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

[Medvind]

From Het Nieuwsblad:


So Remco believe the course is tough enough to bring som real fatigue into Nys' (and Pog's?) legs. Guess we will see some real action before Huy then.

https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20250422_93442403

I don't think that has anything to do with the gameplan for wednesday tbh. People seem to believe that him saying he doesn't want to give Nys a free ride to the Mur, automatically means he will attack. I think it can be interpreted in more ways than that. It could be the team wants to put the tempo very high and sufficate the typical puncheurs. It could be that they send other riders (Vansevenant, Van Wilder or Schachmann...) in the attack so that other teams (including Trek) have to ride. Or it could mean he will attack. Or it could be a mix of all of the above. Send a rider in the attack first, have the team set the pace very high on the penultimate climb, attack and bridge to the teammate.

Yep, agree. My bad if I was implying he is going to attack. I meant more that he wants a tough race. However, to make it really tough he might have to attack eventually, depends how strong his doms are and how other teams ride, especially UAE.

Surely UAE are also not interested in having a relatively fresh Nys on Huy, he might be Pog's only real opponent after all.

Anyhow, seems like we will have a tough race. Just hope Nys has something left in the end, been waiting so long for a Nys bomb on Huy.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Yep, agree. My bad if I was implying he is going to attack. I meant more that he wants a tough race. However, to make it really tough he might have to attack eventually, depends how strong his doms are and how other teams ride, especially UAE.

Surely UAE are also not interested in having a relatively fresh Nys on Huy, he might be Pog's only real opponent after all.

Anyhow, seems like we will have a tough race. Just hope Nys has something left in the end, been waiting so long for a Nys bomb on Huy.

No, i was referring to other media who assumed he was going to attack, but i never read an actual quote where he said that.

 

[Oldman]

He's just speaking the truth. SOQ won't forget that UAE was riding hard when this happened.

....and Tadej was supposed to stop? Doubt he even heard about it and Remco's interview suggested he was caught in the group that crashed. Sounds like he was way out of position, too. UAE and other teams were racing so let's not imply they gassed it just cause Remco was back there.

 

[Oldman]

There is an important distinction imho. Sucked implies he had no choice in the matter.
That he may not have been recovered from PR, perhaps, i think his spring is just starting to take its toll in general. But you haven't explained who should be the guy to test him if not Evenepoel.

You have the imho to interpret the semantics of Sucked. It has subtler meanings and if I guessed Pogi would have expected Remco to join up or someone else with some gas. It was way early to go it alone and the gap wasn't that large. As it turned out he backed off so he'd have help and misjudged the sprint....by centimeters.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

You have the imho to interpret the semantics of Sucked. It has subtler meanings and if I guessed Pogi would have expected Remco to join up or someone else with some gas. It was way early to go it alone and the gap wasn't that large. As it turned out he backed off so he'd have help and misjudged the sprint....by centimeters.

You mean he backed off 8km from the finish when they were 50 meters behind? Ok.

Edit, typo

 

[Berniece]

....and Tadej was supposed to stop? Doubt he even heard about it and Remco's interview suggested he was caught in the group that crashed. Sounds like he was way out of position, too. UAE and other teams were racing so let's not imply they gassed it just cause Remco was back there.

How do you mean Pogacar had to stop? The crash happened way before the attack. And Evenepoel wasn’t out of position during the crash, he was behind Narvaez who was with Pogacar.

 

[Oldman]

How do you mean Pogacar had to stop? The crash happened way before the attack. And Evenepoel wasn’t out of position during the crash, he was behind Narvaez who was with Pogacar.

Your statement implied that Remco's team would somehow remember that UAE was going full gas when Remco got caught in a crash. It sounds like his position was behind Pogacar and he lost a time getting his sh*t together. Doesn't sound like a big deal other than Pog's gap got established very early after his launch with Julian. Do they have an issue with how it went down?

 

[Berniece]

Your statement implied that Remco's team would somehow remember that UAE was going full gas when Remco got caught in a crash. It sounds like his position was behind Pogacar and he lost a time getting his sh*t together. Doesn't sound like a big deal other than Pog's gap got established very early after his launch with Julian. Do they have an issue with how it went down?

They said so, that they have an issue with it. At first UAE waited for Narvaez who caused the crash, and then they accelerated because they felt the riders getting away were too strong. Since it took 30-35km’s to get back, it clearly went very fast in the front

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Remco is on the romandie provision start list (thanks to @nesterk for sharing this)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1914962830677180529

View: https://x.com/TourDeRomandie/status/1914962830677180529?t=ZoqLzQwmbo-2K-RfT6btNw&s=19

 

[Berniece]

Remco is on the romandie provision start list (thanks to @nesterk for sharing this)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1914962830677180529

View: https://x.com/TourDeRomandie/status/1914962830677180529?t=ZoqLzQwmbo-2K-RfT6btNw&s=19

For someone with his palmares, he really is missing more 2.UWT wins. He won 3 (Pologne, UAE Tour and Vuelta), and only one of them is important. Tour de Romandie will be a step up from Pologne and UAE Tour, but nothing like Paris-Nice, Dauphine, etc.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Interesting slide in Flèche Wallonne PCS' live race stats, that might surprise certain people (let's just call 'm the Wielerflits crowd that likes to talk about Janneke en Mieke).

