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

[kamaveli]

ultimately no one really cares about one week stage races.

More like nobody really cares about ITTs.

 

[houtdffan]

ultimately no one really cares about one week stage races.

also, as mentioned, he has so often been injured, recovering from injury, or health issues (TdS 2023, post-COVID).

also, if the one week stage races regularly had even a 20 km ITT (as they used to), he would have won many.

frankly, I don't care about 1-week stage races -- so often simply tune-ups for the GTs.

the Dauphine used to have a 50km ITT until Gouvenou got his claws on it

 

[Cookster15]

BMI matters, I guess.

Maybe it does. But I still don’t understand why.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Maybe it does. But I still don’t understand why.

When it comes to normal people it's very easy: high BMI usually implies a lot of fat (unnecessary luggage) which directly lowers relative VO2max.

When it comes to elite sportsmen it can be associated with another form of luggage: bone mass. Guys with lower BMI may simply have less mass useless for oxygen utilization (bones+fat).

According to this paper there's a negative correlation in sports (not that strong though):

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://journal.unesa.ac.id/index.php/jsmp/article/download/43372/pdf/141542&ved=2ahUKEwjKqsidx_OQAxUmcfEDHZmXIpIQFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw3AWy6BAZczpuZ93BmqmFdg

 

[AmRacer]

When it comes to normal people it's very easy: high BMI usually implies a lot of fat (unnecessary luggage) which directly lowers relative VO2max.

When it comes to elite sportsmen it can be associated with another form of luggage: bone mass. Guys with lower BMI may simply have less mass useless for oxygen utilization (bones+fat).

According to this paper there's a negative correlation in sports (not that strong though):

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://journal.unesa.ac.id/index.php/jsmp/article/download/43372/pdf/141542&ved=2ahUKEwjKqsidx_OQAxUmcfEDHZmXIpIQFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw3AWy6BAZczpuZ93BmqmFdg

Remco BMI at beach weight >> Remco BMI at mountain weight.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Remco BMI at beach weight >> Remco BMI at mountain weight.

Well, this is obvious: body fat mass. But when it comes to sportsmen in top form BMI vs VO2max relation is more complicated as they all have low body fat %. Then it's about other aspects (like bone mass, muscles efficiency, cardiac output etc), some of them are associated with BMI some are not.

 

[Berniece]

Jorgenson pretty much rode his tempo to disengage Remco. He didn't attack and Remco didn't really matter on the last stage.
Assuming you can gauge Remco's focus to the degree he wouldn't pay attention when anyone went up the road is pretty intuitive. Particularly since Jorgenson was the danger guy.

What? Jorgensen definitely attacked, together with McNulty and Skjelmose. It was just tactical mistake to focus on a weak Roglic instead of focussing on 3 rouleurs riding away.

 

[Berniece]

Long double interview with Evenepoel and Museeuw. Some nice parts in it, but can’t summarise now. Better to use Google translate for now.

https://archive.ph/qeZyx

 

[KoopaCycling]

Jorgenson pretty much rode his tempo to disengage Remco. He didn't attack and Remco didn't really matter on the last stage.
Assuming you can gauge Remco's focus to the degree he wouldn't pay attention when anyone went up the road is pretty intuitive. Particularly since Jorgenson was the danger guy.

At that point in the race Remco was still focused on Roglic. He closed down an attack of Roglic right before, and was looking around with the focus on Roglic when Jorgenson attacked. Even when Skjelmose & McNulty went (and the gap was less than 15 sec with Jorgenson at that point) Remco was still making the tactical error (in hindsight) of being focused on Roglic. The trio then started to work together. Whereas in the chasing group they kept looking at each other.

Jorgenson basically used the Visma tactic they used during this year TdF, attack when he thinks no one will pay attention to him. Keep focus on other people. and he gets some bonus the relative easy way. At the time Jorgenson was not as known today as he is now. So no, Jorgenson in Remco's eyes was not yet the danger guy. that was Roglic.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Very interesting interview.

Apparantly he communicated early on that they should maybe make the switch to chasing stages. (I'm guessing right before start of Tour, or at the start of the Tour) But the team said they could not change tactics last minute.

Said that he should not have started racing till the dauphiné if he wanted to be in proper shape for the tour. He says this with the caveat that he needs races to reach his top level.

