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

[Berflamand]

Great and dominant TT victory yesterday!

Some TT stats (from PCS):

• 19 TT victories
• 76.7% top 3 career finishing percentage in time trials
• 93% top 10 career finishing percentage in time trials (with 100% in TT's over 20km)
• The only times he didn't top 10 were the two time trials in Romandie in his first year when he still had way too much babyfat and a TT in the Benelux Tour in 2021 when he was sick as a dog.

His form may fluctuate quite heavily sometimes (mostly due to his crashes and subsequent recovery) but basically his TT's are always top notch and when he is in top form he is practically unbeatable (except for short and technical prologues or MTT's).

If he keeps this up throughout his career, I think he might retire as arguably the greatest TT rider in history. But maybe Tarling will have something to say about that in the coming years.

Now let's see the climbing legs!

 

[Berniece]

He did get his third victory no? Or were you referring to time trials specifically?

Indeed, I forgot the ITT in Romandie

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

• The only times he didn't top 10 were the two time trials in Romandie in his first year when he still had way too much babyfat and a TT in the Benelux Tour in 2021 when he was sick as a dog.

In 2019, he crashed before the prologue. I would also not include prologues to begin with since they are a discipline in its own. It's like counting flat finishes after a HC climb for sprinters. Or perhaps a more apt comparison would be to count murs finishes as MTF.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Smashed the aliens into some calabrian fish ragu pasta, now marked.

 

[Berflamand]

In 2019, he crashed before the prologue. I would also not include prologues to begin with since they are a discipline in its own. It's like counting flat finishes after a HC climb for sprinters. Or perhaps a more apt comparison would be to count murs finishes as MTF.

Agreed but I'm too lazy to do the math myself so I just went with the PCS stats which include prologues.

Excluding them would make the numbers/stats even more impressive.

 

[AlpRaid]

hmm, there was an article on cyclinguptodate that had him with 24 ITT victories out of 48 participations.

not sure if they are counting Junior ITTs in that.

 

[Wvv]

After yesterday's success, a rather horrible day now. Ok, that last km crash doesn't seem too bad af first sight. But losing Vervaeke with a fractured collarbone is sad. He is Remco's usual roommate and confidant, and another climber that QuickStep can't use in the upcoming Tour.

 

[theyoungest]

Great and dominant TT victory yesterday!

Some TT stats (from PCS):

• 19 TT victories
• 76.7% top 3 career finishing percentage in time trials
• 93% top 10 career finishing percentage in time trials (with 100% in TT's over 20km)
• The only times he didn't top 10 were the two time trials in Romandie in his first year when he still had way too much babyfat and a TT in the Benelux Tour in 2021 when he was sick as a dog.

His form may fluctuate quite heavily sometimes (mostly due to his crashes and subsequent recovery) but basically his TT's are always top notch and when he is in top form he is practically unbeatable (except for short and technical prologues or MTT's).

If he keeps this up throughout his career, I think he might retire as arguably the greatest TT rider in history. But maybe Tarling will have something to say about that in the coming years.

Now let's see the climbing legs!

If you look at his major wins last year, the gap actually isn't that big to the runner up. For the greatest time trialist in history I think this gap should be a little bigger. It's also quite difficult to compare since today's TTs are quite different from, for instance, the nineties. Would Evenepoel beat Indurain on a 65 k rolling TT?

 

[KoopaCycling]

Another crash.. why can't Remco stay on his bike for whatever sake.

Also Remco needs to ride in yellow more often. It might be the only colourway that suits all that gold.

 

[Berniece]

If you look at his major wins last year, the gap actually isn't that big to the runner up. For the greatest time trialist in history I think this gap should be a little bigger. It's also quite difficult to compare since today's TTs are quite different from, for instance, the nineties. Would Evenepoel beat Indurain on a 65 k rolling TT?

He would, but not sure why the distance towards others matter if you throughout your generation you keep winning and beating the rest. If you have the highest win rate with a high amount of participations, you are just the best in numbers. Not to mention I don’t know anyone that looks as beautiful on a bike as him in TT form.

