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

[Ripper]

"Typical functional capacity".. say what..the other loss should hopefully be in clear recollection.
to sum up, losing close to ½ hour in a Grand Tour on a single king-stage is problematic when your main agenda is the GC, then it goes without saying that he got some distance to the main competitors.

Remco still manages third spot on the world stage world ranking, so its not up for debate if he is a talented stage race rider.

You said "but its been quite obvious that Remco can't hold with the best when they are kicking it". I wanted to know if you mean just on that day, just in this race, or as a general comment. Obviously, he is inconsistent. But he can certainly hold with the best it drop them ... but not all the time.

Is that clearer?

 

[GroupDK]

You said "but its been quite obvious that Remco can't hold with the best when they are kicking it". I wanted to know if you mean just on that day, just in this race, or as a general comment. Obviously, he is inconsistent. But he can certainly hold with the best it drop them ... but not all the time.

Is that clearer?

getting tiresome.. read the line in full and stop taking a snippet and call it a day in the hope you manipulate it into something else.
been explained to you a couple of times now' with both video and text.
Not sure why your still unsure..you asked, and it was explained..so get down from my shoulder, the sense of the comment should be burped off by now.

Like most people, had hoped that Evenepoel would prove me wrong and he would able to stand the distance with the world's best (as exampled with the UCI stage race world ranking, where he still holds an impressive 3 spot) but so far it's not the case and dropping almost ½ hour is tragic, both for his own goals and the Vuelta..
let's hope Ayuso, can mix things up, as Evenepoel's big goal is sadly out with the bathwater.

 

[Extinction]

Remco's reaction today shows he is exceptional, but you aren't allowed to have a bad day when fighting for GC. This must be overcome or else he is destined to never win the Tour. But how can you go from losing nearly half an hour, to then win by 8 minutes? His head? His body? Both? The whole thing seems surreal. I've never seen what he did today after such a debacle. Fragility and invincible strength, schizophrenia on two wheels.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

I think he'll get away in one more break before the end of the Vuelta. I think stage 20 suits him best if he targets it. If he gets into another breakaway before stage twenty and takes a few more mins back, there are riders who will begin to see their top 10 position under threat and teams will work to chase him down.

How many more stages do you predict he'll be in the breakaway?

I think it's 4 more opportunities for him in the break:

Stage 15 tomorrow. Definitively a break stage, but it could be hard to find a group of riders that want to ride with him. Stage is pretty short, so should be quite easy for the peloton to not lose more than 5 minutes or so and easily keep him out of top 10.

Stage 17 to Angliru. Another short stage, so it's not a stage where the break will take 10 minutes anyway. This stage is basically flat the first 70 km, so not sure this will be for the break. I personally would like to see Remco try his luck against the GC guys here.

Stage 18 to La Cruz de Linaeres. I exptect this to be a break away stage unless UAE wants to desperately try a raid (and if they will try that they need satelite riders, so it could still be stage win for break and Ayoso on a desperate raid behind).

Stage 20 to Guaddarama. Remco doesn't need to get in the early break here to be able to win. He can put his team forward and then attack anywhere from 100km to go to 60 km to go and it will be hard for anyone to follow him (and the fact he's not in the GC battle will clearly help).

I think we will see Remco in the break either tomorrow or on stage 18 and then trying something on stage 20. So 2 more stage victories could be within reach. Still being 10 minutes away from a top 12 will surely help.

 

[samhocking]

Remco's reaction today shows he is exceptional, but you aren't allowed to have a bad day when fighting for GC. This must be overcome or else he is destined to never win the Tour. But how can you go from losing nearly half an hour, to then win by 8 minutes? His head? His body? Both? The whole thing seems surreal. I've never seen what he did today after such a debacle. Fragility and invincible strength, schizophrenia on two wheels.

Possibly fuelling-related. Nutrition was one area he discussed has to improve at QS.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Does anybody know when Logic-is-you-friend will be back? I really miss his analysis on the races.

He is often reacting to posts, he is reading the forum but not posting (probably because he get banned all the time). Would be interested to read his thoughts on remco in this vuelta.

 

[Ulle97]

I think it's 4 more opportunities for him in the break:

Stage 15 tomorrow. Definitively a break stage, but it could be hard to find a group of riders that want to ride with him. Stage is pretty short, so should be quite easy for the peloton to not lose more than 5 minutes or so and easily keep him out of top 10.

Stage 17 to Angliru. Another short stage, so it's not a stage where the break will take 10 minutes anyway. This stage is basically flat the first 70 km, so not sure this will be for the break. I personally would like to see Remco try his luck against the GC guys here.

