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

[Samu Cuenca]

Wow. What a tappone:

The climbs were alright, but the descents weren't even difficult enough to kill Jay Vine.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I think he would have won the Giro. The level was low, and he was firing early.

That said, in hindsight, he was never going to win this race with a preparation probably more geared towards the ITT (?), this Jumbo team and the climbing menu.

 

[FroomeWagon]

Dunno but how much for a rider to win all the classics and the worlds in one year

Probably about $2M a year (plus bonuses). Probably about what he is making right now.

I don't fully understand the salary structures teams have right now, but I would assume being able to compete for GC at the TDF is where the big $$$ is made.

 

[witeken]

It's ironic that people are speculating about his (lack of) level in maintain stages when this exact stage was supposed to finally answer how he stacks up against the likes of Vingegaard, Roglic, etc.

 

[Netserk]

I think he would have won the Giro. The level was low, and he was firing early.

That said, in hindsight, he was never going to win this race with a preparation probably more geared towards the ITT (?), this Jumbo team and the climbing menu.

Pretty sad for an ITT a few weeks before to be a bigger obstacle for him than it was for Rogla in 2021, or riding the Tour has been for Kuss and Vingegaard.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Pretty sad for an ITT a few weeks before to be a bigger obstacle for him than it was for Rogla in 2021, or riding the Tour has been for Kuss and Vingegaard.

Im just trying to find reasons, but preparing for that obviously don't explain his collapse.

 

[meat puppet]

Just seems to lack the required recovery when running with the big boys in a gt context with actually hard stages. Also came in all guns blazing, sprinting for bonuses, etc. Drank his own Kool aid as though he never saw what that kind of riding did to Pog who, at least for now, is a different caliber GT rider.

No biggie, valuable lessons to be learnt here.

 

[topt]

dont tell me nobody told him they are racing for the win today; I blame the team

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

I have no idea why him having a bad day occurred...but it seemed (and still seems) least likely that he just wasn't feeling it because he doesn't have the talent in his physiology to have ridden better today on any level. If what happened was that he just didn't recover or something, and just didn't have it, and decided to tuck his tail between his legs, and ride home with the sprinters, then so be it. I have seen nothing in the man's performances or psychological expressions ever, that would suggest that was the day he had. He had no fight...and you have to feel awful sh!tty to have that bad of a day...and some illeness, yet diagnosed, still seems a more likely culprit...smarta$$ has nothing to do with it.

 

[Salvarani]

Pretty sad for an ITT a few weeks before to be a bigger obstacle for him than it was for Rogla in 2021, or riding the Tour has been for Kuss and Vingegaard.

Kuss has the Giro in his legs as well.

 

[peterfin]

Pretty sad for an ITT a few weeks before to be a bigger obstacle for him than it was for Rogla in 2021, or riding the Tour has been for Kuss and Vingegaard.

Preparing for a flat TT to beat Ganna is a bit different than preparing for a GT. Of course it's not an excuse for his performance today.

 

[Berniece]

Let’s see how it goes the rest of the 1.5 weeks. Was it a single bad day or aren’t we going to see him anymore for the rest of the Vuelta?

So maybe a stage win and then focus on Lombardia

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

This wasn't a bad day. this was a complete implosion...that started on the 2nd pass of the day, with two more to come. Bad day is you get dropped with 5K left in the stage. It takes something really wrong, to have that happen with 100k left in the stage, when you're Remco Fu*king Evenepoel

 

[Blanco]

Yep, boy is a one-day racer, I said it before...

 

[jmdirt]

WTH?! Remco?!

 

[red_flanders]

Never seen a rider of that caliber lose that much time without illness or injury. Weird.

Calling someone who has won a GT a one day rider only makes zero sense. He's clearly got a weakness with recovery. But he's won a GT. Not top 10, not podium, won. I agree it makes on re-assess his ability to win more GT's, but that's it. Many GT riders have a worse GT record than him. Most.

Tough day for the kid. Kind of glad he's not sick actually. Huge disappointment for the race and his career.

 

[peterfin]

This wasn't a bad day. this was a complete implosion...that started on the 2nd pass of the day, with two more to come. Bad day is you get dropped with 5K left in the stage. It takes something really wrong, to have that happen with 100k left in the stage, when you're Remco Fu*king Evenepoel

I also think something is wrong. Bad days are possible but this is not his average bad day. It's not even comparable to the bad days he had during his difficult 2021 season.

The last few days he was already a bit off. Yesterday he said he was really suffering the first hour and he was nowhere to be seen when Roglic took those bonus seconds, the day before he took it very easy on the climb and during the TT he suffered for 10 minutes during the first part.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

And I hate to say it, but door #3 could be that he knows some "news" involving him is about to break.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

I figured that Evenepoel's form was on a downward trajectory. His uphill sprint in stage 11 looked like an all-out effort, pretty much. A comparatively weak one at that. Let's not forget that he had his teammates block the road. You don't do that if you have superior recovery.

He also said that he was hoping for an easy stage 12 (no echelons, I guess) in order to be ready for the mountain stages. That comment was pretty telling.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

And I hate to say it, but door #3 could be that he knows some "news" involving him is about to break.

That would be weird, make hay while the sun shines

 

[Extinction]

He just said “sorry” to Serry when they were riding behind together.

Not sick. Just a bad day and letting go after some time.

If he's not sick, then there's reason to doubt his GT capacity.

 

[Gargamel35]

Lol the almighty Remco. Kid playing with the grownups and getting burned. Stay on shorter races and leave GT racing to the big league.
All Belgium smartasses...a baloon of hot air.

 

[red_flanders]

Transfer talk and talk of a weak team (which is a simple fact) are out the window now I'd guess.

 

[perico]

Transfer talk and talk of a weak team (which is a simple fact) are out the window now I'd guess.

Suddenly Brailsford’s cell phone seems to go straight to voicemail all of a sudden

 

[FroomeWagon]

Suddenly Brailsford’s cell phone seems to go straight to voicemail all of a sudden

At least he hasn't been "blocked" ... yet.