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

[Andre]

More like needs 0 mountain stages.

the mountain stages is what made him get to the podium in TDF 24

 

[Red Rick]

the mountain stages is what made him get to the podium in TDF 24

They also lost him all the minutes to Pogacar and Vingegaard.

 

[KoopaCycling]

With Lipowitz coming good, and him being german. Methinks red Bull Bora is out on Remco.
So Ineos or Soudal itself it will be. At least the transfer talks may soon die down...

 

[Berniece]

With Lipowitz coming good, and him being german. Methinks red Bull Bora is out on Remco.
So Ineos or Soudal itself it will be. At least the transfer talks may soon die down...

And then he finishes on the podium again in the TDF far away from Lipowitz and Roglic

 

[Salvarani]

With Lipowitz coming good, and him being german. Methinks red Bull Bora is out on Remco.
So Ineos or Soudal itself it will be. At least the transfer talks may soon die down...

He is already better. Would be pointless of them to sign Remco. Only for his name and commercial reasons.

Pellizzari also look a way better prospect. He can climb for real.

Remco should stay at the team that he is the face of.

 

[jmdirt]

RE's main focus has to be mental at this point. He needs to stay focused on the task at hand in July and not think about what happened this week.

 

[houtdffan]

With Lipowitz coming good, and him being german. Methinks red Bull Bora is out on Remco.
So Ineos or Soudal itself it will be. At least the transfer talks may soon die down...

Soudal continues to add climbers, so he may be staying at Soudal QS for a while

 

[Muren]

Remco is mentally strong, people have doubted his GC qualites for years and last year he proved them wrong. He will be better in the tour.

 

[Rackham]

Remco is mentally strong, people have doubted his GC qualites for years and last year he proved them wrong. He will be better in the tour.

Define better?

He's 4th in the Dauphiné. He can finish 3rd in the Tour. But if the gap is still 9-10 minutes versus Pog then it's not really anything to get hyped about.

 

[Muren]

Define better?

He's 4th in the Dauphiné. He can finish 3rd in the Tour. But if the gap is still 9-10 minutes versus Pog then it's not really anything to get hyped about.

Better than the level he shows now. He lost 2 minutes to Vinge today. I don't see that happening in the tour.

Will he be closer to Pog than last year? Honestly don't know, but of course he won't challenge Pog. He must set his sight on Vinge, but even that will be tough, because Vinge will be stronger this year.

So you are probably right, even if he will be better in the tour, still not much to get hyped up about.

 

[Unchained]

RE's main focus has to be mental at this point. He needs to stay focused on the task at hand in July and not think about what happened this week.

Guy is magic on the bike, can hold any wheel ( including Pogacar) great TT and long and short distances. Good climber, positive racer can go on long breakaway efforts and self punish. He is faltering with top teir. Even in last 2 days after he lost contact, he sits down, calms down and salvaged good rides.
Has real discipline when things go sideways doesn't freak out.. At the end of these 8 days he is still walking with solid respectable result.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Remco is having a great career. And will continue to get results. But Pogacar & Vingegaard are just a level above GT & GC wise. Something I think we'll have to accept if the trend continues.

 

[AlpRaid]

I was pretty bullish on him winning the TDF at some point.

right now I am no longer a believer unless a Zoetemelk 1980 or Nibali 2014 happens where the main rivals are for some reason not or no longer there.

the concern for the future is also the upcoming competition. I mean forget Lipo, Seixas may be dropping remco in the mountains in a year or two.

the key is remco's body type is nothing at all like all modern GT riders. this helps him in TTs perhaps, but while he looks good he also looks very human when he climbs mountains.

I kind of wish he was not so hellbent on focusing his future on GT conquests.

I do find pog's leap between 2023 (when he was very good but had moments of weakness) and what we have seen in 2024-25 really pretty crazy. he just seems so easy, effortless, no strain, as he leaves most of his major competitors minutes and minutes behind in the space of just one climb.

 

[KoopaCycling]

[[content removed]]

As for Evenepoel. His climbing is underrated cause you look at it in comparison to Pogacar and Vingegaard. Outside of those 2, i can't think of climbers that are truly better than Evenepoel. Not saying some youngsters can't evolve into that. But from the current crop. He's is up there with the best of them.

 

[Berniece]

[[deleted content]]

As for Evenepoel. His climbing is underrated cause you look at it in comparison to Pogacar and Vingegaard. Outside of those 2, i can't think of climbers that are truly better than Evenepoel. Not saying some youngsters can't evolve into that. But from the current crop. He's is up there with the best of them.

Indeed, at the moment he would win any GT that doesn’t include Pogacar/Vingegaard

 

[CyclistAbi]

Indeed, at the moment he would win any GT that doesn’t include Pogacar/Vingegaard

Or Lipo.

 

[Lorzenz08]

[[quotation deleted]]
Pogacar did go in the red yesterday.

Today he was satisfied with maintaining a 20-30sec gap, and then even went easy in the last k. Thats why he didnt suffer

 

[Berniece]

Or Lipo.

Because he rides better in a single 1-week race? Please, last year Laurens De Plus also rode better in Dauphine. Evenepoel already won a GT and was easily third last year. Lipowitz didn’t do either of those things. Too premature to say he would beat Evenepoel in a GT.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

People believing he is climbing at his level right now (same pace as Wellens or Johannessen) need to get into rehab.

It seems more and more likely that crash took its toll imo. It was significantly harder than the crash in the Vuelta '22 which had him suffer for days after, and i already called it to my brothers before friday's stage after seeing the video of him actually crashing. There is simply no way that did not have an impact.

 

[Berniece]

People believing he is climbing at his level right now (same pace as Wellens or Johannessen) need to get into rehab.

It’s a coping mechanism for some

 

[KoopaCycling]

I'm not sure about this crash. some crashes you can miraculously walk away from without much damage.
From his mannerism, I don't see much wrong.

Obviously you may be right and i may be wrong on the impact of the crash. Impossible to tell for an outsider on what Evenepoel is feeling from it.

I think Remco climbing will be better in the TdF. But i would not call his climbing bad atm either. Solid is the word i go for.
Able to hold a pace that's 2 fast for most, but not able to push past a certain threshold. Let alone follow Jonas & Tadej. He's definitely better than in Romandie. Just not quite were you'd expect him to be.

 

[Rou]

Remco is far below his 2024 TDF level and he is below his Lombardia 2024 level. Maybe it's the crash but we don't know.
I think his approach to training is wrong. He is still focusing WAY too much on time trialing.
He says he is at his TDF 2024 weight but I see the same muscular stocky build.

 

[Netserk]

People believing he is climbing at his level right now (same pace as Wellens or Johannessen) need to get into rehab.

It seems more and more likely that crash took its toll imo. It was significantly harder than the crash in the Vuelta '22 which had him suffer for days after, and i already called it to my brothers before friday's stage after seeing the video of him actually crashing. There is simply no way that did not have an impact.

Agreed. It didn't help though that he was so quick to deny that it affected him (materially), at first.

Still, while it means that he won't podium here, I don't think it will affect his build-up for the Tour, and he looks on track to a degree where the worries from Romandie are all gone. So I think he's maybe 70-80 % likely to podium the Tour.

 

[Berniece]

Agreed. It didn't help though that he was so quick to deny that it affected him (materially), at first.

Still, while it means that he won't podium here, I don't think it will affect his build-up for the Tour, and he looks on track to a degree where the worries from Romandie are all gone. So I think he's maybe 70-80 % likely to podium the Tour.

His team still believes he can get to equal footing with them. I don’t understand why they think that.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Agreed. It didn't help though that he was so quick to deny that it affected him (materially), at first.

Still, while it means that he won't podium here, I don't think it will affect his build-up for the Tour, and he looks on track to a degree where the worries from Romandie are all gone. So I think he's maybe 70-80 % likely to podium the Tour.

70-80% sounds too high to me. Just looking at crashes, there's probably at least a 20% chance of crashes taking him out of contention. Then you have Almeida challenging for the podium as well. Personally, I think that Almeida will take the last spot on the podium, but I can see why Remco is favored more than him. Lipowitz looks good as well, although of course he's peaking right now while Remco is improving towards the Tour. Throw in Roglic as well and I think 50% chance of a podium for Remco is more realistic.