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

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lol at the conspiracies. If they knew before the TT, they would have let Van Wilder do his TT all out, like he would have preferred to and of which initially was said "maybe he can go all out, but it will depend on circumstances". So there would not have been any reason to tell Van Wilder to hold back in the TT knowing Evenepoel had covid.


He wanted to do the WCC's in full form. Going to the Tour now means: no real support team for him. It also means he has to recover from covid (rest) while not losing his form and not gaining weight, while prolonging his peak from Liège to the WCC. I mean, i know he's good but he's not superman. Imho it's completely unrealistic. Of course he could go to the Tour for stagehunting... will they allow him? If he is 10 minutes down in GC, is it enough? How far down does he have to be? Which other breakaway riders are going to be riding with him? Not even Roglic wants to ride with him, lol. If he goes for GC, that's all fine and dandy until in week 3 and he actually has to make a move or god forbid defend his place. Who is going to help him in the mountains? Jakobsen?

Realistic and logical choice would be WCC + Vuelta and maybe some prep races before that.

I don’t think he has any ambitions as a stage hunter in the Tour, and would scoff at the idea. I do think he could put up a good fight for the GC podium, but not a win in these conditions. WC double ITT/RR would be cool but I’m sure the motivation to basically repeat last year’s Fall will be a bit blah all things considered.
 
I’d like to see the World Champion and the Rainbow Jersey at the Tour. I know he likes showing it, and there’s no better venue to do so than the Tour. It would be good for the sport, the team, and he sponsors, as well as his own long-term development.

I see no reason why he shouldn’t rest now and build back up as much as possible for the Tour. He can support his friend Jakobsen, win some stages in potentially spectacular fashion, gain some experience and exposure, and just have a great time. Press and other expectations can feck off.

Shed 30 mins in the first couple of mountain stages to declare intentions to the peloton and the press, and target some tasty stages in the second half. Build form for the Worlds.

I think that would be spectacular.
 
lol at the conspiracies. If they knew before the TT, they would have let Van Wilder do his TT all out, like he would have preferred to and of which initially was said "maybe he can go all out, but it will depend on circumstances". So there would not have been any reason to tell Van Wilder to hold back in the TT knowing Evenepoel had covid.


He wanted to do the WCC's in full form. Going to the Tour now means: no real support team for him. It also means he has to recover from covid (rest) while not losing his form and not gaining weight, while prolonging his peak from Liège to the WCC. I mean, i know he's good but he's not superman. Imho it's completely unrealistic. Of course he could go to the Tour for stagehunting... will they allow him? If he is 10 minutes down in GC, is it enough? How far down does he have to be? Which other breakaway riders are going to be riding with him? Not even Roglic wants to ride with him, lol. If he goes for GC, that's all fine and dandy until in week 3 and he actually has to make a move or god forbid defend his place. Who is going to help him in the mountains? Jakobsen?

Realistic and logical choice would be WCC + Vuelta and maybe some prep races before that.

I agree, I find at lot more realistic for him to do WCC+Vuelta. You can’t really go to the Tour for GC, the greatest and most competitive race, without a proper team support and a focused training schedule. He will rest and get rid of covid, that could take a week or two or more. He will the need at least a couple of weeks to get into shape, and that timing will always going to be unknown. Last year Almeida only really got back into peak at Vueltas 3rd week. Arguably he raced more of the Giro, and for arguments sake let’s say he got a deeper infection (entirely unknown), but the Tour is also a lot more competitive than the Vuelta - and I can’t see why Remco would go there for stage hunting.

Nevertheless, let’s see what’s he’s at in a couple of weeks. Maybe he will recover quickly and his form won’t fade much, so be keener on going to Dauphine or Suisse and have a shot at the Tour with Ala, Masnada and Asgreen as his golden domestiques :)
 
It would be very strange if he would feel the same after a short TT on stage 1, compared to stage 9 after a long first week. Sick or not.
But he clearly was feeling not super on stage 8 and then looked absolutely wrecked after the stage 9 TT, afterward testing positive for Covid. Viral infection is progressive, so symptoms and debilitating fatigue increase as the illness developes in the body. Hence, the concern is he would continue to weaken heading into the high mountains and totally shatter himself, beyond losing all chance at winning the Giro. There was evidently thus no reason to continue, which could have lead to pneumonia (like Pinot in 2018).
 
