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

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so, Remco won the stage very very sick

Shows just how much better than the rest of the peloton he was at the Giro
I also believe he was way above the rest. His TT win where he destroyed everybody including Ganna was just incredible. However, it is pointless that we discuss it as it's all hypothetical. So my answer is: lets see what happens when he starts his next GT. At some point he won't get a virus or have a bad crash and we can finally evaluate his performance fully.
 
so, Remco won the stage very very sick

Shows just how much better than the rest of the peloton he was at the Giro
Nope. He was good, then felt off and wasn't going to recover. The suggestion that he was very ill and still did a great TT is pretty uninformed speculation. The he could not recover is what he and his team could confirm. Taking him into the next stage while ill with Covid would be stupid and irresponsible.
 
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Especially with the weather and how it was raced.
Totally relevant. Why wreck Remco's health, diminish his marketability and psyche all in a week or so of futile effort?
Those that complain about the level of racing after he departed should attempt to ride their best effort after two weeks of tense rides in sh*t weather, a crash or two and some hailstorms thrown in for good measure. Getting out of bed would be a challenge let alone entertaining the warm and well-rested critics of the sport.
 
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so, Remco won the stage very very sick

Shows just how much better than the rest of the peloton he was at the Giro

That's a nice example of why you haters* come across as so ridiculous. But it makes this thread fun at least.
There is something between fully fit, healthy and being very very sick. Actually quite a few degrees between that. Which is where Remco was. Feel unwell? Something like that. You don't need to be very very sick to see your performance diminish, Remco gave no indication of being very very sick (or sick as a dog as Lefevre seems to have put it) before the TT. So he asked for medical help before the stage? (Havent' seen that Remcomentary, probably won't see it either) That's feeling unwell, not being very very sick, if you're very very sick you don't even get up. At least I don't.

Without covid he would have been faster in the TT, nobody really doubts that, but being very very sick he'd lost 5' or wouldn't have even started.

*haters of common sense and every cyclist other than Remco
 
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According to a source close to Remco, Ineos and Remco would be really flirting.
Ineos might be ready to put some €€€ on the table to break the contract of Remco with SQS...

Lefevre probably has a good contract in place, so it would too pricey (Remco could always refuse to ride a la Bennett, but is probably too proud for that). Anyway, a source close to Remco told me this rumor is false. ;)

Also, given that QS is turning over backwards for him, it would be pretty ungrateful if he left.
 
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Lefevre probably has a good contract in place, so it would too pricey (Remco could always refuse to ride a la Bennett, but is probably too proud for that). Anyway, a source close to Remco told me this rumor is false. ;)

Also, given that QS is turning over backwards for him, it would be pretty ungrateful if he left.

Refusing him to ride more than nine GT stages this season is not bending over backwards for him. It's blatantly blocking his career.
 
Which reaction are you hoping for or expecting? I'm not sure you'd be getting the dramatic posts you might be hoping for, as there are a lot of people on the forum who would argue that he has outgrown SQS. On the other hand, there might be more dramatic feedback in topics of current Ineos riders.

I am not sure how one could think Remco would have outgrown QS in a relevant way. Only Ineos's budget is (or used to be) in a different category. All other top teams have a budget ±30 million. And, in any case, there's no room for Remco in UAE & TJV.

Not happening.
 
Refusing him to ride more than nine GT stages this season is not bending over backwards for him. It's blatantly blocking his career.

What are you talking about? Bending over backwards was creating a GC setup just for him, shifting from a stage hunting & classics oriented setup (which was super successful in the last few years). Notice one side effect of this shift: a significantly less dominant season. Sure, other factors play a role here as well, but still, it's bending over backwards.
 
What are you talking about? Bending over backwards was creating a GC setup just for him, shifting from a stage hunting & classics oriented setup (which was super successful in the last few years). Notice one side effect of this shift: a significantly less dominant season. Sure, other factors play a role here as well, but still, it's bending over backwards.

