Covid infection mostly irrelevant? It will depend on the symptoms. If he needs to stay off his bike for a week it’s simply impossible to build up his form to a level good enough to fight for a podium against riders that were pointing their entire season preparation for TDF. Even David Gaudu will be out of his reach!
- Apr 13, 2021
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Getting third is a good average. He can be fifth and he can be first if all goes well. There may be only 5 years where you can start the race and have a chance to be competitive. So he just need to try it even if the circumstances are sub optimal. Things can go wrong. He knows that. He was heading to a giro as top favourite but dropped of a bridge. He tried to start the next one too early in his recovery and failed. His third attempt ends with covid.
- Apr 3, 2009
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Would be sad to think that's driving it, and I would suggest that when others have left the race due to COVID (before and during), those departures have happened without the kind of insane conspiracy theories which followed Remco's departure.
This appears to be about people trying to stick a negative narrative to Evenepoel. And rampant stupidity. But I'll grant you the Venn diagram of anti-vax buffoons and people who can't look at a situation and rationally analyze it is pretty close to a circle.
- Mar 29, 2012
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Resuming the options:
1. do the Tour for GC.
pro: he should be able to compete, disregarding any potential long-term covid effects.
con: he has a very short time, hasn't prepared any stages, and is thrown in the lion's cage. Patlev promised his parents he would be careful with Remco's trajectory when he signed him, and he wouldn't skip steps. Doing the Tour for GC is maybe skipping a step. Other con: he won't be ready / good for the World's.
2. do the Tour but not for GC (stage wins, helping,...)
pro: riding a Tour is always good for any rider, he can only come out better and stronger. Other pro: he has sacrificed much / trained hard for the Giro. Now that's gone, he needs another big goal. Other pro: he can ride himself into shape for the World's.
con: if he doesn't win a stage, it's a kind of 'lost' GT. Remco isn't made for filling the pack. Other con: no Vuelta. Other con: what about the rest of the season? It will be end of July and after the World's, there aren't many big goals maybe, or too far away for a 3rd peak (like Lombardia)?
3. don't do the Tour. Stick to the plan.
pro: not too much stress and the comfortable thought that he can take all the time to recover, but the pitfall is that no big goals usually don't lead to a lot of motivation / big performances.
con: small races / not as many race days / no real alternative (if no Vuelta) = filling up the calendar but for what exactly? Without another GT, this year will, in the end, look a lot like e.g. 2019 with only small stage races etc.
Just thinking about it, I still like 1 and 2 much better than 3., even if that would include doing the vuelta…life is too short to skip the Tour before you’re 30, Remco! He only had like 5-6 chances in his prime, so he should just do it, even preferably for gc, and see where he ends up.
1. do the Tour for GC.
pro: he should be able to compete, disregarding any potential long-term covid effects.
con: he has a very short time, hasn't prepared any stages, and is thrown in the lion's cage. Patlev promised his parents he would be careful with Remco's trajectory when he signed him, and he wouldn't skip steps. Doing the Tour for GC is maybe skipping a step. Other con: he won't be ready / good for the World's.
2. do the Tour but not for GC (stage wins, helping,...)
pro: riding a Tour is always good for any rider, he can only come out better and stronger. Other pro: he has sacrificed much / trained hard for the Giro. Now that's gone, he needs another big goal. Other pro: he can ride himself into shape for the World's.
con: if he doesn't win a stage, it's a kind of 'lost' GT. Remco isn't made for filling the pack. Other con: no Vuelta. Other con: what about the rest of the season? It will be end of July and after the World's, there aren't many big goals maybe, or too far away for a 3rd peak (like Lombardia)?
3. don't do the Tour. Stick to the plan.
pro: not too much stress and the comfortable thought that he can take all the time to recover, but the pitfall is that no big goals usually don't lead to a lot of motivation / big performances.
con: small races / not as many race days / no real alternative (if no Vuelta) = filling up the calendar but for what exactly? Without another GT, this year will, in the end, look a lot like e.g. 2019 with only small stage races etc.
Just thinking about it, I still like 1 and 2 much better than 3., even if that would include doing the vuelta…life is too short to skip the Tour before you’re 30, Remco! He only had like 5-6 chances in his prime, so he should just do it, even preferably for gc, and see where he ends up.
- Jan 31, 2016
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Particularly when he'd need to win a 2nd Vuelta against a motivated Roglic to make a Tour win in the realm of reality. Faith aside, he needs to do more to be totally confident IMO. He thinks he knows what pressure is, now.
- Feb 20, 2012
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Worlds route isn't that great for him IMO, and it's a very high variance race at best, so it should not be the main reason to decide between Tour and Vuelta.