Stage 18 to La Cruz de Linaeres. I exptect this to be a break away stage unless UAE wants to desperately try a raid (and if they will try that they need satelite riders, so it could still be stage win for break and Ayoso on a desperate raid behind).

Stage 20 to Guaddarama. Remco doesn't need to get in the early break here to be able to win. He can put his team forward and then attack anywhere from 100km to go to 60 km to go and it will be hard for anyone to follow him (and the fact he's not in the GC battle will clearly help).

I think we will see Remco in the break either tomorrow or on stage 18 and then trying something on stage 20. So 2 more stage victories could be within reach. Still being 10 minutes away from a top 12 will surely help.

I do hope he bags one more stage.
Hoping for 2 might be greedy😄😄

 

[dampframme]

He may not be a top gc contender, but he's a champion. Probs for that

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Maybe he spoke last night on the phone with his friend and teammate, maybe even mentor, Fausto Masnada, they are both warriors with champion mentality who overcame big setbacks. I'm not his biggest fan but remco honors our sport with the way he races.

 

[peterfin]

Remco's reaction today shows he is exceptional, but you aren't allowed to have a bad day when fighting for GC. This must be overcome or else he is destined to never win the Tour. But how can you go from losing nearly half an hour, to then win by 8 minutes? His head? His body? Both? The whole thing seems surreal. I've never seen what he did today after such a debacle. Fragility and invincible strength, schizophrenia on two wheels.

I think it's both. Yesterday he definitely had an abnormal physical dip but mentally he probably compounded the issue by being too emotionally involved in it. If you see his reaction afterwards, the tears, the bad night, the feelings of failure towards the team you know that emotions had an impact. He is a very emotional kid but we shouldn't forget that it's also one of his strengths. He should learn to channel that energy better. If his mind is free and his focus is clear, he can do extraordinary things as we saw today. He is smart enough to learn from those experiences. It's one of the area's where can and will make progress.

I think in particular that he should abandon the idea that he always needs to perform to the high standards that he or the media sets, that he always needs to prove himself, that everything he does is again an important test, that he should follow a particular trajectory to beat the Pogi's and Vingo's and that if he fails he doesn't succeed.

 

[Netserk]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1700620112548495840

View: https://twitter.com/faustocoppi60/status/1700620112548495840

 

[fox]

Remco's reaction today shows he is exceptional, but you aren't allowed to have a bad day when fighting for GC. This must be overcome or else he is destined to never win the Tour. But how can you go from losing nearly half an hour, to then win by 8 minutes? His head? His body? Both? The whole thing seems surreal. I've never seen what he did today after such a debacle. Fragility and invincible strength, schizophrenia on two wheels.

He lost half an hour because he didn't even try the last 2 climbs. If he wanted he probably could have come in like Almeida or something but what's the point in doing that? Now he had a relatively easy 2 last climbs and he was allowed in the breakaway. If he would have been 10 minutes down, they would never let him go.

 

[Panda Claws]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1700620112548495840

View: https://twitter.com/faustocoppi60/status/1700620112548495840

Headwind

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1700620112548495840

View: https://twitter.com/faustocoppi60/status/1700620112548495840

This „Mihai Simion“ guy is good, and his infos seem to be valuable… Is it Antoine Vayer?…

 

[proffate]

Ah man, are you for real?

You say the evidence for him being able to deal with a multiple HC climbing stage is completing long one day races?

Oh look, he "completed" another long race today. It must not have had any HC climbs in it.

 

[proffate]

The problem I have with the "just a bad day" explination is that, first off, that's one hell of a bad day but also that he just phoned it in at some point. Almeida dropped earlier but kept fighting to retain a chance at top 10, and he managed.

This phoning it in could potentially mean he can go in breaks, but that's not what this vuelta was about. You should've gone to the Tour if you wanted to do that and it would have been fine. If he had a bad day, I'd expect a GC rider to do what almeida did and keep going and hopefully have a better time next day.

This post aged incredibly poorly.

Today we saw something spectacular from Remco that Almeida will never accomplish. Struggling in 8 minutes down yesterday was definitely not the play.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Remco should not ride the tour next yera. He needs to do giro/vuelta

This is to ensure he is near top shape for both Olympics and worlds. Worlds have a course favorable to him

But he was born to try to win the Tour de France… So it might be a good thing if Remco finally has his debut at the Tour de France, in 2024…

 

[hayneplane]

Yes, I don't know what point you're arguing. I know he can only do this because he's down 30 min. You're the one who called it spectacular, not me. And my whole point has been that as a gc rider he should have gone for gc and not turn this vuelta into a stage hunt, which he did whe he phoned it in.

