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

[Cycling111]

Vingegaard to UAE Tour.

 

[Berniece]

That's a stacked UAE Tour then with Evenepoel, Vingegaard and Del Toro

 

[Berniece]

Besides the TTT, the first real race of Evenepoel is Valencia. They released the route yesterday. They should go for as much time as possible during ITT, and then decide if it's worth going for intermediate sprints and bonus seconds. I would be surprised if they drop him hard on Cumbres del Sol even though there are sections of 22%.

 

[KoopaCycling]

Catalunya & UAE. Vingegaard vs Remco will be interesting. Kinda hope the underdog (remco) wins.

 

[houtdffan]

Valencia looks like a route where Remco merely has to stay on his bike to win

 

[HashRouge]

UAE Tour must be paying to attract the big stars now, right? Otherwise I don't understand how they've got Vingegaard and Remco in the same year. I can't see what particular appeal the race would have on its own.

 

[Berniece]

UAE Tour must be paying to attract the big stars now, right? Otherwise I don't understand how they've got Vingegaard and Remco in the same year. I can't see what particular appeal the race would have on its own.

Wonder if they discussed this beforehand with Team UAE, they might have thought it would be an easy win for Del Toro

 

[Karl Merckx]

UAE Tour must be paying to attract the big stars now, right? Otherwise I don't understand how they've got Vingegaard and Remco in the same year. I can't see what particular appeal the race would have on its own.

The big factor is that UAE tour has a nice place in the calendar if you want to combine it with Catalunya...
Vingo wants to do Catalunya before Giro like everyone, and Remco wants to ride in the mountains with his new team.

 

[Red Rick]

The big factor is that UAE tour has a nice place in the calendar if you want to combine it with Catalunya...
Vingo wants to do Catalunya before Giro like everyone, and Remco wants to ride in the mountains with his new team.

Yeah. UAE Tour gets dunked on a bit, but it has a lot going for it in terms of stuff that can make riders want to race it, in terms of calendar, weather and very likely transfers, hotels and that sort of thing. It's a nice way to ease into the season, so I doubt they have to pay crazy bucks to get riders to show up.

 

[KenFiamingo]

Vingegaard being there in UAE & Catalunya puts quite some pressure on Remco. There are no more excuses now: he's got top level support from team, coaches and material and finally seems to have had a winter without issues.

 

[AmRacer]

Vingegaard being there in UAE & Catalunya puts quite some pressure on Remco. There are no more excuses now: he's got top level support from team, coaches and material and finally seems to have had a winter without issues.

It's the weight....

 

[Berniece]

Vingegaard being there in UAE & Catalunya puts quite some pressure on Remco. There are no more excuses now: he's got top level support from team, coaches and material and finally seems to have had a winter without issues.

I think Evenepoel can win all his stage races before Ardennes classics.

Valencia has a 17km ITT, so he should be able to maintain that lead purely by his team being strong enough.

UAE Tour the route hasn't been announced yet, but it'll probably also have an ITT where Evenepoel takes 20-30 seconds. Not sure Vingegaard can take that time back on Jebel Hafeet if Pogacar was only able to take 33s on Ciccone.

In Catalunya, Evenepoel will come back from altitude. I don't think Vingegaard will go to altitude until after Catalunya. So I would expect them to be at a similar level.

 

[AmRacer]

I think Evenepoel can win all his stage races before Ardennes classics.

Valencia has a 17km ITT, so he should be able to maintain that lead purely by his team being strong enough.

UAE Tour the route hasn't been announced yet, but it'll probably also have an ITT where Evenepoel takes 20-30 seconds. Not sure Vingegaard can take that time back on Jebel Hafeet if Pogacar was only able to take 33s on Ciccone.

In Catalunya, Evenepoel will come back from altitude. I don't think Vingegaard will go to altitude until after Catalunya. So I would expect them to be at a similar level.

Jonas without altitude should be stronger than Remco with altitude, or else Pogi will win the Tour with one leg.

 

[Berflamand]

I think Evenepoel can win all his stage races before Ardennes classics.

Valencia has a 17km ITT, so he should be able to maintain that lead purely by his team being strong enough.

UAE Tour the route hasn't been announced yet, but it'll probably also have an ITT where Evenepoel takes 20-30 seconds. Not sure Vingegaard can take that time back on Jebel Hafeet if Pogacar was only able to take 33s on Ciccone.

In Catalunya, Evenepoel will come back from altitude. I don't think Vingegaard will go to altitude until after Catalunya. So I would expect them to be at a similar level.

