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

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Big Doopie

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Extinction said:
To the bolded, I don't think San Sebastian was a bonus, but confirmation that he was ready for the Vuelta. LBL should be for the Giro what San Sebastian was for the Vuelta last year. Doubtless defending his title in Liege is, moreover, an objective, just not as big as the Giro, but an objective nonetheless and as a Belgian no less. So he won't take the start to finish second. In any case, he will be in great shape by then, because if he is not he won't be ready for the Giro. So he will.

As for Catalunya, it will be different than the Basque Country last year, because he is building for the Giro not the Vuelta, so it's difficult to gauge how he will go. Catalunya runs from 20-26 March, whereas the grande partenza of the Giro is on 6 May. With 6 weeks between them, in theory Remco could hit a first peak to then take an active rest before the final Giro build-up. Otherwise he could be a tad below really good form, although I doubt the team would bring him to such a hard stage race if he weren't in competative shape for victory, but we shall see.
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Itzulia last year was building to LBL not Vuelta. So my comparison stands.

LBL as a prime objective will be tough this year. He has said so himself. Because of timing with altitude camps. That is in fact similar to San Sebastián last year. Then again, he managed that pretty well…
 
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Salvarani

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Big Doopie said:
Itzulia last year was building to LBL not Vuelta. So my comparison stands.

LBL as a prime objective will be tough this year. He has said so himself. Because of timing with altitude camps. That is in fact similar to San Sebastián last year. Then again, he managed that pretty well…
Click to expand...

Defending champion and it being one of the biggest races he can win, with him being Belgian as well, I find it hard to believe he wont be close to his best here. He will want to win it again and should be a big target. Probably just trying to play down expectations since he has won LBL already and the Giro being the biggest target this season, but I am quite sure he would want to win LBL. He wins it his season would would already be a success in a way.

Going all in one race, the Giro, and potentially failing with the rest of the season ending with zero big wins would be quite bad for him.
 
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Big Doopie

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Salvarani said:
Defending champion and it being one of the biggest races he can win, with him being Belgian as well, I find it hard to believe he wont be close to his best here. He will want to win it again and should be a big target. Probably just trying to play down expectations since he has won LBL already and the Giro being the biggest target this season, but I am quite sure he would want to win LBL. He wins it his season would would already be a success in a way.

Going all in one race, the Giro, and potentially failing with the rest of the season ending with zero big wins would be quite bad for him.
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not saying he won’t try. But the timing in the build up for the giro means he will not be prepped specifically for LBL as he was last year.

and who says the season ends at the giro? It starts at the giro for him this year.

Let him prep his goals like all other riders are allowed to. Enough of demanding that he win every race he enters. He has certainly earned that right now.
 
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Salvarani

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Big Doopie said:
not saying he won’t try. But the timing in the build up for the giro means he will not be prepped specifically for LBL as he was last year.

and who says the season ends at the giro? It starts at the giro for him this year.

Let him prep his goals like all other riders are allowed to. Enough of demanding that he win every race he enters. He has certainly earned that right now.
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Thats not what I meant at all! How did you interpret it that way?

Just think he is good enough and LBL being one of the biggest races he could win is something he probably wont go into lightly. It should still be a big target for him, even if it is close to the Giro schedule-wise.

I did not say it ends with the Giro either... there is still worlds and Lombardia left. I meant if the season ends with zero big wins it would be quite bad.

It is probably good to have multiple targets as it is very rare in cycling they all pan out for a rider.
 
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Panda Claws

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Just curious if with Pogacar, Evenepoel (and perhaps Vindegoord) we will finally see them going tit-for-tat when it comes to Tour victories.
And I don't mean someone grabbing a single Tour victory when the stars align (Evans, Nibali, Thomas).

Has that ever really happened?
  • Froome had his challengers in Quintana, Contador and Nibali but none of them managed to beat him outright.
  • Contador had his challengers before too in A. Schleck and Evans but he was not really beaten there outright either.
  • Armstrong had his challengers in Ullrich and Beloki but we all know how that went.
  • Indurain was not really beaten.
  • Etc.
The only instance of that I can really think off may be LeMond and Fignon.

Sad to think there is a very good chance that one of them will end up hogging all those victories over the other.
 
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Netserk

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Big Doopie said:
Let him prep his goals like all other riders are allowed to. Enough of demanding that he win every race he enters. He has certainly earned that right now.
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Contador had also "earned" that right, yet the forum was quite obsessed with how he performed at every single race. When he didn't win prep races in February, it led to far more worry and discussion than what takes place in this thread.
 
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Extinction

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Big Doopie said:
Itzulia last year was building to LBL not Vuelta. So my comparison stands.

LBL as a prime objective will be tough this year. He has said so himself. Because of timing with altitude camps. That is in fact similar to San Sebastián last year. Then again, he managed that pretty well…
Click to expand...
I didn't say LBL was the prime objective, which obviously is the Giro, but that he should be in San Sebastian shape for Liege, as SS was to the Vuelta what LBL will be to the Giro.

I hadn't thought of Izulia as prep for Liege, but that makes sense, although he won't want to be too ahead of his form in Spain, so it's tricky.
 
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Extinction

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Ilmaestro99 said:
As much as people can write the essays on how Remco timing will be timeing his peak and prep races and other topics, if he loses UAE tour to Pello Bilbao, Adam Yates and Emanuele Buchman, people will definitely be freaking out here, the thread will hit 1000 pages. I would quite enjoy that to be honest.
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Right, so your boy Maznada becomes team leader for the Giro. I'm sure that will happen.
 
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Big Doopie

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Ilmaestro99 said:
As much as people can write the essays on how Remco timing will be timeing his peak and prep races and other topics, if he loses UAE tour to Pello Bilbao, Adam Yates and Emanuele Buchman, people will definitely be freaking out here, the thread will hit 1000 pages. I would quite enjoy that to be honest.
Click to expand...

I won’t be freaking at all. I expect him to lose to Yates on the climbs. Yates was equal to Pog here two years in a row when Pog was targeting the race. Yates will definitely be targeting the race.
 
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Logic-is-your-friend

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Andre said:
If LBL, a Grand Tour, and The WC was his first dream, then I believe his second dream would be The Giro, The Tour and what else? Probably Tour of Flanders?
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I'd imagine he would like to at least add either Giro, Lombardia or WCC TT to his palmares this year. Tour would be the future main goal. In the meanwhile checking off Tirreno, Dauphiné, Suisse etc. before considering Flanders. If he can ever get his bikehandling up to snuff, he would also be great for Strade. I could also easily see him winning Amstel.

I think it would be cool to see him try Roubaix in the winter of his career, somewhat overweight and no longer competitive as a stageracer. A 37 year old, 72kg weighing Evenepoel - a former great but no longer taken seriously - decides to attack 120k from the finish. Just to hear the outcries one more time "they let him win". That 'd be a great way to end his career.
 
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