They pulled him out of the Giro, fair enough, even if I still don't understand why they couldn't wait until Tuesday morning. But they won't let him ride the Tour or the Vuelta because he hasn't won the former and has won the latter or whatever the reason was. It turns out to be a ludicrous season for one of the best GC riders of the current era. Now, he will apparently do Tour of Belgium instead of Dauphiné or Tour de Suisse to add insult to injury.
 
They pulled him out of the Giro, fair enough, even if I still don't understand why they couldn't wait until Tuesday morning. But they won't let him ride the Tour or the Vuelta because he hasn't won the former and has won the latter or whatever the reason was. It turns out to be a ludicrous season for one of the best GC riders of the current era. Now, he will apparently do Tour of Belgium instead of Dauphiné or Tour de Suisse to add insult to injury.
I will go out on a limb and say the 2022 edition of the Vuelta was one of the weakest. We will see how it holds up in a few years.
 
Maybe it's because they know he will win the Tour of Belgium and not the Dauphine or Suisse. Only wins matter. Has the boy himself come out and said what his schedule is and why, and not just the blurb from the mouth PL. Does he want to ride another GT this year, or just the smaller 1 weekers and the bigger 1 dayers?
 
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What are you talking about? Bending over backwards was creating a GC setup just for him, shifting from a stage hunting & classics oriented setup (which was super successful in the last few years). Notice one side effect of this shift: a significantly less dominant season. Sure, other factors play a role here as well, but still, it's bending over backwards.

Yes they got a whole 2 domestiques over the course of 3 years. If we then also consider Almeida left (best decision he ever made) then we are left with 1. And none of them have proven to be very useful, maybe van wilder would have been this Giro.

If we then consider Remco is earning about half of market value and that they let him race a ludicrous schedule, I'm inclined to say that QS is doing everything but bending over backwards.

Also why should a rider ever feel that they need to stay at a team because maybe they've put a bit of effort in it. The team pays and he performs. If another team buys out his contract then that team gets compensation for that effort, end of story.
 
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Lefevre probably has a good contract in place, so it would too pricey (Remco could always refuse to ride a la Bennett, but is probably too proud for that). Anyway, a source close to Remco told me this rumor is false. ;)

Also, given that QS is turning over backwards for him, it would be pretty ungrateful if he left.
I do not have a crystal ball and can only rely on info from an insider. Future will tell.

Anyway, I'm not sure if it would be ungrateful. It could be a WIN-WIN-WIN.
- Win for PL : He's thinking about retiring and he can cash if Ineos would buy out his contract (we are talking about a few millions of €). Patrick has always been open for a good commercial deal. Of course, the bulk of money would go to Bakala
- Win for Ineos : They currently have no rider that would be able to compete with Vingegaard or Pogacar in the TdF. Not sure if Remco will be able (we will see if he hopefully participates in the next edition), but at least other riders at Ineos aren't capable of competing with these 2. Remco could fill that gap.
- Win for Remco : He would go to a Team where they have plenty of domestiques able to help in the high mountains. Besides Van Wilder, I haven't seen those at SQS. Also, Ineos has much more experience with Grand Tours.

Again, I say that it COULD be a WIN-WIN-WIN.
 
Which reaction are you hoping for or expecting? I'm not sure you'd be getting the dramatic posts you might be hoping for, as there are a lot of people on the forum who would argue that he has outgrown SQS. On the other hand, there might be more dramatic feedback in topics of current Ineos riders.

My subjective opinion is that apart from the Giro 2021 misstep, SQS has used him nearly perfectly. He's not over raced, over trained, thrown into situations where he won't succeed (although I still think he should have done the Tour this year over the Giro...). The Lombardia crash could have turned into a Dumoulin/Froome/Pinot debacle but he recovered fully.

Ineos on paper would be a great team for Remco -- can you imagine him huddling behind Ganna for 30 km toward the end of a medium mountain/transitional stage? He'd be pushing 75 watts...and Ineo's climbers (De Plus and Arensman) outperformed my expectations at the Giro.

From Ineos's side, they'd love to have a WC on the roster, and some of their GC hopefuls like Sivakov or Dani Martinez havn'et yet panned out (or are hurt). They'll likely lose C.Rod, too.

As for current riders, they know it's a business.
 

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