Do you know when the UAE Tour route will be announced?

The ITT was practically the same the last two years at a short distance of around 12km. Taking 30 seconds on such a short parcours seems like a stretch. Though I see that Tarling took 18 seconds on Pogacar last year so I guess +20 seconds should be possible if the parcours is the same again.

I hope they will not turn the ITT in a TTT this year like the last time Evenepoel rode it.

 

[Berniece]

Do you know when the UAE Tour route will be announced?

The ITT was practically the same the last two years at a short distance of around 12km. Taking 30 seconds on such a short parcours seems like a stretch. Though I see that Tarling took 18 seconds on Pogacar last year so I guess +20 seconds should be possible if the parcours is the same again.

I hope they will not turn the ITT in a TTT this year like the last time Evenepoel rode it.

No idea. Last year it was announced on the 21st of January, so I guess we'll see it announced next week. It's indeed because Tarling took 18s on Pogacar that I can see Evenepoel take +20s on Vingegaard. 30s would probably be too much.

 

[saunaking]

I think Evenepoel can win all his stage races before Ardennes classics.

Valencia has a 17km ITT, so he should be able to maintain that lead purely by his team being strong enough.

UAE Tour the route hasn't been announced yet, but it'll probably also have an ITT where Evenepoel takes 20-30 seconds. Not sure Vingegaard can take that time back on Jebel Hafeet if Pogacar was only able to take 33s on Ciccone.

In Catalunya, Evenepoel will come back from altitude. I don't think Vingegaard will go to altitude until after Catalunya. So I would expect them to be at a similar level.

Wow that would be a huge development for his career considering his history in one week races. We need someone to step up and get closer to the aliens. I still have nightmares from Pogi at Catalunya two years ago

 

[Netserk]

Yeah. UAE Tour gets dunked on a bit, but it has a lot going for it in terms of stuff that can make riders want to race it, in terms of calendar, weather and very likely transfers, hotels and that sort of thing. It's a nice way to ease into the season, so I doubt they have to pay crazy bucks to get riders to show up.

algarve has the same slot

 

[Berniece]

Wow that would be a huge development for his career considering his history in one week races. We need someone to step up and get closer to the aliens. I still have nightmares from Pogi at Catalunya two years ago

It's not like Evenepoel hasn't won his fair share of one week races that are deemed less prestigious:

Tour of Poland
UAE Tour
Algarve 3x
Baloise Belgium Tour
San Juan
Burgos
Tour of Denmark
Tour of Norway

I agree that it would be nice to see him compete for the win against the likes of Vingegaard in one of the big 7 one week races.

 

[vappaxbipmv]

I think Evenepoel can win all his stage races before Ardennes classics.

Valencia has a 17km ITT, so he should be able to maintain that lead purely by his team being strong enough.

UAE Tour the route hasn't been announced yet, but it'll probably also have an ITT where Evenepoel takes 20-30 seconds. Not sure Vingegaard can take that time back on Jebel Hafeet if Pogacar was only able to take 33s on Ciccone.

In Catalunya, Evenepoel will come back from altitude. I don't think Vingegaard will go to altitude until after Catalunya. So I would expect them to be at a similar level.

Pogacar had 15s in less than 1 km after his attack, I'm pretty sure he didn't go all out, especially because he didn't need to

 

[Berniece]

Pogacar had 15s in less than 1 km after his attack, I'm pretty sure he didn't go all out, especially because he didn't need to

Is Pogacar racing?

 

[vappaxbipmv]

Is Pogacar racing?

UAE Tour, this year, no

 

[Berniece]

UAE Tour, this year, no

So why does that matter? Not sure why you expect Vingegaard to be as good as Pogacar and also Evenepoel as bad as Ciccone.

 

[Cycling111]

Ciccone had his best performances in years in 2025.

 

[AmRacer]

So why does that matter? Not sure why you expect Vingegaard to be as good as Pogacar and also Evenepoel as bad as Ciccone.

But you wrote something about Pogi and got a reply

 

[hayneplane]

So why does that matter? Not sure why you expect Vingegaard to be as good as Pogacar and also Evenepoel as bad as Ciccone.

Because the context of that gap was that Pogacar was already in the lead so did not need to push for the maximum possible margin.

If Jonas has a 20-30 deficit from the ITT he will absolutely have to push all out to drop and then gap Remco. Remco is a better climber than Ciccone more times than not and early season Jonas may not be anywhere near prime form so I don’t expect a big gap.