 10 or 15 km. Having him attack in one of the last local laps makes no sense unless he can go solo, but at that point nobody is going to let him leave and the local laps aren't hard enough for him to get away solo anyway. Attacking from further out will invite b-tier or c-tier favorites to try and go with him, while the biggest guns will probably not feel comfortable going in the offensive too soon, risking to put everything in an attack that has a high likelihood of getting caught, especially with Evenepoel not towing them to the line, like he did Colbrelli two weeks ago.
4/ He doesn't have to attack too soon either. The sooner he attacks, the bigger the peloton will still be, the easier to control him. Having him attack with 100k to go is not credible, even for him, unless he's part of a bigger break initially, that might get some freedom from the peloton, when rival countries assume they have a guy up there who can keep up and outsprint Evenepoel.
So, make the race hard before his attack. It has the added bonus of choking (or dropping) guys like Ewan and getting rid of a lot of domestiques, meaning the bigger names will have to get their hands dirty sooner than they'd have hoped. Attack from further than what most of Van Aert's rivals would deem comfortable, so that they would not try to go with Evenepoel at that point, meaning he doesn't get the cream of the crop in his wheel, but guys he might be able to drop eventually on this course.
2/ If he can't get away solo and has some other strong riders with him, he should ride until there is a sizable gap, and then stop cooperating. He doesn't have a sprint, his leader is in the chasing group, he has no incentive to ride once the gap is established. He has nothing to gain from further distancing his leader, and towing rivals to the finish for him to be beaten. If his companions keep riding, he can attack them and try to get away solo after all.
3/ He has to attack before leaving the Flandrien circuit. He can tire his companions out if he takes the time, but not on 10 or 15 km. Having him attack in one of the last local laps makes no sense unless he can go solo, but at that point nobody is going to let him leave and the local laps aren't hard enough for him to get away solo anyway. Attacking from further out will invite b-tier or c-tier favorites to try and go with him, while the biggest guns will probably not feel comfortable going in the offensive too soon, risking to put everything in an attack that has a high likelihood of getting caught, especially with Evenepoel not towing them to the line, like he did Colbrelli two weeks ago.
4/ He doesn't have to attack too soon either. The sooner he attacks, the bigger the peloton will still be, the easier to control him. Having him attack with 100k to go is not credible, even for him, unless he's part of a bigger break initially, that might get some freedom from the peloton, when rival countries assume they have a guy up there who can keep up and outsprint Evenepoel.
So, make the race hard before his attack. It has the added bonus of choking (or dropping) guys like Ewan and getting rid of a lot of domestiques, meaning the bigger names will have to get their hands dirty sooner than they'd have hoped. Attack from further than what most of Van Aert's rivals would deem comfortable, so that they would not try to go with Evenepoel at that point, meaning he doesn't get the cream of the crop in his wheel, but guys he might be able to drop eventually on this course.
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Eddy Merckx should be removed from the title and any mention of him should be exorcised from the forum and forbidden henceforth
I could see an argument to remove the Merckx reference.
Earlier in in this thread I suggested the Evenepol Experiment but now think that changing it to Evenepol Experience for the action in this Thread would be appropriate.
Evenepoel.
Then just change the title when needed like:
The Evenepoel Identity.
The Evenepoel Supremacy.
The Evenepoel Ultimatum.
Merckx is just upset because he saw the title of this thread after watching Bambi at the Giro.
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