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

[Riek s]

What happens if today was actually a good day?

Assuming we ignore him saying he had a bad day, or that his power was below what he produced over multiple climbs last year. Sure if this was his best day for such a climb with such a lead-in, he will need more ITT km to be somewhat competitive.

 

[Berniece]

What happens if today was actually a good day?

Why would this be a good day? He has already shown to being able to drop Roglic, Almeida, Uitdebroecks and Ayuso.

 

[ManicJack]

Why would this be a good day? He has already shown to being able to drop Roglic, Almeida, Uitdebroecks and Ayuso.

He has 2 more difficult days to make it to week 2. He hasn't shown anything against his main comp in a week 3.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

(maybe he is just overrated as a climber)

i mean, this much has been evident for years.

Then again, he improved as sprinter as he was woeful in 2 man sprints and punchy finishes before. So he could still improve. But he doesn't seem the natural climber that his main GT opponents are

 

[Berniece]

He has 2 more difficult days to make it to week 2. He hasn't shown anything against his main comp in a week 3.

Tomorrow is easy, Saturday that climb is only 4km, I would think he's able to follow, Sunday the climb might not be difficult enough. I expect him to not lose time anymore, get better, because I think he's actually not well, and then take time in the TT again, and lead by 30-40s.

Not that it matters, everything depends on stage 13 and 14. Jumbo smelled blood, they are going to go hard those 2 stages with the idea that too much effort will just break Remco.

 

[Extinction]

Le Patron has been too outspoken regarding his tactics recently: speaking about getting rid of the red jersey and sticking to Jonas wheel. So JV attacked with Kuss in the breakaway and then with Primoz on the last climb! Le Patron still isn't realizing that those yellow guys he was chasing are merely doms of the mighty Sepp!

Exactly, you don't headline on the front page your intentions. You always dissimulate or speak in sibyline verses.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

It is a well known ''secret'' that Remco does bad on consistently steep gradients, anything above 8% looks to be his weakness.

Last 5kms of this climb was 10%

Remco was brilliant on steep gradients on shorter climbs last year, first when he dropped Yates in San Sebastian and then on Les Praeres in Vuelta where he dropped all GC-riders with more than half a minute. But both of these were only like 4 km.

Im not sure its correct that Remco always struggle on steep gradients, but he is performaning a bit more unstable here.

 

[ontheroad]

I think he is feeling the effects of the earlier crash. Plus he had a bullseye on his back being in red so early in the race. Jumbo have so many bullets to fire that they were always likely to hit the target at some stage and they struck a big blow today. Now they have an added one with Sepp Kuss right in the mix and at this stage a podium finish and a TT victory would be a good result for Remco.

 

[Gigs_98]

It is a well known ''secret'' that Remco does bad on consistently steep gradients, anything above 8% looks to be his weakness.

Last 5kms of this climb was 10%

La Vuelta ciclista a España 2022 Stage 9 results

La Vuelta ciclista a España 2022 Stage 9 from Villaviciosa to Les Praeres. Nava was won by Louis Meintjes before Samuele Battistella and Edoardo Zambanini. Remco Evenepoel was leading the general classification.

www.procyclingstats.com

I mean clearly this wasn't his peak level right? Nobody can tell me with a straight face they think that.
Now as I wrote before, I'm not sure how long one can keep laying the blame on injuries and illnesses. But any talk trying to put this down to stuff like "the climb just didn't suit him" or "this is just his normal level" is clearly missing the point.

 

[Volderke]

In a way, after reading his post race interview, I think this was 95% his level and maybe 5% influenced by little inconveniencies like his crash or maybe a tiny bit of fighting a virus.
He said it was hard and in the end he was done. And just looking at Vingegaard and roglic, they were done too at the finish. It was a hard climb, Remco couldn’t handle the change in rhythm and jumbo had to work very hard for half a minute, so they didn’t really have much more to give than Remco.

Everybody more or less on their level, and either things can change for the better or the worse.

 

[pelotonIQ]

La Vuelta ciclista a España 2022 Stage 9 results

La Vuelta ciclista a España 2022 Stage 9 from Villaviciosa to Les Praeres. Nava was won by Louis Meintjes before Samuele Battistella and Edoardo Zambanini. Remco Evenepoel was leading the general classification.

www.procyclingstats.com

I mean clearly this wasn't his peak level right? Nobody can tell me with a straight face they think that.
Now as I wrote before, I'm not sure how long one can keep laying the blame on injuries and illnesses. But any talk trying to put this down to stuff like "the climb just didn't suit him" or "this is just his normal level" is clearly missing the point.

You're not fooling anyone with that 2,5km steep bit before it then eased up

 

[Riek s]

In a way, after reading his post race interview, I think this was 95% his level and maybe 5% influenced by little inconveniencies like his crash or maybe a tiny bit of fighting a virus.
He said it was hard and in the end he was done. And just looking at Vingegaard and roglic, they were done too at the finish. It was a hard climb, Remco couldn’t handle the change in rhythm and jumbo had to work very hard for half a minute, so they didn’t really have much more to give than Remco.