I find the dissenting declarations tiresome. We have Evenepoel saying he did not feel great ( I believe). And know their press agent says that Evenepoel is still asymptomatic.
They are not exactly doing themselves any favors coming out saying stuff like that, if you would like to believe in a conspiracy. It just invites to those sort of speculations.

Asymptomatic... why not wait until today or Tuesday morning at least? Sleep on it and asses today. I find it peculiar that they were so quick to pull him from the race, already in the evening shortly after the race with a rest day the next day.

He was visibly really exhausted yesterday and maybe went too deep to win the stage, which is incredible, but still feeling/looking like he somehow had lost everything. He looked shattered and like he had emptied himself completely.

One wonder how the talk went behind the scenes and in the team bus afterwards. If there was a breakdown of some sorts. Either way, sad to see him leave the race like this. Hope he feels better soon and comes back to target the Vuelta again to defend his title there.
 
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The Slovenians are ranting and raving about this, saying Remco is merely ducking Rog...
 

The Slovenians are ranting and raving about this, saying Remco is merely ducking Rog...

This Hvastija figure can't be serious. LOL.
 
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What do you mean?

Pulling him from the race as if it was just some ordinary one-week February warm-up race, and not his and their primary goal of the season.

I think it's ridiculous to pull him after he has been good enough to win a stage and in front of a rest day and three relatively easy stages after that. I just don't get it at all.

Unless he sets his sights on the Tour.
 

The Slovenians are ranting and raving about this, saying Remco is merely ducking Rog...
View: https://twitter.com/BenjiNaesen/status/1658093106498002947?s=20
 
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Pulling him from the race as if it was just some ordinary one-week February warm-up race, and not his and their primary goal of the season.

I think it's ridiculous to pull him after he has been good enough to win a stage and in front of a rest day and three relatively easy stages after that. I just don't get it at all.

Unless he sets his sights on the Tour.
OMG, you're serious.
 

Benji Naesen should know better, i.e. fishing around for something to fuel the outrage & stir up some controversy is just too easy on a day like today.

Yes, someone, somewhere, doesn't believe Remco Evenepoel & Quick-Step. It doesn't mean it needs to be shared & reposted in order to funnel fans down into a rabbit hole of scorched earth internet drama.

It doesn't take much for some knuckleheads to create a "Belgium versus Slovenia" turf war over stuff like this.
 
Pulling him from the race as if it was just some ordinary one-week February warm-up race, and not his and their primary goal of the season.

I think it's ridiculous to pull him after he has been good enough to win a stage and in front of a rest day and three relatively easy stages after that. I just don't get it at all.

Unless he sets his sights on the Tour.

I don't think the flat stages, even ridden with a slow tempo, would help at all with recovery. And the forecast for tomorrow gives heavy rain for the region where the stage will take place, that would not help at all.

Covid is so unpredictable even from indivual to individual that I think most teams wouldn't bother with the risk, even more in the first part of the season. I would say that, even if he continued on the race, more likely than not his pink GC hopes would be no existant on friday and it's better to not jeopardize what's coming of the season for that.
 
Benji Naesen should know better, i.e. fishing around for something to fuel the outrage & stir up some controversy is just too easy on a day like today.

Yes, someone, somewhere, doesn't believe Remco Evenepoel & Quick-Step. It doesn't mean it needs to be shared & reposted in order to funnel fans down into a rabbit hole of scorched earth internet drama.

It doesn't take much for some knuckleheads to create a "Belgium versus Slovenia" turf war over stuff like this.
Never has there been a more random war.

It is of course possible that the team around Evenepoel decided that it would be better for him to call it quits because he wasn't fully fit anymore, and decided to use covid as an 'excuse'. It is possible. Would it be smart to do so? I don't know, why not just say he's injured and he can't continue like this.

If Roglic suddenly left the Giro you'd get similar reactions from Belgian fringe and less fringe characters. That's just how it goes. It's up to people like Benji Naesen to judge their veracity.
 
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