- May 29, 2019
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If Tour would ever be an option in 2023. Then in my opinion it would be the main target from the get-go. So personally i expect either Vuelta or no more GT racing this season. We'll see.
- Aug 29, 2011
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Looks like nobody will be breaking Hinault's record now. Bernal (being 26 years and 4 months old) is of course already out.
Even if Pogacar rides the Vuelta this year (and wins it) and then wins the Giro next year he would be about 25 years and 8 months old.
Evenepoel has until TDF 2025. But even if he wins the Tour it is unlikely that his future schedule will accommodate a Giro in 2024 or 2025.
Frankly I can see it being years and years before he attempts it again even if he ends up being a step below Vingegaard and Pogacar in the TDF.
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- Nov 5, 2013
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As much as I think he is a twit, I think the way he went out was both beautiful, and tragic. He won a freaking TT with Covid, and was obviously sick. That's takes a hard man. I hate that he had to lose the Giro that way. Legs should always be the decider.
And if you're one of those who thinks he should have kept riding, I think you're pretty awful at assessment of situations. He was toast after the TT, and that wouldn't have immediately gotten better.
And if you're one of those who thinks he should have kept riding, I think you're pretty awful at assessment of situations. He was toast after the TT, and that wouldn't have immediately gotten better.
- Jul 16, 2015
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Just reading through these last few pages, I have to say I don't get the "he must choose between 3rd in Tour versus Vuelta win number 2" angle.
This is sport. Unless someone has a crystal ball, no one knows where anyone will finish in a race. I mean for sure teams & riders can maximize their potential but imagine (for the sake of argument) Pogacar hasn't recovered well from his injury & Vingegaard crashes out of the TdF, leaving the race wide open & Hindley wins (I'm just just hypothesizing a scenario here). Then two weeks later Evenepoel smashes the Worlds before himself losing the Vuelta for xyz reasons.
No Bueno & a misuse of talent IMO. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And it's also a matter of fact the TdF route planners have had an aversion to ITT's for a while now (ergo there's no guarantee future editions have anywhere near as many ITT km's as the current Giro does) & it's not like Vingegaard & Pogacar are going anywhere, i.e. they'll always be there in July for the foreseeable future (next 5 years easily).
So to be honest I think the time to strike is now, i.e. after Pog's own injury & after Evenepoel barely dug into his reserves in Italy. As for 'peaks', modern cycling seems to have by & large left that era of seasonal peaking behind. Evenepoel himself has demonstrated he's capable of holding top form for large parts of the season.
- Aug 13, 2011
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And with how brutal today was, it would have been even worse for him. He’ll get some rest and recover for whatever goals he sets out for. I would like him to do TdF for stages and build up to Worlds or Vuelta for GC. To counter @Logic-is-your-friend argument of if he stays in the GC group and just attacks away to win the stage he might as well go for GC, without GC expectations there is a lot less pressure on him. Winning one to three stages would be great.
- Feb 24, 2015
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Say and think what you will about Remco but the Giro got less interesting with his departure. It was always Roglic vs Remco we wanted to see. An epic high mountain battle of the third week. Now, what to expect…?
- Jul 16, 2015
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- Feb 20, 2012
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It's all based on the narrative that he can go to the Tour without pressure. I simply argue that's no good reason to go to the Tour. Go to the Tour if you think you can win it, but don't do it cause it's acceptable to lose there.
Bonimenier
BANNED
- Apr 1, 2019
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4 more SQS riders out with COVID. The speculation whether they really have COVID or are being prepared for the Tour can start.
- Aug 6, 2014
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If there was some secret conspiracy going on, the first rider they'd pull out is Van Wilder.
- Apr 10, 2019
- 12,057
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Some Italian media are reporting that RCS payed Remco 1M to race the Giro. Take it with a grain of salt, but if that's true it's just absurd.
Lefevre will be mad once he finds out that they payed nearly all the money to the rider and he only got peanuts.
Lefevre will be mad once he finds out that they payed nearly all the money to the rider and he only got peanuts.
- Apr 10, 2019
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And Remco's roommate Serry. Hirt could totally only target 1-2 stages from the breakaway and do the double.
That is the conspiracy. They leave Van Wilder as a scape goat, so they can say 'see Ian is still in the Giro'. Van wilder will test positive in 2 days et voila
- Jan 11, 2010
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Putting all your riders in a helicopter instead of a ski lift seemed like a good idea... until one of them turned out to have covid and now they're all infected.
- Apr 13, 2021
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ski-lift + bus would have had a similar effect though. But yeah, that could have been the spreader event for QS.
- Mar 29, 2012
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What's the difference in covid spreading risk between those two?
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