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

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Like the Brussels Cycling Classic you mean? Won by Ewan, Groenewegen, Boonen, Greipel, and.... Evenepoel?

Or the Coppa Bernocchi won by Viviani, Colbrelli, Nizzolo, and... Evenepoel?

Or Overijse where he followed Sénéchal?

Since he returned from injury, Evenepoel raced 5 semi-classics with 3 victories and one top 5. So yes, I really would have liked to see him race omloop, kuurne, e3, dwaars, wevelgem, amstel, ... because these races are very open which is exactly what he needs.

I don’t know every little detail about these small races with very limited quality fields you mention. But didn’t Brussel Cycling Classic and Overijsse change the parcours in recent years?

Bernocchi was impressive just like the others. But in Omloop it will be much harder for Remco to get a gap. It is risky for him riding these races. And there is no reason for him yet to make a switch, because he is doing just fine in stage races I believe.

But ok, if Overijsse/Brussel/Bernocchi are now semi-classics in cycling that can be compared to the Omloop and Kuurne then it is very clear that I have missed something in general.
 
I don’t know every little detail about these small races with very limited quality fields you mention. But didn’t Brussel Cycling Classic and Overijsse change the parcours in recent years?

Bernocchi was impressive just like the others. But in Omloop it will be much harder for Remco to get a gap. It is risky for him riding these races. And there is no reason for him yet to make a switch, because he is doing just fine in stage races I believe.

But ok, if Overijsse/Brussel/Bernocchi are now semi-classics in cycling that can be compared to the Omloop and Kuurne then it is very clear that I have missed something in general.
While the field may be different, the parcours is homesoil for Evenepoel, and he's proven to be quite a bit better at cobbles than people assume. Revisit his first pro win in BBT, which were similar roads, as well as his wins and the WCC in Brabant, not to mention the NC last year. Did you see Campenaerts in Omloop? There is no reason to assume Evenepoel would not have been there as well. And i'm inclined to think that Evenepoel would not have been dropped when Campenaerts nearly bridged to Van Aert, after having had 2 punctures earlier.

So while they obviously need to prioritize in terms the bigger goals down the road, the idea of him riding and performing well at these races is certainly not ridiculous.
 
I don’t know every little detail about these small races with very limited quality fields you mention. But didn’t Brussel Cycling Classic and Overijsse change the parcours in recent years?

Bernocchi was impressive just like the others. But in Omloop it will be much harder for Remco to get a gap. It is risky for him riding these races. And there is no reason for him yet to make a switch, because he is doing just fine in stage races I believe.

But ok, if Overijsse/Brussel/Bernocchi are now semi-classics in cycling that can be compared to the Omloop and Kuurne then it is very clear that I have missed something in general.

I think you could make a historic argument for Paris-Brussels to be called a semi-classic but certainly not with the other two. Every one-day race is not a (semi-)classic.
 
A hemidemisemiclassic then?

I will never forget Henrik Liniger labeling E3 an "eighth-classic" (sounds awful in English, but probably equal to your fancy word there) to stress how horrible a season Kwiatkowski had had in 2016 because that was the only race he had won. The guy had clearly never heard of the race.

Which was won in a 2-man sprint against the world champion, with Cancellara in 4th and Etixx-QuickStep's gala team somehow inexplicably ending 12th through 15th.
 
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