 

[Red Rick]

Pretty sure PCS start list quality is one of those stats that strongly suggests the Paris-Roubaix field gets mightily stronger if you add Jonas Vingegaard to the field.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Pretty sure PCS start list quality is one of those stats that strongly suggests the Paris-Roubaix field gets mightily stronger if you add Jonas Vingegaard to the field.

Yes, that's true. You know many 1 day races with scenarios like Merlier and Milan riding Lombardia or Vingegaard in Roubaix? Because if not, what is your point. It's the average for all races won by these riders with the same parameters for all.

 

[Red Rick]

Yes, that's true. You know many 1 day races where scenarios like Merlier and Milan riding Lombardia or Vingegaard in Roubaix? Because if not, what is your point. It's the average for all races won by these riders with the same parameters for all.

It's a classic garbage in, garbage out statistic, and I just use an example to make the point.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

It's a classic garbage in, garbage out statistic, and I just use an example to make the point.

Yeah so did i. You're free to call it garbage, and i didn't post it as scientific proof of rider A being 2 places ahead of rider B. But it does at the very least illustrate that the tale about Evenepoel only winning in low quality fields is complete BS.

 

[rghysens]

Yeah so did i. You're free to call it garbage, and i didn't post it as scientific proof of rider A being 2 places ahead of rider B. But it does at the very least illustrate that the tale about Evenepoel only winning in low quality fields is complete BS.

Eddy Merckx on the other hand...
Worse than Cavendish or Nuyens.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Eddy Merckx on the other hand...
Worse than Cavendish or Nuyens.

He won a truckload of small races, it's also a reason why he has won so many. Those obviously don't detract from the big races he also won.

 

[Berniece]

Underwhelming performance in Fleche Wallonne. Obviously not his race anyway, but expected more the way they build it up.

 

[houtdffan]

Remco needed to go much earlier. Played into the hands of Pog

 

[Berniece]

Remco needed to go much earlier. Played into the hands of Pog

Doubt he had the strength. Interview will come after warming up an taking a shower

 

[EddyMazzoleni]

Imho he has overestimated is level on the climbs quite severly. I would say that the results he obtained in Amstel and Brabant came in spite of his mediocre (at least for his standards) climbing legs. In a 250 km race he still shines because of his endurace and TT ability, but it now seems really hard for him to challenge Pogacar in Liege, unless he and his teams come up with some agressive tactic, and this is not helped by the fact that his team, Van Wilder excluded, is not really strong.

 

[Berniece]

Imho he has overestimated is level on the climbs quite severly. I would say that the results he obtained in Amstel and Brabant came in spite of his mediocre (at least for his standards) climbing legs. In a 250 km race he still shines because of his endurace and TT ability, but it now seems really hard for him to challenge Pogacar in Liege, unless he and his teams come up with some agressive tactic, and this is not helped by the fact that is team, Van Wilder excluded, is not really strong.

He has never shown to be a great performer in the rain. Might have a lot to do with it. Fact he didn't even try to attack tells you a lot too. And of course he's just coming back from injury. Everyone said beforehand he isn't at his best. Just because he was the strongest in AGR doesn't change this.

 

[AmRacer]

He has never shown to be a great performer in the rain. Might have a lot to do with it. Fact he didn't even try to attack tells you a lot too. And of course he's just coming back from injury. Everyone said beforehand he isn't at his best. Just because he was the strongest in AGR doesn't change this.

He wasn't the strongest in AGR, that was in BP.

 

[EddyMazzoleni]

He has never shown to be a great performer in the rain. Might have a lot to do with it. Fact he didn't even try to attack tells you a lot too. And of course he's just coming back from injury. Everyone said beforehand he isn't at his best. Just because he was the strongest in AGR doesn't change this.

Obviously the fact that he was injured is probably the main reason he does not climb good, we know he is just not a pure climber and needs some specific works to get really light and explosive uphill. As for the rain i dont' know, i can recall some good performance of his in the rain, like on Pico Jano or last year Nice stage in PN. He and Healy have also overextended trying to follow Pog

 

[Red Rick]

He's definitely done better on Mur de Huy style climbs while in questionable climbing form, like in Tirreno 2022.

Everything was kinda dumb today, he in the wind quite a bit trying to be in the front positions, and the peloton was going fast on the climbs and really slow on the flat and false flat downhill sections, which doesn't benefit Evenepoel.