 

[red_flanders]

Another crash.. why can't Remco stay on his bike for whatever sake.

Just not a natural on the bike it seems. Said it was his own doing in the post-race interview. "Sweaty hands". Seems to be a big limiter for him generally, though this one seems like it'll have little/no effect.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

If you look at his major wins last year, the gap actually isn't that big to the runner up. For the greatest time trialist in history I think this gap should be a little bigger. It's also quite difficult to compare since today's TTs are quite different from, for instance, the nineties. Would Evenepoel beat Indurain on a 65 k rolling TT?

Maybe because less than 2 weeks before some big goals he was still fighting for GC in the TDF while his biggest challenger was able to prepare specifically for one event?

I don't see that as an argument. Also his career is not over yet. If he keeps dominating like he always has (excluding the year after his crash), or stops winning tomorrow that would be completely different scenarios whether he should be in the discussion of GOAT TT'er or not.

Whether he would beat Indurain, who knows. If both would ride cleanly and prepare for the event, I would be inclined to say yes. But is Indurain generally seen as the best TT'er of all time? Nasty era to compare, but on the other hand how would Indurain fare with today's aero advancements?

 

[Lequack]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1933189031107473890

View: https://x.com/MaillotjauneLCL/status/1933189031107473890

 

[KoopaCycling]

I hope he'll do well. too bad i won't be able to watch today; Thankfully it's the weekend soon and i can watch then.

 

[KenFiamingo]

Maybe because less than 2 weeks before some big goals he was still fighting for GC in the TDF while his biggest challenger was able to prepare specifically for one event?

I don't see that as an argument. Also his career is not over yet. If he keeps dominating like he always has (excluding the year after his crash), or stops winning tomorrow that would be completely different scenarios whether he should be in the discussion of GOAT TT'er or not.

Whether he would beat Indurain, who knows. If both would ride cleanly and prepare for the event, I would be inclined to say yes. But is Indurain generally seen as the best TT'er of all time? Nasty era to compare, but on the other hand how would Indurain fare with today's aero advancements?

Indurain would definitely need to kiss his Espada goodbye.

 

[Monsi]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1933426873515577632

View: https://x.com/legruppetto/status/1933426873515577632?s=61&t=ZKEjWhZs_lhx6xYjfM44ig

Actually seemed like quite a hard crash from Remco yesterday. He’s lucky to not have been injured there.

 

[Wvv]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1933426873515577632

View: https://x.com/legruppetto/status/1933426873515577632?s=61&t=ZKEjWhZs_lhx6xYjfM44ig

Actually seemed like quite a hard crash from Remco yesterday. He’s lucky to not have been injured there.

A lot more nasty than what we thought yesterday. Really lucky this time.

 

[AlpRaid]

also, him downplaying it has to be taken with a modicum of salt. at this point no rider would let his rivals know that he has been weakened.

here's hoping.

 

[Snake]

I hope this atrocious performance is justified by the crash because otherwise....

 

[houtdffan]

boy needs to learn to stay on his bike

this is Contador 2.0 in terms of crashing. Every damn race!

 

[Rou]

It's okay. He will be 45 kilos in the Tour to stay with Lipowitz.

 

[Didier_Bel]

I hope this atrocious performance is justified by the crash because otherwise....

I doubt it … could be that he was hindered by his fall yesterday but i feel this was more an honest view of his climbing performance at this moment in time . He will need to improve by a lot in the coming weeks to even have a chance for the podium at TDF .

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I hope this atrocious performance is justified by the crash because otherwise....

It doesn't really matter what caused this deplorable performance. The fact that Wellens, who had already worked his ass off for Pogacar, was able to hang on for most of the climb is telling enough that he should be far from what he is capable of. Let's say he was on par with the rest of his team.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Way larger time loss than I expected. But so was Vingo's.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Losing 2 minutes on a day like today where most people thought it would come down to the last 2 km and maybe even just the sprint.. not good, not good at all!

Can't tell if he or or team was the worst today. Bad performance all around