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

[Extinction]

His descending was not very good but in the end he only loses 18s to Pogacar from the top to the finish. There have been GC riders who lost minutes on descends.

But it is one of the other issues the team was supposed to address 3 yeas ago. They were going to have him do some training on cornering at high speeds with a MotoGP friend of Cavendish (when they were still team mates). Never happened. But since Evenepoel descends "well" on training, they assume he will do the same when riding 20kmh faster for GC in the biggest race of all and the issue got solved by itself.

Well, as he said, the Itzulia crash hampered him. He had difficulty at high speed and with melted snow water on the road in the curves it was murder.

 

[Extinction]

He also crashed in April on a descent, and almost died before on a descend. He had some fear and that's normal.

The good news is that mountain stages with a finish on a descent is over.

Oh I agree.

 

[Extinction]

Yes...but Tadej is the only one standing in Remco's way. It's easier to concentrate on only one rider for the time being

The problem though is surpassing him.

 

[Filippo_3467]

Will be interesting to see if he can beat Pogi on Friday. The climb is a bit nastier than I thought so could be a close one. Would be great for the race if Remco could come closer.

 

[Low is rhe new high]

This is not realistic imho. On a flat TT, i would always put Pogacar above Vingegaard. Today in the flatter section of the descent, you could see Vingegaard was missing pure power on the flat. I don't think he will do a good TT.

Ok good point then they will both lose ca 60 s. My main point is that both Roglic and Remco is still very much in contention and that the GC will be decided in week 3. Before this 4 stages I was worried it would be like the giro.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

He also crashed in April on a descent, and almost died before on a descend. He had some fear and that's normal.

The good news is that mountain stages with a finish on a descent is over.

While that is true, i could see from the helicopter shots that he was still making mistakes against basic cornering technique. He cuts to the inside of the corner way too fast at times, which reduces your options coming out of the corner. You either have to brake a lot harder and end up losing both time and speed, or you simply find yourself a few hundreds of meters down.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Not the end of the world. Where will descending skills really matter anymore this Tour? It has be be some long range shenanigans going on on stage 19 or 20, otherwise its just pure w/kg

 

[red_flanders]

I would be shocked if Pogacar beats Remco in a flat ITT of 25kms. I think Remco is going to destroy the ITT and win by at least 30 seconds if not more.

It's not flat. It wouldn't shock me if Remco wins by 30 seconds, but I think that's optimistic. It also wouldn't shock me if Pogi wins by 10. The rest of the times are more what I was reacting to. I don't see him taking a minute out of Roglič, that would be shocking.

 

[red_flanders]

Not the end of the world. Where will descending skills really matter anymore this Tour? It has be be some long range shenanigans going on on stage 19 or 20, otherwise its just pure w/kg

More a concern about his prospects as a Tour winner moving forward. It's a weakness, and weaknesses can be exploited. Plus if someone attacks at the top of a penultimate climb, puts 15 seconds into him, and arrives a minute ahead on the following climb? Problem.

 

[FroomeWagon]

I see Remco is at 18 to 1 right now. Might be time to lay a Franklin ($100).

 

[Krzysztof_O]

More a concern about his prospects as a Tour winner moving forward. It's a weakness, and weaknesses can be exploited. Plus if someone attacks at the top of a penultimate climb, puts 15 seconds into him, and arrives a minute ahead on the following climb? Problem.

The first thing that came to my mind was Vingo's long-range attack near the top of Bonette, followed by a huge descent and Isola MTF. But there's also a less steep section where Remco would likely make up some time.

 

[Valv.Piti]

More a concern about his prospects as a Tour winner moving forward. It's a weakness, and weaknesses can be exploited. Plus if someone attacks at the top of a penultimate climb, puts 15 seconds into him, and arrives a minute ahead on the following climb? Problem.

