- Feb 20, 2012
- 54,086
- 44,454
- 28,180
he still was closer to Vingo than Almeida, else he wouldn't have finished 10 min ahead.
How much did he gain on Almeida in the TT and stage 11?
- Apr 3, 2009
- 12,714
- 8,667
- 28,180
- Apr 30, 2011
- 47,351
- 30,002
- 28,180
Unless he doesn't count as a big talent or your "always" didn't mean always, then you sure did.
Based on past and expected future performances, Pogacar has no reason to particularly fear Remco at the Tour de France, even with optimal preparation.
Pogacar is performing at all-time best level; Remco is not, and there's no indication that he will, simple as that. Will he ever get to that level? Maybe but who knows.
- Apr 3, 2009
- 12,714
- 8,667
- 28,180
there are about 20 different ways to phrase your question that aren’t putting words in my mouth.
Of course Lemond would have dominated. If he was using the same “training” as everyone else.
I hope there won’t be a list of riders you’ll ask me to explain.
- Apr 30, 2011
- 47,351
- 30,002
- 28,180
I'll offer a more open question then. Was there any of the "big talents" who "dominated" in the 90's who wouldn't be "a level above" a decade earlier?
I have several times asked for a name change on this thread, but now I think '.....Eddy Merckx...' is just fine.
'...is the next Tadej Pogačar thread' would be too much.
'...is the next Tadej Pogačar thread' would be too much.
View: https://x.com/Eurosport_IT/status/1922711381356273840
Please provide a translation or summary for non English content. Thank you!
Please provide a translation or summary for non English content. Thank you!
Last edited by a moderator:
- Sep 12, 2022
- 8,741
- 10,108
- 17,180
- Jun 7, 2011
- 20,975
- 20,312
- 28,180
According to Bruyneel, Evenepoel and Foré aren't getting along very well.
- Sep 12, 2022
- 8,741
- 10,108
- 17,180
Doesn’t surprise me. I think Foré with his background doesn’t accept the decisions Evenepoel is able to make in the team. But don’t go to Ineos, go to Bora.
Wait...we're talking about the guy hit by a mail truck?
You can't know the effacy of your very intense race program until...when, genius? Until you race. He definitely performed until the gauge was on empty and, hopefully learned from it.
Shame he isn't a US rider. No one pays attention to you until you've won a Tour.
- Sep 12, 2022
- 8,741
- 10,108
- 17,180
We were talking about last year (2024). That his preparation for TDF was ***, which showed in 2 ways:
1. His performance in Dauphine where he was beaten by riders he should easily beat
2. His performance in 3rd week of the TDF, which showed his base was lower and he wasn't able to perform as well as in the first two weeks of the TDF. You saw the same with Vingegaard. The amount of effort accumulated over all those days was too much for them, which resulted in weaker performances later in the Tour. Because their prep wasn't as it should be, too rushed.
In 6 years as Pro, Remco hasn't won any of the seven major one-week races.
To think that he didn't win the Dauphiné because of his preparation is somewhat misleading. He's never won, so why would he win that time? And against Roglic, who has won several of those races.
Remco was already beaten by Jorgenson at Paris-Nice.
And let's not underestimate Carlos Rodriguez's performance in that race.
Carlos Rodriguez won Romandy last year. The reality is that he has one of those seven races that Remco didn't, and Rodriguez was on par with Jorgenson in Dauphiné, who already beat Remco in one of those races.
Besides, he had much more training time than Vingegaard and was still inferior to him in TDF.
Remco wouldn't have been in contention for the Tour anyway. He's never had a climbing level similar to Pogacar and Vingegaard. Everyone expected his fight to be on the podium against Roglic.
To think that he didn't win the Dauphiné because of his preparation is somewhat misleading. He's never won, so why would he win that time? And against Roglic, who has won several of those races.
Remco was already beaten by Jorgenson at Paris-Nice.
And let's not underestimate Carlos Rodriguez's performance in that race.
Carlos Rodriguez won Romandy last year. The reality is that he has one of those seven races that Remco didn't, and Rodriguez was on par with Jorgenson in Dauphiné, who already beat Remco in one of those races.
Besides, he had much more training time than Vingegaard and was still inferior to him in TDF.
Remco wouldn't have been in contention for the Tour anyway. He's never had a climbing level similar to Pogacar and Vingegaard. Everyone expected his fight to be on the podium against Roglic.
