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

[FroomeWagon]

Remco is 24 years old. Roglic is almost 35, Redbull is doing the right thing

Plus Remco looked to be better than Roglic at this year's TDF. Remco appears to be getting better. Is Roglic? It was a great Vuelta win by Roglic this year, but if Remco, Pogi or Vingo are there, does he win? Probably not. Furthermore, the TDF is still the big dog. At least from the sponsors view, the tour is probably worth at least 5 vueltas (or giros). Just how it is.

 

[Oldermanish]

Didn’t know Roglic also trained for WC ITT and specifically changed his weight and build to perform against the likes of Ganna and WVA, to then ride the Vuelta

Why would he do that? He won the Olympic ITT doing his normal thing...just like Remco. It's OK to not know things.

 

[Oldermanish]

Plus Remco looked to be better than Roglic at this year's TDF. Remco appears to be getting better. Is Roglic? It was a great Vuelta win by Roglic this year, but if Remco, Pogi or Vingo are there, does he win? Probably not. Furthermore, the TDF is still the big dog. At least from the sponsors view, the tour is probably worth at least 5 vueltas (or giros). Just how it is.

Honestly, and I like all of these riders; after the races they've done I don't think any of them would've beaten him in this Vuelta. IMO if he hadn't crashed out of the Tour he would've finished on the podium. Leave it to you who steps down to fourth.

 

[peterfin]

Honestly, and I like all of these riders; after the races they've done I don't think any of them would've beaten him in this Vuelta. IMO if he hadn't crashed out of the Tour he would've finished on the podium. Leave it to you who steps down to fourth.

He didn't give the impression early on in the TdF that he would have finished on the podium. Also, the timegap between third and fourth was 10 minutes and not 3 minutes.

 

[Berniece]

Plus Remco looked to be better than Roglic at this year's TDF. Remco appears to be getting better. Is Roglic? It was a great Vuelta win by Roglic this year, but if Remco, Pogi or Vingo are there, does he win? Probably not. Furthermore, the TDF is still the big dog. At least from the sponsors view, the tour is probably worth at least 5 vueltas (or giros). Just how it is.

Apparently Roglic performend his best ever this Vuelta, so there is some room to grow for him. But there's way more room to grow for Evenepoel. I don't expect it to be close next year if both of them are in top form.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Nothing in this Vuelta showed he would have been on the podium in the TdF.
This parcours was almost tailor made for him and he only put Mas on 3 minutes.
Now i do rate Mas. But on this parcours i expect Roglic to put 5 minuts into him.

You could tell in this Vuelta once the climbing got longer his level was not much better than his competitors. It was the short steep climbs he held the true advantage in this vuelta field.

I do not believe that Roglic would have beaten Remco in this years TdF for that final podium spot. Remco level was constant throughout. And Roglic already shown to have weak moments/bad judgement calls.

As for Roglic beating remco/pogi/jonas on this year vuelta had they shown up?

Evenepoel - yes, i believe remco needed a break and would not have been able to maintain his form throughout this year vuelta.
Vingegaard - no. Vingegaard was growing again by the end of this TdF. Followed a different programme than remco and would have enough in the tank.
Pogacar - i'd like to think he needed a break as well after Giro-Tour double. But really this guy on another level this year. Can't bet against him.

So no i do not think Roglic wins this year vuelta if 2 out of 3 of the others of the Big 4 showed up.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

As for Roglic beating remco/pogi/jonas on this year vuelta had they shown up?

Evenepoel - yes, i believe remco needed a break and would not have been able to maintain his form throughout this year vuelta.
Vingegaard - no. Vingegaard was growing again by the end of this TdF. Followed a different programme than remco and would have enough in the tank.
Pogacar - i'd like to think he needed a break as well after Giro-Tour double. But really this guy on another level this year. Can't bet against him.

So no i do not think Roglic wins this year vuelta if 2 out of 3 of the others of the Big 4 showed up.

I think Vingegaard showed he needed a break as well, with a meagre showing in Pologne and after that simply calling it the end of the season.
Pogacar... who knows. You'd expect the lemon to be squeezed dry, but it never seems like it is this year.

 

[red_flanders]

I wish we could save the "would Roglic beat Remco" to the Roglic thread. I mean really, who cares.

The goal for Remco is winning the TdF, not beating Roglic.

 

[Andre]

Two Yankee (baseball) pitchers famously traded wives back in the hip ‘70’s

who were the pitchers, if I may ask?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

who knows

I never knew there could be trades like in US sports

What is so special about it? You can call it a trade, but legally it would likely just be teams buying out the contract of the other rider under mutual agreement.

 

[Sciatic]

who were the pitchers, if I may ask?