That is indeed a problem, thankfully for Remco he can gain something back purely on his rouleur skills

 

[Mayomaniac]

So far so good, he looks great and the team is looking strong (well, besides Hirt) and frankly this race needs him to be great.
The only worry on my behalf is that the fast weight loss could mess with his recovery later in the race, when you have consecutive mountain stages and fatigue starts adding up.

 

[red_flanders]

That is indeed a problem, thankfully for Remco he can gain something back purely on his rouleur skills

Thankfully. But it burns matches. Has to get cleaned up or he won't ever be able to beat these guys.

 

[peterfin]

The good thing about Remco's decending skills is that if he gets a long road without sharp corners he can reduce the gap in no time by riding 10 km/h faster. In the end Vingegaard lost 30s during the decent and he only 18s vs Pogacar.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

So far so good, he looks great and the team is looking strong (well, besides Hirt) and frankly this race needs him to be great.
The only worry on my behalf is that the fast weight loss could mess with his recovery later in the race, when you have consecutive mountain stages and fatigue starts adding up.

Yes, exactly. It's also in the back of my head. He basically lost 1kg per week, which is likely not ideal when it comes to recovery. I am not sure how losing muscle weight factors in, as i think he lost both muscle as well as fat. Maybe if he only lost roughly 1kg of fat in total (and 1.5kg muscle) since Dauphiné, the risk isn't that big?

But i hope it's clear to everybody now, that when he gets his weight down, he is an actual contender. Like i've always said.

 

[Valv.Piti]

So far so good, he looks great and the team is looking strong (well, besides Hirt) and frankly this race needs him to be great.
The only worry on my behalf is that the fast weight loss could mess with his recovery later in the race, when you have consecutive mountain stages and fatigue starts adding up.

We need Slimco more than 3 weeks a year!

 

[AnotherArmChair]

Seems he looking to win the stage friday

https://twitter.com/x/status/1808191658250629336

View: https://x.com/NBCSCycling/status/1808191658250629336

 

[steffr222]

He seems happy and relaxed as well as optimistic about the ITT on Friday. Gonna smash it on Friday..

 

[Medvind]

Happy for Remco, this must give him a big confidence boost. Think he will smash it on friday.

 

[Le Grand Doop]

Well, as he said, the Itzulia crash hampered him. He had difficulty at high speed and with melted snow water on the road in the curves it was murder.

let's count the reasons Remco might be a little nervous/cautious going down a mountain:

1. He almost died riding his first monument at age 20 -- that could also have been a career-ending injury (and as it is probably hurt his progress for over a year).
2. He almost lost the Vuelta in 2022 because of a crash (that is pretty clear now that his dropping of a few seconds 2 and 3 days after that crash was a residual of the crash).
3. He was part of a horrific crash at the Basque Tour that almost jeopardized his entire season's goal.
4. He just crashed on watery roads in the Dauphine

and...

5. He rode past a few seconds after Gino Maher went off the road at TDS last year.

Not sure he will ever develop into a good descender, but there are plenty of totally logical reasons why he may have gone cautiously today.

 

[Extinction]

While that is true, i could see from the helicopter shots that he was still making mistakes against basic cornering technique. He cuts to the inside of the corner way too fast at times, which reduces your options coming out of the corner. You either have to brake a lot harder and end up losing both time and speed, or you simply find yourself a few hundreds of meters down.

You have to fitness the breaks and carry speed out of the turn. Plus if you are scared going down you pull up and it's a disaster.

 

[Cookster15]

I don't know, how was Remco's descending today compared to say Andy Schleck in 2011 (stage 16 that year)? He could be a lot worse. I think Remco did really well today. Which other stages this tour have technical descents that could bother him?

 

[houtdffan]

This seems optimistic for a 25k TT.

the way Remco is riding on the flat, he's taking more than a minute out of the field.

Had Gouvenou grew a pair and put in a proper 55km ITT, we'd see an Indurain Luxembourg performance

 

[peterfin]

I think he will go absolutely nuts on Friday in an all out effort to go for yellow.