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I liked how he confirmed, almost to a word, what I said about Liege being a goal before tackling the Giro, as San Sebastian was in anticipation of the Vuelta last year. He talked about a long build-up then one, good and fresh day (Liege) before it's on to the grande partenza. What this means for the next races, shall be interesting to see. At the impending UAE Tour he should still be under tone, by Catalunya in quite good shape.
Well, according to Wikipedia that would indeed seem to be the case. Italy has 166 total medals of which 56 gold, to Belgium's Total 119 medals of which 45 gold. Welcome back.
Thanks. Yes, i just thought it was a bit strange when interviewing the current WC of the Men's Elite category, where Italy will be trailing for a few decades at least, to include all these other categories in order to claim top spot. As if winning the most Junior medals is the benchmark.
Clearly that's because the interviewer is a Castelli rep, if I understood correctly, and in the beginning he asked Remco about his dad purchasing him a squadra azzurra jersey of the brand. Of course, it was all about talking up Italy and Italian cycling, which, it is true bar Ganna is going through a dark period, in light of the upcoming Giro. So I don't think it was odd, but the expected publicity pitch in favor of the home brand and GT. At any rate, with Nibali's retirement and a dirth of current talents now and in the forseeable future to fill his shoes, with no new Bettini or above all Pantani either, one can only boast, although indeed correctly, about past achievments. At the same time, the Giro and the tifosi are utterly pleased and feel fortunate to have Remco in the Corsa Rosa this year. Naturally they'd rather have their own champion, a new Pantani more than another Nibali, to get all worked up about. It will doubtless take years, although hopefully not decades. In the meantime, probably Remco will be greatly cheered along the strade d'Italia.
Yes, I’m sure at that point you’ll suggest he should be working for the guy who through no lack of ability, through the ineptitude of his sporting directors, and by bad injury luck, has been denied the chance to show us he’s the true Campionissimo. The legendary Fausto
So gastroenteritis in January made training tough. That seems like a good reason not to travel to the Middle East and stress out. Would that quell your conspiracy notions somewhat?
No conspiracy, but, as usual, they tell us very little, which leaves room (intentionally?) to speculate. Cycling teams are like the state, they never tell the whole story. This is L'Equipe's report.
Which sort of confirms my only slightly facetious provocation that, in some way, the intention with the team was to render Remco's voyage to the Middle East needless. The only reasons why Remco has UAE Tour on his program are if he's getting an appearance fee and because Pogacar was supposed to be riding. And cycling wise, only the latter was useful.
I'm not convinced about what he and the team are saying, namely the stomach bug is the root cause and suddenly claiming "mixing the program" is preferable. Why? Last year he was in perfect shape following the "old" program (UAE-Strade Bianche-Tirreno-MSR-Flanders-Liege that was x-ed). In cycling you don't change a tried and true formula on a whim. It's not conspiracy theory, just perplexed doubt.
And kick a little a*s in the gravel for fun. 36km solo sounds about right.
Why do you keep calling it a conspiracy theory? He and his team are free to do whatever they want of course, but saying "he is living rent-free in his rivals heads if they think anything else," which I agree with, is de facto playing a mind game. There is nothing wrong with that, happens all the time in the sport. I think given that Vine is in fine form (and Yates should be really strong too), by sending him from Australia to UAE, while, yes, makes sense travel wise, has the added measure of perhaps having the second best guy on team beat Remco. It's a way to play mental games with a big adversary. And even if Vine doesn't beat Remco, Evenepoel will be left wondering about a missed encounter and thus Pog without answers until Liege.
Of course it's speculation ("conspiracy" seems too strong of a word). That too happens all the time and often with good reason, as the teams are pretty top secret about the true nature of their plans, precisely not to give adversaries too much prior knowledge which could be used against them. I'm not saying the whole thing was planned from the start, only that the stomach bug explanation does not seem to me the whole story behind the sudden change of plans. There might thus be some strategy to it. Maybe UAE, for example, thought it best not to have Remco race against Tadej before Liege, an objective of both, since Pogacar just needs to make sure Evenpoel doesn't get a gap that can't be chased down. By contrast QS and Evenepoel have to figure how to get rid of Tadej to not get beaten in the sprint to the finish line. On thing is for certain, however, nothing is decided by chance.
They wouldn't have to pay Pogacar to race his team's tour. On the other hand, they want him to win the Tour.
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