Mike Kekich was one, I forget the other. Easy to Google plenty of news articles about it. Seems weirder in retrospect that they didn’t try to hide, the same press covered it. And both couples already had kids!

 

[Hugh Januss]

I wish we could save the "would Roglic beat Remco" to the Roglic thread. I mean really, who cares.

The goal for Remco is winning the TdF, not beating Roglic.

For the next few years Remco can't win the Tour unless he beats Roglic (amongst others).

 

[red_flanders]

For the next few years Remco can't win the Tour unless he beats Roglic (amongst others).

You don't say.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Remco Evenepoel, Tiesj Benoot, Victor Campenaerts, Laurens De Plus, Quinten Hermans, Jasper Stuyven, Maxim Van Gils, Tim Wellens.

No De Lie/Nys

https://twitter.com/x/status/1833537322136309868

View: https://x.com/LeGruppetto/status/1833537322136309868

 

[Berniece]

Remco Evenepoel, Tiesj Benoot, Victor Campenaerts, Laurens De Plus, Quinten Hermans, Jasper Stuyven, Maxim Van Gils, Tim Wellens.

No De Lie/Nys

https://twitter.com/x/status/1833537322136309868

View: https://x.com/LeGruppetto/status/1833537322136309868

That’s the best team they could have selected based on current circumstances.

 

[Oldermanish]

He didn't give the impression early on in the TdF that he would have finished on the podium. Also, the timegap between third and fourth was 10 minutes and not 3 minutes.

He was one steep stage out of the podium and, as we just saw; got better as the race got more challenging. He was 3rd in the TT and a minute from 2nd place at that point.
Your projection to him losing 10 minutes is irrelevant as he crashed out with several broken vertebrae for his trouble. That being the 2nd major injury-crash of the season with only Pogacar avoiding the same fate.

 

[Andre]

Mike Kekich was one, I forget the other. Easy to Google plenty of news articles about it. Seems weirder in retrospect that they didn’t try to hide, the same press covered it. And both couples already had kids!

maybe the whole thing was the wives' idea

 

[Andre]

@Sciatic ok I just read about it. I never would have been able to leave my dog. Go Remco Go!

 

[Coffeeplanter]

Remco could win the time trial on one leg given the circumstances of the 'opposition', but I cannot imagine that short period of time that he had after hitting the Tour de France decompression will be enough to give gold in the road race much of a legit shot. In that regard, I am expecting more in Lombardia than I would in Zurich.

Going from decompression to super level again in about a month seems rather impossible to me.

 

[Berniece]

Remco could win the time trial on one leg given the circumstances of the 'opposition', but I cannot imagine that short period of time that he had after hitting the Tour de France decompression will be enough to give gold in the road race much of a legit shot. In that regard, I am expecting more in Lombardia than I would in Zurich.

Going from decompression to super level again in about a month seems rather impossible to me.

Same could be said for Pogacar then? Maybe we get a random winner who rode in the Vuelta

 

[Wvv]

Remco Evenepoel, Tiesj Benoot, Victor Campenaerts, Laurens De Plus, Quinten Hermans, Jasper Stuyven, Maxim Van Gils, Tim Wellens.

No De Lie/Nys

There is not a single person in Belgium who expected otherwise... Nys is aiming for CX and De Lie isn't a match with that parcours.

Van Wilder, Vervaeke, Serry, Lecerf, Van Eetvelt, ... all deserve to be mentioned more.

Edit: Lecerf is doing the U23 race.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Same could be said for Pogacar then? Maybe we get a random winner who rode in the Vuelta

How so? Pogacar didn't race after the Tour. Evenepoel raced the Olympics, so that is 2 extra weeks, and the WCC ITT isn't a goal for Pogacar, so that gives him an extra week as well. That means between TDF and WCC, Pog gets 3 extra weeks.

That’s the best team they could have selected based on current circumstances.

I disagree.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

Same could be said for Pogacar then? Maybe we get a random winner who rode in the Vuelta

Pogacar probably hit his decompression whilst the majority of the peloton were still maintaining their peak/supercompensation for the Olympics. He should be a few weeks ahead of schedule in rebuilding compared to the rest. It doesn't sound like much on paper, but when one has to start from what is basically 0 again, it is quite a lot.

You are correct that the Olympic years often give very random results. I recall Taylor freaking Phinney almost beating Tony Martin. But I think the decision of Pogacar to completely skip Paris has neglected any chance of such a thing happening.

 

[Sciatic]

@Sciatic ok I just read about it. I never would have been able to leave my dog. Go Remco Go!

I forgot about the pets too! Those swingin’ seventies

 

[Berniece]

I disagree.

Who would you drop and add?