Everybody more or less on their level, and either things can change for the better or the worse.

The 'problem' is that he said the same thing last year in the stage he dropped a lot of time. So its hard to distil any useful information until further up the road.

 

[Extinction]

If he isn't getting sick, then he can still find fine legs in this Vuelta. He came back a bit in the last kms, so perhaps it was a bad moment. At any rate, this weekend will tell us more. The only serious dilemma is that now Kuss becomes a problem, with Rog and Vingo able to leverage a decided advantage.

 

[Red Rick]

La Vuelta ciclista a España 2022 Stage 9 results

La Vuelta ciclista a España 2022 Stage 9 from Villaviciosa to Les Praeres. Nava was won by Louis Meintjes before Samuele Battistella and Edoardo Zambanini. Remco Evenepoel was leading the general classification.

www.procyclingstats.com

I mean clearly this wasn't his peak level right? Nobody can tell me with a straight face they think that.
Now as I wrote before, I'm not sure how long one can keep laying the blame on injuries and illnesses. But any talk trying to put this down to stuff like "the climb just didn't suit him" or "this is just his normal level" is clearly missing the point.

It wasn't. But to me there's a clear trend of Evenepoel performing best in the mountains on unipuerto stages that are raced pretty soft before the final climb. And today was not that.

As for the steep vs not steep, when he struggles he's clearly much worse on steep gradients. It's like his legs block and he only seems to get some watts back when the gradient softens up a little. I don't think it's just being more aero, I think he legit blows up a bit and does bigger watts on a shallow bit later, his body language is just more aggressive in the final part of the climb. It's not a huge problem on MTFs like today, because he has to pace himself anyway, but on climbs like the Larrau it might put him in a hot mess.

By the way, am I the only one who thinks SQS paced Javalambre way too hard? They literally helped set up Roglic' attack.

 

[pelotonIQ]

Remco was brilliant on steep gradients on shorter climbs last year, first when he dropped Yates in San Sebastian and then on Les Praeres in Vuelta where he dropped all GC-riders with more than half a minute. But both of these were only like 4 km.

Im not sure its correct that Remco always struggle on steep gradients, but he is performaning a bit more unstable here.

Let's not beat around the bush Prares was very steep but only for 2,5km before it went down to 7%.

 

[jmdirt]

In a way, after reading his post race interview, I think this was 95% his level and maybe 5% influenced by little inconveniencies like his crash or maybe a tiny bit of fighting a virus.
He said it was hard and in the end he was done. And just looking at Vingegaard and roglic, they were done too at the finish. It was a hard climb, Remco couldn’t handle the change in rhythm and jumbo had to work very hard for half a minute, so they didn’t really have much more to give than Remco.

Everybody more or less on their level, and either things can change for the better or the worse.

Nope. If he was at 95% of his level he would have lost minutes.

 

[Salvarani]

It is a well known ''secret'' that Remco does bad on consistently steep gradients, anything above 8% looks to be his weakness.

Last 5kms of this climb was 10%

He must be deprived of sleep having nightmares about Angliru every night.

 

[Andy schleck]

What happens if today was actually a good day?

It was a normal day for remco. His level was similar to the all mighty Mas.

 

[peterfin]

I wonder if he emptied his tank more than the others today? We haven't seen the battles for the break-away but I noticed that during the chase of the peleton he was mostly riding in 4th position of the peleton, putting his face in the wind a bit too often. It's good to take 6 seconds when it doesn't cost you much energy but it's even beter to know how to conserve energy when it can cost you a lot if you don't.

 

[pelotonIQ]

He must be deprived of sleep having nightmares about Angliru every night.

That stage is probably in Jumbos crosshair.

 

[Cookster15]

If today wasn't a bad day then he's in trouble. Using Mas as a benchmark the level at this Vuelta is much higher.

 

[Volderke]

Nope. If he was at 95% of his level he would have lost minutes.

It’s just a way of saying he was close to his best level, but obviously lacking something (small). But Vingegaard and roglic are also lacking something probably (due to crashes, little illness, a bit of fatigue).

Just to say he is not at 100% but not far from it either, and with no structural excuse, just a bit worse than some others.

 

[KZD]

He must be deprived of sleep having nightmares about Angliru every night.

Remco doesn't strike me as the type of person that suffers for anticipation... If there is a GC contender having nightmares about Angliru its probably the rider that almost lost Vuelta 2020 there, Roglic.

 

[IndurainsTdF1994]

Remco doesn't strike me as the type of person that suffers for anticipation... If there is a GC contender having nightmares about Angliru its probably the rider that almost lost Vuelta 2020 there, Roglic.

I think it's less stressful if the danger is only coming from the riders on your own team...

 

[Volderke]

What happens if today was actually a good day?

If this was the last day of the Vuelta before a 70K tt, it was a very good day!