Also you could easily drop yourself and lose time at earliest convenience. Obviously not a flat stage, but as soon as there is a gc stage you can bow out and go for stages. I'm not saying he should, but you could if you wanted to.

You could drop 20 minutes in a sprint stage if you really wanted to. Could even stop at the side of the road chatting to fans for 15 minutes to deliberately lose time. There are no rules I am aware of stating a requirement to deliver your best effort. Shedding time to be allowed in breaks has been a decades old custom in road cycling and whilst this would be an egregious example it is permitted.

 

[CyclistAbi]

We all cried. Bravo.

 

[HelloDolly]

I can’t say how thankful I am that I’m 100% sure such pathetic thoughts will not enter his head for a moment.

To advocate for the self-neutering of one of the most exciting riders of this century…just mind boggling.

Well I think the 'pathetic' thoughts already entered his head before yesterday . I dont expect you to know anything about psychology. but its plain to see that to improve in GC he needs to learn to ride 'a bit boring' for awhile and to calm down during a GT

I’ve never heard of a cycling fan complaining that a rider should ride more boringly 😭

I never complained.. I said it would be best for Evenepol's long term development to maybe ride abit anonymously in the peloton for awhile. I cant help if you would rather he was worked up the whole time. For a few days in this Vuelta would be a rest for him, esp from the pressure he so obviously feels

FFS he was crying all last night and didn't sleep and he was crying for ages after the stage today. But let me not impinge on your entertainment

Not going to comment on Remco again. What comes to mind is Gandhi's quote on Christians when dealing with Remco's fans

"I'd be a Christian but for the Christians"

 

[ALC]

This post aged incredibly poorly.

Today we saw something spectacular from Remco that Almeida will never accomplish. Struggling in 8 minutes down yesterday was definitely not the play.

I don’t think you should compare both situations…

Almeida is/was sick and even so gave its best (as he always does) to minimize his losses (riding most of the stage alone!) and try to keep the best possible position in GC.

At the same time, Remco had his full team by its side, completely gave up on any GC ambitions, and rode basically the whole of the stage at “cruise control” speed, not wasting the amount of energy all his rivals were spending by going full gas on Spandelles and Tourmalet…
Today, and since was not sick or injured, he was obviously in better shape than most his rivals and managed to win the stage in an amazing away!

Would Almeida be able to do something similar if he had taken Remco’s choice even if he was healthy?
I don’t think so - he is an inferior rider than Remco but, on the other hand, is a fighter, someone who always gives everything and I trust that’s one of the characteristics his fans most love about him!
In 10y time, and when we look back at both their careers, I have no doubt Remco will have more GT wins, but I also trust that based on his reliability and fighting spirit, Almeida will have much more top 5s…

 

[Ulle97]

Oh look, he "completed" another long race today. It must not have had any HC climbs in it.

His main rival on these HC climbs was a man in 23rd position on GC and 46mins down.
So long as that's his main competition, he won't have any issues on stages with multiple HC climbs.

 

[wickedw]

This post aged incredibly poorly.

Today we saw something spectacular from Remco that Almeida will never accomplish. Struggling in 8 minutes down yesterday was definitely not the play.

What about it ages poorly? I was never comparing Evenepoel his ability with Almeidas.

My whole point was that he let gc slide while the other one didn't. The difference lays in the very approach. Remco decided to phone it in and as a result he can go for stages. If he hadn't he could've potentially maintained a top 10 position. Its all about what you value higher, stage wins or a gc. If they keep letting him take time he might get close to top 10 again but likely never enter it.

If you want to be a gc rider you should likely go for a gc. If today he would again have gone down then you can alter course and go for stages but to do it so drastically was a moment of mental weakness.

I'm happy with his win today and think it's great that he can bounce back like that. But it doesn't do much as far as developing as a gc rider goes. It proves, once more, that he is a fantastic rider who can win stages with aggressive attacking cycling. But we already knew that.

On a side note I personally wish they would try to play to that strength more in his gc ambitions, rather than this roglic style cycling they've been trying. Might be suicide but atleast it's Remco.

 

[topcat]

I’m not a Remco fan but all the bashing is tempting me!!

 

[theyoungest]

That was a great win. It's not like UAE and Bahrain didn't try to bring him back (although they did so very stupidly, and mostly when it was already too late).

What I don't get is this redemption narrative, to the point that now he's suddenly a genuine GT contender again. If he wants to be he simply can't afford days like yesterday, nothing about today's win changes anything about that.