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

[KZD]

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

Even if you think Remco is an overrated climber, I think that you are forgetting Ayuso, Mas or even Almeida...

 

[Riek s]

“Ik had geen superdag en ook geen slechte dag. Ik had last van hoofdpijn, de blessure is er nog. De hitte heeft ook niet geholpen. De benen voelden zwaar en de rug deed zeer.”

I didn't have a super day, but also not a bad day. I did have some headache, so the injury is still there. The heat didn't help. The legs felt heavy and my back hurt.


Still take the statements from Evenepoel with a grain of salt, but it looks like the crash does/did play a role. (Which wouldn' be completely illogical since it was a heavy crash, not a slide at all).

 

[ManicJack]

I didn't have a super day, but also not a bad day. I did have some headache, so the injury is still there. The heat didn't help. The legs felt heavy and my back hurt.


Still take the statements from Evenepoel with a grain of salt, but it looks like the crash does/did play a role. (Which wouldn' be completely illogical since it was a heavy crash, not a slide at all).

Tenderness around the stitches is one thing and not even close to an excuse for a "poor" performance, but if he still has a headache, especially if caused by exertion, what the hell is he doing racing his bike?

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Remco disappointed me today. I waited years to see him get dropped on a big Grand tour mountain stage and throw a super tantrum, vockeler style with bidons therowing everywhere, it would be the peak of entertainment in cycling, in the eyes of my 2021 self. But sadly he calmly composed himself, got to work limiting the losses and fought like a warrior to the end. The Gorilla of Aalst, some are calling him. Hope to see him on the attack this vuelta.

 

[Red Rick]

I didn't have a super day, but also not a bad day. I did have some headache, so the injury is still there. The heat didn't help. The legs felt heavy and my back hurt.


Still take the statements from Evenepoel with a grain of salt, but it looks like the crash does/did play a role. (Which wouldn' be completely illogical since it was a heavy crash, not a slide at all).

Headache from a fall 3 days before? That can't be good

 

[houtdffan]

This shows why Remco climbs best by getting his ass on the front and doing his own tempo. Very few can follow it for more than a couple of km.

He does not respond to changes in pace. That got him dropped last year, and that's what got him dropped today. When he dictated to the pace, he rode everyone off his wheel.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Tenderness around the stitches is one thing and not even close to an excuse for a "poor" performance, but if he still has a headache, especially if caused by exertion, what the hell is he doing racing his bike?

The crash most likely messed up his arm, shoulder, and flank too. It was a hard crash.

 

[Riek s]

Headache from a fall 3 days before? That can't be good

He said hoofdpijn, don't know if the dutch I read was translated or from a real dutch interview. Can make a difference in understanding/translation. I assume he meant pain from the place he fell and not stitches. Could be radiating affecting his sinus cavities, which gives a headache but that's guessing.

This shows why Remco climbs best by getting his ass on the front and doing his own tempo. Very few can follow it for more than a couple of km.

He does not respond to changes in pace. That got him dropped last year, and that's what got him dropped today. When he dictated to the pace, he rode everyone off his wheel.

In this case he didn't try to follow, I think hirt accelerated a bit and Remco immediately went out the back. You are right he is better in his speed, but that wouldn't have changed the outcome. He just didn't have it today.

 

[Ripper]

The crash most likely messed up his arm, shoulder, and flank too. It was a hard crash.

I am thinking the headache could be more related to shoulder and neck strain more than any concussive type of stuff, so not totally unexpected. He could also have a headache if a wee bit under the weather. Or he could be BS'ing folks

 

[RedheadDane]

He has never worn the BYR jersey in a GT while he was actually leading said competition, because at those times he also held the "Big Boys' Jersey".
However, in the 2021 Giro he wore it on behalf of first Valter, and then Bernal. And now - in the Vuelta - he'll wear it on behalf of Martinez.

 

[Red Rick]

He has never worn the BYR jersey in a GT while he was actually leading said competition, because at those times he also held the "Big Boys' Jersey".
However, in the 2021 Giro he wore it on behalf of first Valter, and then Bernal. And now - in the Vuelta - he'll wear it on behalf of Martinez.

He won't, because he's Belgian champion. Champions jerseys go before babysitting leaders jerseys that aren't yours

 

[Salvarani]

Remco disappointed me today. I waited years to see him get dropped on a big Grand tour mountain stage and throw a super tantrum, vockeler style with bidons therowing everywhere, it would be the peak of entertainment in cycling, in the eyes of my 2021 self. But sadly he calmly composed himself, got to work limiting the losses and fought like a warrior to the end. The Gorilla of Aalst, some are calling him. Hope to see him on the attack this vuelta.

Another great assessment. There is still some time left for this to come true, unless the Gorilla goes after the hunters in a raid. Swinging himself up the slopes on the next big mountain stage.

 

[RedheadDane]

He won't, because he's Belgian champion. Champions jerseys go before babysitting leaders jerseys that aren't yours

Aah, of course. Similar reason to why he didn't wear it on behalf of Leknessund in the Giro this year.

 

[danielovichdk2]

All these excuses to diminish the fact that he could not follow the top contenders. Crash, illness, bad day. Whatever. He lost 30 seconds. Period.

A brilliant move by JV to play Kuss into the overall GC, because now Remco also have to take him into consideration.

And the kid should beware of the fuse blowing. The outbursts and his temper will tire him mentally too.

JV puts the foot down the coming weekend and then waits for week 3 to drill the knife on everybody.

The TT is not saving him.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

This shows why Remco climbs best by getting his ass on the front and doing his own tempo. Very few can follow it for more than a couple of km.

He does not respond to changes in pace. That got him dropped last year, and that's what got him dropped today. When he dictated to the pace, he rode everyone off his wheel.

