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

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Jan 8, 2020
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His weight is ready for an excuse when he doesn't win.
Firstly, being at the right weight is no gaurantee for success. Secondly, not being at the right weight, in this case too heavy, likely results in failure. Neither is an excuse, but an unavoidable truth.
 
Mar 12, 2010
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Pog has NEVER done a successful long ITT. He trained last year at the worlds and still was absolutely mauled. Gap ballooned in the final 10km.

Pog is not Pantani at the ITT. He's more akin to Contador. One of the best TTers overall but rather inconsistent

I agree to a point - but in a GT recovery plays a major role. In a pancake flat TT of 50km on stage 20 I would be convinced Pog would be closer to Remco than the exact same TT on stage 5 or 6 etc,

Likewise if stage 20 of the Tour 2024 was a one day TT Remco probably wins.regardless of climbing - the reality is Pog's.recovery would mitigate the size of the gap in all probability.

In.general though I like.you would.prefer GTs to have.longer TTs.
 
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Sep 1, 2023
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Firstly, being at the right weight is no gaurantee for success. Secondly, not being at the right weight, in this case too heavy, likely results in failure. Neither is an excuse, but an unavoidable truth.
It's used as an excuse when he doesn't win. Haven't seen that for any other rider.
 
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Jan 8, 2020
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I agree to a point - but in a GT recovery plays a major role. In a pancake flat TT of 50km on stage 20 I would be convinced Pog would be closer to Remco than the exact same TT on stage 5 or 6 etc,

Likewise if stage 20 of the Tour 2024 was a one day TT Remco probably wins.regardless of climbing - the reality is Pog's.recovery would mitigate the size of the gap in all probability.

In.general though I like.you would.prefer GTs to have.longer TTs.
Let's say Remco is able to keep up with Pogi in the mountains, which entirely remains to be seen, mind you, a long TT of 50 km could be decisive. In any case, with this generation long ITTs should really come back, as in two 50 km ones, not the ridiculously short ones of late.
 
Sep 1, 2023
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It was never an excuse, that's just how you eroneously see it to suite your anti-Remco narrative. That much is patently clear.
It's an excuse and it doesn't suits your narrative.

By the way
World's ITT 2025, Pogi wasn't at his semi-mountain ITT weight.
P-R, Pogi wasn't at his cobbles weight
RVB, Mathieu wasn't at his semi-hilly-cobbles weight.
 
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Mar 12, 2010
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Let's say Remco is able to keep up with Pogi in the mountains, which entirely remains to be seen, mind you, the a long TT of 50 km could be decisive. In any case, with this generation long ITTs should really come back, as in two 50 km ones, not the ridiculously short ones of late.
Of course if he keeps up in the mountains he wins. But that also means he is the strongest rider in the race.

I agree on TTs but I prefer a long flat TT 55km ish and a slightly shorter but punchier hillier TT of 40km ish.

Also.would like a long mountain stage- dislike the habit of these very short mountain stages
 
Jul 20, 2019
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I agree to a point - but in a GT recovery plays a major role. In a pancake flat TT of 50km on stage 20 I would be convinced Pog would be closer to Remco than the exact same TT on stage 5 or 6 etc,

Likewise if stage 20 of the Tour 2024 was a one day TT Remco probably wins.regardless of climbing - the reality is Pog's.recovery would mitigate the size of the gap in all probability.

In.general though I like.you would.prefer GTs to have.longer TTs.

I'd like to get back to a prologue, early long TTT (~75km) and ITT (~65km), followed by the stage 19 long ITT (~60km) where recovery really comes into play

If the best climber does not win, tell that climber to ride his TT bike some more so he does not lose so much time
 
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Sep 1, 2023
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I'd like to get back to a prologue, early long TTT (~75km) and ITT (~65km), followed by the stage 19 long ITT (~60km) where recovery really comes into play

If the best climber does not win, tell that climber to ride his TT bike some more so he does not lose so much time
If we add 3 mountain stages +200km with at least 3-4 mountains per stage, and 3 MTF stages.
 
Jan 8, 2020
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It's an excuse and it doesn't suits your narrative.

By the way
World's ITT 2025, Pogi wasn't at his semi-mountain ITT weight.
P-R, Pogi wasn't at his cobbles weight
RVB, Mathieu wasn't at his semi-hilly-cobbles weight.
Just because you say such nonsense, does not make it true. It's incredible to what lengths some can go just to be contrary and negative.
 
Apr 13, 2025
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Pog has NEVER done a successful long ITT. He trained last year at the worlds and still was absolutely mauled. Gap ballooned in the final 10km.

Pog is not Pantani at the ITT. He's more akin to Contador. One of the best TTers overall but rather inconsistent



Looking at the Giro time trial, do you think that with 20 more kilometers he would lose 5 minutes? :rolleyes:


The reality is that Pogacar performs better in time trials during the Tour because it's the only time he puts in the effort to train beforehand.
I also remind you that in PDBF there were quite a few kilometers of flat terrain, and he finished just 1 second behind Dumoulin in the first sector. Pogcarar always performs much better in Tour time trials. He'll never lose 9 minutes. On the other hand, Remco has lost 9 minutes againts him in the mountains.

That's without considering that in 2024, Remco wasn´t Pogacar's rival. If Remco had been a threat, he surely attacked him and would have gained more time.

And since you like to emphasize facts, the reality is that the only GT Remco has finished with Pogacar, he ended at the samen distance as Daniel Felipe Martinez in the Giro.
That's what happens when you try to distort reality based on data taken out of context. Pogacar would lose 9 minutes to Remco in a long ITT in the Tour, and Remco is the same distance behind Pogacar as Daniel Felipe Martinez is. I don't know if it's worth getting into this kind of pointless debate.
If we have to look at some one-day time trials to say that, then we'll have to say that Remco is as far behind Pogacar as Daniel Felipe Martinez; the minutes in the general classification say that.
The irony is that the latter has indeed happened; what you say is based on biased facts because you are not taking into account that Pogacar has always finished closer to him in the Tour's ITT.

And you have to keep in mind that the current mountain stages are 150 kilometers long. Do you know how much Remco would lose on mountain stages like before, with 250km and 4 categorized climbs?

Don't ask for so much from the past, because perhaps it's Remco who isn't suited to those routes with that mountain.
 
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Sep 4, 2017
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I'd like to get back to a prologue, early long TTT (~75km) and ITT (~65km), followed by the stage 19 long ITT (~60km) where recovery really comes into play

If the best climber does not win, tell that climber to ride his TT bike some more so he does not lose so much time
The idea of a 75km TTT is hideous. Don’t mind the other ideas. A prologue can calm the nerves of the whole peloton and reduce the week 1 crashes by setting some small GC gaps.

I would want the last ITT to precede the final major mountain stage giving a chance for the climbers to retrieve gaps via long range multi mountain raids.