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

[Red Rick]

We've gone from "Roglic says he doesn't care, disgrace" to "Remco should just give up while he's 3rd in GC".

 

[Monte Serra]

What was going on with Remco's gearing yesterday? He seemed to have some mechanical issues on the climb. I didn't read anything about it in the post stage reports. Or was it just that he was too tired to shift gears properly?

 

[peterfin]

What was going on with Remco's gearing yesterday? He seemed to have some mechanical issues on the climb. I didn't read anything about it in the post stage reports. Or was it just that he was too tired to shift gears properly?

He said he lost only 5-6 seconds due to that minor issue.

 

[peterfin]

Dumoulin believes he will be better today. According to him there is an issue potentially with unbalanced food/carbs for the efforts the last todays.

 

[Berniece]

Dumoulin believes he will be better today. According to him there is an issue potentially with unbalanced food/carbs for the efforts the last todays.

He thought the same in the Vuelta of 2023. I don’t think it has anything to do with that, and it’s just no winter. I expect him to be equally *** today

 

[Peyroteo94]

This discussion about him not be able to build his base level before his season seems to be nonsense. He refused to came back earlier in order to build his shape calmly in March and April until he started his season in Fleche Brabançonne.
It seems way more plausible this lack of performance in the mountains is due to his team not be able to develop him correctly. They can't figure what weight is ideal for him in a GT, they can't put (I'm not even asking for a good team) a decent team around him and everyone is underperforming, even those who had a perfect winter.
Remco is still kicking everyone's ass in flat TTs (he probably did a top3 performance ever in the Dauphine's TT) and he was very strong in Ardennes (his LBL was a mental bonk for sure). This is not lack of base level. Lack of base level is what Remco had in the Giro 2021, he started somewhat strong but was clearly fading when days went by. In this Tour, we didn't have a proper stage in the first week to acknowledge his true level.
He must leave Soudal now, he is wasting years by riding in this team.

Other thing very important is his mentality. He needs to manage his expectations way more. He is not the top dog like he was in his junior career, he needs to understand he is not on the same level of Pogacar (for sure someone will call me a Pogacar's fanboy and this is a load of crap but I don't care), why doesn't he go to races where Pogacar isn't there? Build some confidence, win some races, try to fight for a Giro, some one week races (he never won one) and go to races like MSR, LBL, GdL more relaxed, without trying to outpower Pogacar because he can't most of the time.
I know the Tour is his dream but he needs to realize he is miles behind Vingegaard or Pogacar. He is happy with a third place for the next 3 or 4 years?

Lastly, he needs to improve his bike handling, try to regain some confidence in the bunch by racing more "less hectic" races. He can't have this liability, specially when he is the secind best in classics/monuments.

 

[Berniece]

This discussion about him not be able to build his base level before his season seems to be nonsense. He refused to came back earlier in order to build his shape calmly in March and April until he started his season in Fleche Brabançonne.
It seems way more plausible this lack of performance in the mountains is due to his team not be able to develop him correctly. They can't figure what weight is ideal for him in a GT, they can't put (I'm not even asking for a good team) a decent team around him and everyone is underperforming, even those who had a perfect winter.
Remco is still kicking everyone's ass in flat TTs (he probably did a top3 performance ever in the Dauphine's TT) and he was very strong in Ardennes (his LBL was a mental bonk for sure). This is not lack of base level. Lack of base level is what Remco had in the Giro 2021, he started somewhat strong but was clearly fading when days went by. In this Tour, we didn't have a proper stage in the first week to acknowledge his true level.
He must leave Soudal now, he is wasting years by riding in this team.

Other thing very important is his mentality. He needs to manage his expectations way more. He is not the top dog like he was in his junior career, he needs to understand he is not on the same level of Pogacar (for sure someone will call me a Pogacar's fanboy and this is a load of crap but I don't care), why doesn't he go to races where Pogacar isn't there? Build some confidence, win some races, try to fight for a Giro, some one week races (he never won one) and go to races like MSR, LBL, GdL more relaxed, without trying to outpower Pogacar because he can't most of the time.
I know the Tour is his dream but he needs to realize he is miles behind Vingegaard or Pogacar. He is happy with a third place for the next 3 or 4 years?