Definitely Remco doesn't like frequent changes of pace, which showed at the WC and on other occasions. It seems that setting his own steady tempo (even at the cost of his rivals drafting) is better for him. And if he's in a good form it's actually better for him to set a steady, strong tempo on a steep climb (due to less drafting benefits, better chance to drop others). Still, this won't work with in-form Roglic and Vingegaard.

 

[Berniece]

All these excuses to diminish the fact that he could not follow the top contenders. Crash, illness, bad day. Whatever. He lost 30 seconds. Period.

A brilliant move by JV to play Kuss into the overall GC, because now Remco also have to take him into consideration.

And the kid should beware of the fuse blowing. The outbursts and his temper will tire him mentally too.

JV puts the foot down the coming weekend and then waits for week 3 to drill the knife on everybody.

The TT is not saving him.

Lol, good one

 

[topcat]

As the most mature, neutral and objective viewer on the forum-Remco is still in the hunt but it will be an uphill battle (apart from the tt).

 

[Cookster15]

This shows why Remco climbs best by getting his ass on the front and doing his own tempo. Very few can follow it for more than a couple of km.

He does not respond to changes in pace. That got him dropped last year, and that's what got him dropped today. When he dictated to the pace, he rode everyone off his wheel.

I understand this - Remco is a diesel. But when he did this it was against lesser competition. Roglic looks much better now than in 2022. But 2022 watts isn’t enough this year. For Remco’s sake I hope yesterday was just a bad day.

 

[CyclistAbi]

A crash more or less always produces some cosequneces.

 

[Jagartrott]

Evenepoel had some help from Cattaneo (or Hirt?) the first km or so after JV's attack, but then had to do everything himself. Roglic and Vingegaard had each other plus Valter for a while. Still Evenepoel, but also Ayuso and others (bar Mas) managed to actually claw back time towards the end. Which tells me that at least Roglic and Vingegaard are not head and shoulders above the rest.

 

[theyoungest]

Evenepoel had some help from Cattaneo (or Hirt?) the first km or so after JV's attack, but then had to do everything himself. Roglic and Vingegaard had each other plus Valter for a while. Still Evenepoel, but also Ayuso and others (bar Mas) managed to actually claw back time towards the end. Which tells me that at least Roglic and Vingegaard are not head and shoulders above the rest.

Maybe the grupetto rode a few seconds faster in the final kilometre as well. Who knows? It's irrelevant though, they were already dropped. Just like Evenepoel.

It's clear Evenepoel found a second wind toward the end, which is not unusual for the time trialist-turned-climber he is. He can't go too deep into the red. But he couldn't follow when it mattered.

 

[Riek s]

A crash more or less always produces some cosequneces.

True, but i think we start to stumble upon the fact that Remco has more side effects of crashing than other riders. (for instance Uijtdebroeks crashed during the stage).
And that in itself wouldn't be a major problem were it not he crashes often in a GT. (crashed at least once in every GT he has ridden). In that regard Roglic is holding up better after a crash.

(that is in the assumption the crash is still causing problems because remco statements on that have been all over the place like in last years Vuelta)

 

[Jagartrott]

Maybe the grupetto rode a few seconds faster in the final kilometre as well. Who knows? It's irrelevant though, they were already dropped. Just like Evenepoel.

Why is this irrelevant? My point is that, at least at the moment, Roglic and Vingegaard are not a class apart. If they were, they would have continued gaining time on the rest, but they didn't. They even lost a bit towards the end. This is definitely relevant.

 

[theyoungest]

Why is this irrelevant? My point is that, at least at the moment, Roglic and Vingegaard are not a class apart. If they were, they would have continued gaining time on the rest, but they didn't. They even lost a bit towards the end. This is definitely relevant.

It's maybe relevant in the sense that Ayuso is not that far off. He can still challenge them. Evenepoel, I'm not too sure of.

 

[wickedw]

Let's shelve yesterdays performance for a little while and dissect the whole race a bit. Do we know what happened during break formation? We didn't have any footage and I haven't really heard or read anything specific about it. That suddenly a group of 40+ riders including 4 jumbo's with sep kuss can get 4 min and then get it all the way up to 7 at some point is insane. For a while I thought perhaps a crash somewhere divided the peloton and a split happened. But as I said, I haven't read about that anywhere so that's unlikely. Which means that SQS completely botched controlling the break away, and this is where the weak team comes in to play. Loads of people, on this forum and elsewhere, have said rubbish such as "you only need team mates when something goes wrong". A ridiculous statement in modern cycling.

Yesterday became a super hard stage because one of the teams that is strong enough to control it was on the attack. Other teams that might have been strong enough to handle it left it to SQS to manage the break formation likely. Never ever should you let a big group like that with Sep Kuss in it go. Now instead of fighting 2 jumbo guys, you're fighting 3. Now they'll have to make choices at some point and Kuss his TT is horrifying so we'll see. They already tried to play this out in stage 3 but it failed, nobody was going to jump after Kuss. Now with his time advantage things might change a bit. It just became even more difficult.

SQS had 2 guys in the break as well, but they are irrelevant there. You could have kept on of them up there as a later option but they should have pulled someone back earlier I reckon. They got themselves in a terrible position at the start of the race and if it wasn't for some help of the other teams it could well be over by now. Now those teams have to ride for something too so there will always be some help but imagine if Ineos actually had Arensman with in the break, then it's a totally different scenario.

In the end it could have been a lot worse for Remco yesterday than it actually was but this doesn't bode well for some future stages where you can see Jumbo adopt similar tactics. Remco's best defence is attack, defensive riding isn't his style and actually makes him more vulnerable to what now has become the Jumbo Trio.