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

[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.

 

[pelotonIQ]

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.

They didn't lose time because of fatigue it was because Remco found a second wind and clawed back some time.

All in all he still got dropped, Jumbo knows that long climbs with steep gradients is Remcos downfall and guess what, there's plenty more where that came from.

 

[Berniece]

All in all he still got dropped, Jumbo knows that long climbs with steep gradients is Remcos downfall and guess what, there's plenty more where that came from.

This is just bs, Remco didn’t push the numbers he did last year, that’s it. If it’s the fall, sleeping in the same room as Vervaeke, or something else, who knows, but he just isn’t pushing the same power as he did last year and thus not able to follow or drop the others. The length or steepness has nothing to do with it at the moment.

 

[Angelo1985]

A lot of people are writing Remco off after 1 not so good day. I say we wait and see, if he has multiple days like this its not good. But next time the roles could be reversed, if this day had something to do with his fall or a little bit of illness.

 

[pelotonIQ]

This is just bs, Remco didn’t push the numbers he did last year, that’s it. If it’s the fall, sleeping in the same room as Vervaeke, or something else, who knows, but he just isn’t pushing the same power as he did last year and thus not able to follow or drop the others. The length or steepness has nothing to do with it at the moment.

I said that he got dropped, which he did.
I said that long steep climbs is his downfall, which they are.
I said that there is plenty more steep climbs left in the race, which is true.

Where is the bs?

 

[CyclistAbi]

@Riek s

As a GC rider you need to be 100% all the time. Or you will have serious issues winning the overall. Considering the route and the field. As far as crashes go. More or less all riders in the peloton crash and crash a lot. So i wouldn't put too much thought into that. Remco got up an limited the damage. So he can't be that bad at managing crashes. Otherwise he would likely be behind Rogla and Jonas already.

 

[Lexman]

Vervaeke says he's back on track and ate normal food again yesterday for the first day...

I'm not sure if Kuss high in GC is a real advantage for JV, he'll still would have to ride for Rogla and Vingo..

 

[Berniece]

I said that long steep climbs is his downfall, which they are.

Where is the bs?

This is the bs.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Long and steep climbs are his downfall. A climb like Angliru is where he will have a very hard time to follow Jumbo Visma (Kuss, Vingegaard and Roglic)

 

[topcat]

This is the bs.

I wouldn’t bother. Yesterday, clearly Remco was not at his peak. Too many ppl in the world are caught up in the I’m right, you’re wrong battle. It’s all insecurity.
I’m wrong regularly and it’s no worse than a dry shave.
Namaste.

 

[Riek s]

Long and steep climbs are his downfall. A climb like Angliru is where he will have a very hard time to follow Jumbo Visma (Kuss, Vingegaard and Roglic)

Roglic was dropped by Mas, Vlasov, Carapaz, Carthy on that climb.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Roglic was dropped by Mas, Vlasov, Carapaz, Carthy on that climb.

Roglic was very patchy at 2020 Vuelta, gassed after a busy autumn (the Tour and one-day races). I would expect more of 2021 Roglic here, given his preparations.

 

[frisenfruitig]

Lol why are people so eager to make premature conclusions. If this was a bad day then it was actually a pretty good performance.

It certainly didn't look like this was his best day because guys like Almeida and Uijtdebroecks finishing ahead of him isn't really what you would expect from Evenepoel on a good day.

We'll see, it's possible the form just isn't there completely. It happens, look at Thomas for example.

 

[Berniece]

Remco says he's already feeling better than yesterday, and looking forward to tomorrow

 

[Didier_Bel]

Remco admits that he wasnt feeling 100% yesterday . And that he is feeling better today . He didn't elaborate further but it can explain one or two things ..

In any case , he looked sharp before the start .

Game on !

 

[Volderke]

Remco wasn't maybe at his very peak, but that's how humans are, and that's what we'll have to accept / deal with.

Roglic / Vingegaard / ... can also have good days and bad days (and they maybe already had a bad day at Arinsal which they came through unscathed), but while Roglic and Vingegaard have had GTs with no bad days, it seems Remco has, until now, always has had bad days, whether or not bad luck (crashes / illness) is involved. He hasn't had one big tour without illness or crashes, and this Vuelta is no different.

That's not to be used as an excuse as in "if he would have been healthy, he would win with a margin", but rather as the reality and the menu of the day. I will be happy if he finishes on the podium in good health, being faced with his physical limits, much more than seeing him crush the competition in week 1, only to crash out / falter / get ill like he has already done before.

So my only hope is to have some mano-a-mano battles with Roglic / Vingegaard in week 2 and 3 (and hopefully have some of the breakaway riders of yesterday in the mix for a looooong time, like Kuss and Martinex) and I honestly don't care who wins.

 

[Andy schleck]

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.

Of course they're not. Vingegaard is with a tour de france in his legs. Roglic is a great rider, but i didn’t see yet his best level this year in grand tours.
It should concern the other riders, the fact that vingegaard can take time in all of them, without being that close to his top shape.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Of course they're not. Vingegaard is with a tour de france in his legs. Roglic is a great rider, but i didn’t see yet his best level this year in grand tours.
It should concern the other riders, the fact that vingegaard can take time in all of them, without being that close to his top shape.

Roglic had a nice w/kg bazooka on Monte Lussari. I can't see anyone (except top form Teddy and Vinnie) that could match/beat him on that day.

 

[pelotonIQ]

This is the bs.

Regardless wether he is at his peak or not Remco isn't made for those sort of climbs, additionally his team is not capable of helping him when *** hits the fan so he will find himself being isolated together with the Jumbo trio hoping they show him mercy.

 

[Berniece]

Regardless wether he is at his peak or not Remco isn't made for those sort of climbs, additionally his team is not capable of helping him when *** hits the fan so he will find himself being isolated together with the Jumbo trio hoping they show him mercy.

Yeah sure, I think your posts misses some more hyperboles.

 

[pelotonIQ]

Yeah sure, I think your posts misses some more hyperboles.

I hope Remco is paying you for being his internet domestique