Lastly, he needs to improve his bike handling, try to regain some confidence in the bunch by racing more "less hectic" races. He can't have this liability, specially when he is the secind best in classics/monuments.

That’s clearly not the consensus of 90% of the people here. Look at WVA, tells you more than enough about the impact of crashes and not growing steadily

 

[KoopaCycling]

The fact that he was terrible at LBL after starting well in the Brabantse Pijl and was more than okay in Amstel says there is a problem. If he had enough base by then he would not have deteriorated by that much. He also had no outdoor training prior to February i think. So he should have come back without getting any training in after missing the winter and return in March like that? If anything Brabantse Pijl came 2 early it now seems in hindsight.

Don't get me wrong, Part of me is glad he rode & won that. Just cause the season had begun and i wanted to see remco in action. See positive signs after his crash. But overall the Waalse Pijl, LBL and Romandie showed he was not ready.

They rushed him in order to prep him for the tour( and his spring goals.).They said as much. They chose to rush him in shape, instead of building the base. I said this was a mistake back then, and i believe it to be still true. The hope was that enough months and training had gone by to rebuild that base on the fly while prepping for the TDF. Clearly it only half worked. He ain't terrible, but he an't good either. Just solid.

In any case I hope he fights through this, possible ride himself into shape, and have a great fall. The opposite can be true, and all this effort on someone not 100% ready can come back to bite him in the face. Or whatever the saying is.

Also if he ain't fully ready for the Tour, how could he have ever been ready for the Giro?

 

[EddyMazzoleni]

Dumoulin believes he will be better today. According to him there is an issue potentially with unbalanced food/carbs for the efforts the last todays.

One side of me tells me that in a stage like today and after 3 days of hard effort his natural endurance should at least help him to limit the losses even if he can't push the raw watts. The other side tells me that if it's really a problem with his base training, thing will only go down hill from here

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

If it were an issue like the 2023 Vuelta, Dumoulin could be right. But I fear it's more like Giro 2021. Game over.

 

[Berniece]

SOQ is quite clueless on what is happening, they clearly don't really know. I can't imagine having build in just a bit more rest in those few days to have such a big impact.

"Somehow, he didn't recover well from the Dauphiné. He had some allergies there, and we had to adjust his training afterwards," Pelgrim explains. "We also scheduled extra rest, which made preparing for this Tour more difficult. As a result, he's not reaching the peak performance he normally should be at the moment."

 

[peterfin]

SOQ is quite clueless on what is happening, they clearly don't really know. I can't imagine having build in just a bit more rest in those few days to have such a big impact.

The fact that they have no clue means they can't measure it and may as well be a reason why he is not top. The team is not sufficiently scientific when it comes to GTs.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

…and it seems over already

 

[AmRacer]

Will he DNF

 

[Faserr]

Will he DNF

He will DNF the moto

 

[steffr222]

dnf today

 

[AmRacer]

Remco is still hanging on, steady at 45 sec after Pogi

 

[AmRacer]

And he's gone and dead

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

"Somehow, he didn't recover well from the Dauphiné. He had some allergies there, and we had to adjust his training afterwards," Pelgrim explains. "We also scheduled extra rest, which made preparing for this Tour more difficult. As a result, he's not reaching the peak performance he normally should be at the moment."

What an utter idiot. He's not reaching his peak performance, lol. He's the first one to get dropped by the peloton.

 

[AmRacer]

Now DNF

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Probably a good call. Take some rest and start building towards the WC.

 

[AmRacer]

Probably a good call. Take some rest and start building towards the WC.

Classica San Remco first

 

[steffr222]

Best move I guess. Try to go for the rainbow jersey - and then hopefully and finally the cut with SQS. Time to leave.

 

[EddyMazzoleni]

So much talent put to waste. The constantups and downs not only slowed his development but also broke his character

 

[red_flanders]

if wants to ever win a GT he has to target the ones where the shady clown and the Vinegar aren't taking part in... similarly if Vinegar wants to ever win a GT he needs to target the ones withou the shady clown... simple as that... sadly.

He’s already won a GT.

What a shame about this DNF. What the heck. This isn’t a prep or training thing.