Last edited:
- Feb 20, 2012
- 54,086
- 44,454
- 28,180
Dauphine shape does not equate to TdF shape.
And you cannot confidently claim Evenepoel was worse in the Alps than in the Pyrenees.
- Sep 12, 2022
- 8,741
- 10,108
- 17,180
Dauphine shape was an indicator that his preparation was rushed.
Is your narrative that Evenepoel was perfectly prepared for TDF last year? And that there isn't any margin to gain if he wouldn't have crashed in april?
- Feb 20, 2012
- 54,086
- 44,454
- 28,180
I think every performance at the Tour suggests he was at his best level ever by far, and he was super consistent throughout the Tour as well.
I just think it's strange to blame subpar preperation when someone performance at a career highest level and when the guys that were better have always shown a higher floor and ceiling.
But this is just the recurring narrative. He didn't become the new dominant GT force, and so we're retrospectively looking for reasons why, when even in his early days he wasn't the natural climber that would be necessary to achieve the level he was projected at. FFS we're still talking about a crash from 5 years ago half the time.
- Sep 12, 2022
- 8,741
- 10,108
- 17,180
I don't find it strange, he's still young and improving by growing older and becoming stronger. So he can have a bad preparation and still have a better performance. Look at Vingegaard... He also rode his best numbers and had a bad preparation. We also expect him to be much better this year with optimal preparation.
- Jun 7, 2011
- 20,975
- 20,312
- 28,180
Bernal claimed to push higher numbers in the Tour after he had suffered a lot from his back problems during the year, the TDF he got dropped from a peloton led by Van Aert.
Vingegaard claimed he pushed his best numbers last year after also being involved in that crash in Itzulia, with even less prep.
Maybe Pogacar should try and crash some more before the TDF, as it can't do any harm and in the best case scenario, he will push even better numbers.
I also think we can all agree that, like Evenepoel last year, losing 2-3kg in less than a month is not ideal.
Yes, i think Pogacar's crash in Liege in '23 was a big reason why he was so off form in the TDF. Seems quite disingenuous to assume crashing in the middle of your prep, needing rehab and a short build up is not having an effect. If it wouldn't then why wouldn't others simply copy that shorter build up (excluding the actual crashing). Because apparently you can get to 100% with a short prep like Evenepoel and Vingegaard had last year. Should be a trend.
- Jul 7, 2013
- 8,279
- 15,145
- 23,180
I do think Rick meant not just absolute numbers (which vary due to other things we cant mention) but his relative performance vs the rest of the competition which was dominant and quite consistent. I think he can get better but there was never a stage when I thought: "he lost minutes here due to shallow base"
- Sep 12, 2022
- 8,741
- 10,108
- 17,180
The last ITT was a bit of a red flag though. He lost time between every timestop except the last one. While in the first ITT he only lost time during the downhill section.
- Jun 7, 2011
- 20,975
- 20,312
- 28,180
He lost the most time in the downhill also in the 2nd TT. So him not doing extensive recons this year either seems like a genius decision.
Then what is even the point of his argument? IIRC he has made similar claims before regarding this topic. It sure looks like he is saying that Evenepoel would not have been performing better had he had a better preperation (without crashing, without rehab, without sudden weight increase (due to not training) and crash course weight drop between Dauphiné and TDF, while simply continuing the planned training/preparation). If he means Evenepoel might not have been able to get a better result (2nd or 1st) then i don't think anybody has made that claim, other than "we don't know how much better he might have been".
Last edited:
- Feb 20, 2012
- 54,086
- 44,454
- 28,180
Well there's 0 surprise there considering the final split was the only flat section and the others where all either uphill, downhill or both.
And this year appears to be a repeat of rushing to race before form is deep enough.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Tour Down Under 2026 (Men's, Jan. 20-25)- Started by Tricycle Rider
- Replies: 223
-
Teams & Riders The Remco Evenepoel is the next Eddy Merckx thread- Started by DNP-Old
- Replies: 36K
-
Teams & Riders Tadej Pogačar discussion thread- Started by Lequack
- Replies: 41K
-
Teams & Riders The Great Big Cycling Transfers, Extensions, and Rumours Thread- Started by RedheadDane
- Replies: 13K
-
-
-
Teams & Riders Everybody needs a little bit of Roglstomp in their lives- Started by johnymax
- Replies: 23K
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram