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

[KoopaCycling]

I would agree with Vingegaard coming 2nd and taking yellow tomorrow.
At least if it's true he put on some extra muscle to have more watts.

 

[KoopaCycling]

@Valv.Piti

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If i read correctly yesterday team boss said Remco is here to win the Tour, not to finish third. As for you saying UAE and Visma, that for them it doesn't make any sense to bring in a sprinter. I agree. Acting like bringing a sprinter didn't cost Remco nothing in first three stages, it did. Some time and potentially a crash, that might have been prevented otherwise.

@KoopaCycling

We had this same discussion with @Berniece. The idea on how the best strategy is for them both to finish together at the finish line, holding hands, that is indeed a nice outcome, the reality on the other hand being it doesn't tend to work like that. On sprint stages GC leader needs a dedicated and attentive team to support them, not top notch sprinter. It's nice and everything, seeing Remco going all out for his sprinter but from GC point of view this is amateurish approach.

As for Rogla indeed, the main argument, social media, was lets bring a sprinter, as Rogla crashes a lot. Some even advocated for a bunch of youngsters going loose. Like that somehow will magically bring them stage wins. Jeez.

I'm starting to think you did not watch the actual stage. I could have understood if you mentioned paret peintre pulling won't do much, i would have understood if you mentioned red bull saving some people for the sprint but you don't mention anything particular about the stage and the actual situation at hand. You're just putting forth the general idea without getting into the actual bread and butter. If you don't want to analyse the situation that's fine. But don't pretend your comments are about the actual stage and situation. Just say that in general that is your viewpoint. In this stage your viewpoint has little to do with actual reality of xhat happened in the stage.

 

[Cycling111]

RE's form looked solid today.

He definitely needs a riding coach. He's hardly the only pro in that situation though, I'm frequently shocked by some of the poor riding from guys who spend so much time on their bikes.

Remco is fortunate that there are less downhill finishes. Last year, his descent on the Galibier was terrible.
And he also has many technical limitations on the corners. At the World Championships in Glasgow, he lost all options as soon as they entered at the street circuit.

Luckily for him, GTs are increasingly including less urban circuts, although in the Tour there are inevitably some, and downhill finishes.

But these are things he should improve on.
The Giro often has downhill finishes, and he could lose a lot of time ard to those kinds of difficulties.

 

[Didinho]

Today is the day. Hoping he can take yellow but that’s too optimistic. Stage win and 20”+ would be good.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Today is the day. Hoping he can take yellow but that’s too optimistic. Stage win and 20”+ would be good.

Should be a bit more than 20" but not enough to take yellow.

 

[jmdirt]

Remco is fortunate that there are less downhill finishes. Last year, his descent on the Galibier was terrible.
And he also has many technical limitations on the corners. At the World Championships in Glasgow, he lost all options as soon as they entered at the street circuit.

Luckily for him, GTs are increasingly including less urban circuts, although in the Tour there are inevitably some, and downhill finishes.

But these are things he should improve on.
The Giro often has downhill finishes, and he could lose a lot of time ard to those kinds of difficulties.

I was talking with a friend yesterday who said that Soudal-QS (he still calls them Mapei!) should have signed Pidcock for the sole reason of helping RE become a better rider. Good idea, just an expensive way to go about it.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Honestly, taking a step a back, remco first week has so far gone well enough, not great but well enough. Fact remains the Tour only truly start on stage 10.
It's surviving and staying relative close in GC till then.

Easier said than done. (Ganna, Phillipsen), his crash seems not to have been that bad. unless he is nursing a broken/bruised rib we don't know about.
Judging from yesterday stage , that seems unlikely.

 

[Berniece]

I was talking with a friend yesterday who said that Soudal-QS (he still calls them Mapei!) should have signed Pidcock for the sole reason of helping RE become a better rider. Good idea, just an expensive way to go about it.

Pidcock's ego would also not being able to handle that

 

[Prim]

Chapeau!

 

[red_flanders]

Calm down, you (Remco fans) fear a lot Pogacar. No way Tadej beats Remco in a flat TT.

Appears to have been a lot closer than many speculated, eh?

 

[Lorzenz08]

Phenomenal performance by Evenepoel !

He did the performance of his life to beat the GOAT !

Great job !

 

[Peyroteo94]

Appears to have been a lot closer than many speculated, eh?

It Was in fact closer than I thought but wasn't really close, don't you agree?

Chapeau to Remco, another win in the Tour!

 

[jmdirt]

Congrats RE!

 

[KoopaCycling]

great ride from Evenepoel & Pogacar. If Vingegaard loses 1.20 on 33 km against remco on a flat TT. He'd lose about 4 minutes if we got the 100 km of flat TT like we did in the past. I'd say that would make for a close battle between the 2 in TDF races of the past. Pogacar however is something else.

I wonder if it's consolation for remco that even if he had not lost those 39 sec he would still not have been in yellow. I mean i doubt he truly believes he can beat Pogacar for overall this year. Unless something strange happens. Obviously it would have been better not to have lost that much time on stage 1. But at least he did not miss out on yellow as a result of that lapse.

 

[red_flanders]

It Was in fact closer than I thought but wasn't really close, don't you agree?

Chapeau to Remco, another win in the Tour!

16 seconds seems pretty close on a 33k TT.

 

[No Excuses]

Chapeau aero bullet. Well deserved victory.

 

[houtdffan]

Vingo would have lost 3-4 minutes today if this was a real 60km ITT. The gaps were really expanding after 25km, as always happens

 

[Red Rick]

Vingo would have lost 3-4 minutes today if this was a real 60km ITT. The gaps were really expanding after 25km, as always happens

I don't believe that is how mathematics work.

 

[scribers]

Calling it now. Remco will 2nd place podium GC in Paris

 

[Oldman]

I was talking with a friend yesterday who said that Soudal-QS (he still calls them Mapei!) should have signed Pidcock for the sole reason of helping RE become a better rider. Good idea, just an expensive way to go about it.

Pidcock also has the other distractions that pay him in MB and CX. Not sure his ambitions don't always lay higher than being a Dom which doesn't help Remco. That'll be a bigger step to another support system.

 

[houtdffan]

I don't believe that is how mathematics work.

you cannot linearly extrapolate, except for Pog who rode the TT of his life today

 

[peterfin]

Calling it now. Remco will 2nd place podium GC in Paris

I hope you are right but I still think he will battle for third. Vingegaard and Evenepoel basically performed within expectations. Its Pogacar that outperformed anything we have seen from him in a flat TT (although I am not surprised either).

 

[KoopaCycling]

you cannot linearly extrapolate, except for Pog who rode the TT of his life today

Not really. He lost 12 sec on remco last year in a 25 km TT. 16 sec on 33 km this year seems to be in the same order.
He'll also win this year mountain TT is my guess, the way he won last year more or less climbers TT.

 

[Billy The Kid]

16 seconds seems pretty close on a 33k TT.

The best TT Pog has ever rode i believe. Their DS said the same. I was quite surprised of how technical the course was, not only at the start and finish, where i believe Pog took all together 8-10 seconds on Remco, even though Remco was actually pretty good technical today. Pog was flying into the corners. Also in the middle section there was some corners,roundabouts, a lot of supporters on the road etc.

Difficult to find the rythm in such a course. The second part before coming in to town again was less technical and Remco was putting around a second pr KM on Pog in these kilometers. Very good steady pacing by Remco. The first starters like Affini had a big advantage because of less wind.

Altogether putting 1:14 on Almeida,1:19 on Roglic and Jorgensen and 1:21 on Vingegaard is better then expected. It only shows how insane this TT was by Pog

 

[kingjr]

The best TT Pog has ever rode i believe. Their DS said the same. I was quite surprised of how technical the course was, not only at the start and finish, where i believe Pog took all together 8-10 seconds on Remco, even though Remco was actually pretty good technical today. Pog was flying into the corners. Also in the middle section there was some corners,roundabouts, a lot of supporters on the road etc.

Difficult to find the rythm in such a course. The second part before coming in to town again was less technical and Remco was putting around a second pr KM on Pog in these kilometers. Very good steady pacing by Remco. The first starters like Affini had a big advantage because of less wind.

Altogether putting 1:14 on Almeida,1:19 on Roglic and Jorgensen and 1:21 on Vingegaard is better then expected. It only shows how insane this TT was by Pog

Pogačar gained 2 seconds max on Remco in the last 2.5 km.