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

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Second one is weird though. He was cramping up, while the bike was fine according to mechanic. I don't believe you can cramp up because you are doubting mentally.

But that first one was the most annoying one. He could've followed Pogacar, and we could've had a race between the two of them. Pogacar would never have been able to drop him, so we would've had a nice sprint.
Second one was, according to him, because his saddle is usually at an angle, and this one wasn't but straigh/flat so he supposedly gets back pains in that case.
 
Sep 12, 2022
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Second one was, according to him, because his saddle is usually at an angle, and this one wasn't but straigh/flat so he supposedly gets back pains in that case.
Yeah, but his nephew/mechanic already responded by saying they measured everything 3 times after the race. It was fine. Like others pointed out, it was probably because he still felt the efforts from before on the bad saddle.
 
May 9, 2025
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Rode very well, clearly was in great shape and could've won. He was unlucky again, but he showed he's still able to fight for monuments and WC's with the best.

I doubt he would have won, and even he says he just thinks he would have been more in the mix.

I could see him finishing 20-30 secs off Pog tho, only cementing the difference between them and the rest.
 
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Sep 12, 2022
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I doubt he would have won, and even he says he just thinks he would have been more in the mix.
I don't know where Pogacar would've dropped him if he was on his wheel. If Pogacar would've actually been stronger than him, Pogi would've won that sprint. But we don't really know.
 
Oct 3, 2021
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I still don't understand the problem with the second bike. Not that there couldn't be an issue with the saddle angle, but why was there an issue? It seems like such a fundamental thing to get wrong. The mechanic apparently said it was the same, though, so I who knows.

I do love Remco though. He's so entertaining to watch, and I honestly I like that he's so passionate. I don't really care if it was unrealistic for him to think he could beat Pogacar today, but I like that he clearly believed that he might have had a chance. I don't really understand why people were annoyed with him for being so disappointed at the end.

He'll be one of those fidgety bike setup riders that endlessly stress about the saddle position and are constantly changing it. Guarantee all the bikes were setup exactly the same it was just Remco obsessing about it being different, because it was a change he didn't want at a crucial moment and simply wasn't the original bike.
 
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Jul 18, 2011
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Second one is weird though. He was cramping up, while the bike was fine according to mechanic. I don't believe you can cramp up because you are doubting mentally.

But that first one was the most annoying one. He could've followed Pogacar, and we could've had a race between the two of them. Pogacar would never have been able to drop him, so we would've had a nice sprint.
Pog could easily drop Remco on the cobble climb.
 
Aug 13, 2011
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Good ride today and great Worlds this go around. I think he would have been dropped on one of the cobbled climbs and lost by around 20 seconds. He’ll have a good run at EC and could finish first in the RR finishing his set.
 
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Feb 20, 2012
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He said he had cramps on the Mont Kigali?

Ultimately, I don't think it matters that much, there wasn't really a wincondition for Evenepoel, judging by the fact that Pogacar was soloing against Evenepoel with help of some other riders and gained time over that period despite being solo for far longer.

Pogacar eventually dropping Evenepoel would have happened eventually.

The route was way too interval heavy to give Evenepoel much of a shot.
 
Sep 12, 2022
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He said he had cramps on the Mont Kigali?
His saddle dropped completely. He was sitting much lower than he normally does, which resulted in cramps. Ayuso and Del Toro were able to follow Pogacar... Evenepoel clearly would've been able to do the same on Mount Kigali.
 
Don't know what you mean? Merckx, Hinault, Lemond, Fondriest, Armstrong, Bugno, Cipollini, Cavendish and so forth won Worlds, not all could climb. Cosequently, varried selection of talents has been always present.
I think we are agreeing: variety of courses leads to variety of winners. I had thought you were agreeing with Peterfin's proposal for slight tweaks on 'hilly' every year.