My thoughts on this, is that his programme comments (better to have not raced before dauphiné) are probably hindsight knowledge. Interesting though that it was the team that did not want to change tactics, even though Remco clearly felt he was not in good enough shape to compete for GC over 3 weeks. Many comments, ... could have been avoided had they chosen to switch tactics and said in the pre-tour presser they would not go for GC this time.

Even more interesting for muyself, is that cause of all that has happened , remco confirmed he barely got to do the high intensity training needed to get better in the mountains. He believes that if he has a good winter and finally can get that training under his belt he can take a step forward in the mountains. (He did not say beat Pogacar, he said he could be better than his previous self).

He did say he won't try and avoid Pogacar. He wants to keep fighting Pogacar.

Remco was at 63,5 kg at the EC and pushed on average 306 Watt during 5 hours. He pushed 290 Watt on average in Lombardy. He gains 4-5 kg in the offseason, which for him lasts 4-5 weeks. (That's a lot he gains imo, confirming he gains kg pretty easy.)

Red Bull is more structured, and so far Remco likes that. The team consists of 200 people, at Soudal the team was 80 people. more support and specification.

Remco says he was feeling the stress of the transfer talks. Once all that was over, things became easier. His body recovered faster, ... . Sounds accurate given he seems to carry his emotions on his sleeve.

Remco hinting at entering some new territory. Wanting to race some monuments he hasn't raced before. Said he talked it over with the team but also said maybe not yet next year. So we should not expect Remco at Flanders methinks. And possible also not at MSR. At least not next year.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Apparantly he communicated early on that they should maybe make the switch to chasing stages. (I'm guessing right before start of Tour, or at the start of the Tour) But the team said they could not change tactics last minute.

Absolute clownshow if they couldnt be flexible about this

 

[Andre]

I could have said it better. Strade is an important race, and Remco is an important rider. He should be there.

I think he and the race would mutually benefit from a strong performance there, he makes it a better race, and the race significantly adds to his palmares.

just say "Go Remco Go"

 

[AmRacer]

Absolute clownshow if they couldnt be flexible about this

But they chased stage wins after Remco abandoned.

 

[houtdffan]

Very interesting interview.

Apparantly he communicated early on that they should maybe make the switch to chasing stages. (I'm guessing right before start of Tour, or at the start of the Tour) But the team said they could not change tactics last minute.

Said that he should not have started racing till the dauphiné if he wanted to be in proper shape for the tour. He says this with the caveat that he needs races to reach his top level.

My thoughts on this, is that his programme comments (better to have not raced before dauphiné) are probably hindsight knowledge. Interesting though that it was the team that did not want to change tactics, even though Remco clearly felt he was not in good enough shape to compete for GC over 3 weeks. Many comments, ... could have been avoided had they chosen to switch tactics and said in the pre-tour presser they would not go for GC this time.

Even more interesting for muyself, is that cause of all that has happened , remco confirmed he barely got to do the high intensity training needed to get better in the mountains. He believes that if he has a good winter and finally can get that training under his belt he can take a step forward in the mountains. (He did not say beat Pogacar, he said he could be better than his previous self).

He did say he won't try and avoid Pogacar. He wants to keep fighting Pogacar.

Remco was at 63,5 kg at the EC and pushed on average 306 Watt during 5 hours. He pushed 290 Watt on average in Lombardy. He gains 4-5 kg in the offseason, which for him lasts 4-5 weeks. (That's a lot he gains imo, confirming he gains kg pretty easy.)

Red Bull is more structured, and so far Remco likes that. The team consists of 200 people, at Soudal the team was 80 people. more support and specification.

Remco says he was feeling the stress of the transfer talks. Once all that was over, things became easier. His body recovered faster, ... . Sounds accurate given he seems to carry his emotions on his sleeve.

Remco hinting at entering some new territory. Wanting to race some monuments he hasn't raced before. Said he talked it over with the team but also said maybe not yet next year. So we should not expect Remco at Flanders methinks. And possible also not at MSR. At least not next year.

This sounds like giro/tour then

 

[kingjr]

Remco was at 63,5 kg at the EC and pushed on average 306 Watt during 5 hours. He pushed 290 Watt on average in Lombardy.

He also mentions that Moscon told him he got third in Lombardia a couple of years before, pushing 200 watts.