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

[VayaVayaVaya]

Overall this just repeats a few patterns for Evenepoel

1. Disappointing performance on a long and steep climb. Early season he's usually considerably worse on long climbs and on long and steep climbs it's basically always so. He's done one great performance on a 12% average or higher climb and it was 15 minutes.
2. Having a really *** performance the moment something goes wrong. He just doesn't have a B level, he falls through the floor immediately.
3. A more general observation that riders don't perform well outside their more natural skillset really early in the season. This is why you see Evenepoel struggle on long, big climbs in February, or why a guy like Vingegaard may drop a horrendous flat TT in the Tirreno.

Aside from that, I don't think he handles disappointment well within a race and he clearly struggles to push through bad legs to push for like a 5th or whatever place. Whether that extends to him blocking completely in races like the TdF 2025 I'm not sure.

Not that it was immense pressure here, but there were sure a lot of people looking for how his performance was gonna be here today. It was the first real big test this season.

When the stakes are high, he has gone missing a few times now over the past few years. One has to analyse it.

He is at his best when a lot of things is to his advantage and he is control. Can decide when to go. Or in ITTs, where he can just focus on himself.

This.
100% this. The moment things aren´t going well enough, he breaks down mentally. Hence the inexplicable implosions from time to time.

I 100% agree with the bolded. He can be mentally very strong even when on the back foot (Tour 2024, although I disagree that dropping minutes on the toughest mountain stages was some historical feat, Amstel Gold Race last year, etc.), but he more often than not completely collapses when someone attacks him unexpectedly or his legs don't respond the way he thinks they will. Giro 2021, Vuelta 2023, LBL 2025, Tour 2025, this...he has to figure out how to avoid the collapse. He went to the 2023 Vuelta for example fully believing he would defend his 2022 title. Then Roglic attacked unexpectedly, he didn't feel great, and Vuelta over.

In the two major exceptions I can think of - 2024 Tour and AGR 2025 - I think there were big psychological factors at play. In the 2024 Tour, he wasn't expected to win. Pogi and Vingegaard were world beaters, he'd had a crash, it was his first Tour, he hadn't won the 2023 Vuelta, etc. In AGR 2025, he was newly back from an offseason crash, so the stakes were low.

When the stakes are high and he believes he should win, he seems to need 100% control and cannot handle the unexpected.

I don't think that is unfixable. He has the mental strength, he has physical strength, he has displayed it all at the same time, he can get there. But he needs to understand and accept the issue and embrace the work to address it. Step 1 is acknowledging that he has severely underperformed in stage races relative to his talent, expectations, and pay, and that responsibility for that sits with himself. Then dig into the why - OK, a lot of it is sudden collapses and highly variable performance. OK, what's driving that? And so on.

 

[Unchained]

Remco is a great rider, he has good finishes here with chaotic first stage and yesterday, he was excellent.
Remco did crack but it's all relative. He only finished 2:04 off pace.
Someone posted that Bora might be disappointed in signing him, crazy talk.
The guy is a big draw as evidence here, people enjoy watching him.
He did squander his big talent, TT skill and with remaining stages he can try something crazy to get in the top ten. If you look at some of the quality in front of him, top 10 looks difficult at UAE finish.
Visma, UnoX, both with some decent results, Plapp certainly shows he is for real this year.
Modern Adventure with only upside raced OK.. Gee with a respectable finish, Movistar a complete no show.
Always going to be hard to understand what Trek didn't like about Tiberi..

 

[Berniece]

Remco is a great rider, he has good finishes here with chaotic first stage and yesterday, he was excellent.
Remco did crack but it's all relative. He only finished 2:04 off pace.
Someone posted that Bora might be disappointed in signing him, crazy talk.
The guy is a big draw as evidence here, people enjoy watching him.
He did squander his big talent, TT skill and with remaining stages he can try something crazy to get in the top ten. If you look at some of the quality in front of him, top 10 looks difficult at UAE finish.
Visma, UnoX, both with some decent results, Plapp certainly shows he is for real this year.
Modern Adventure with only upside raced OK.. Gee with a respectable finish, Movistar a complete no show.
Always going to be hard to understand what Trek didn't like about Tiberi..

He doesn’t need to do something crazy to finish in the top 10 though. He’s 1sec behind top 10, just doing decent on Saturday is enough.

Maybe we get some echelons too, but doubt it

 

[Unchained]

He doesn’t need to do something crazy to finish in the top 10 though. He’s 1sec behind top 10, just doing decent on Saturday is enough.

Maybe we get some echelons too, but doubt it

He has skills to get on the podium but it will take something bold, if he wants top ten he is a sprint away, but he can do way more than that there is no difference between 4th and 100th..I personally hope he gets mad and attacks.

 

[Tim Cahill]

The big man should attack from the gun tomorrow, good stage for Evenepoel, uphill climb to start, not really steep, get rid of a a few UAE doms, few guys in the break maybe. It's not like there's much to lose with his next race in a month, may as well stir the pot.

 

[MariaB]

Remco really talks too much. All of excuses again.

 

[Berniece]

He has skills to get on the podium but it will take something bold, if he wants top ten he is a sprint away, but he can do way more than that there is no difference between 4th and 100th..I personally hope he gets mad and attacks.

I hope so too, but the route doesn't really help him with this. He's targeted quite hard too anyway, and his team isn't good enough for this here. That hill before intermediate sprint 2 is basically 500m at 10-12%, the rest is shallow. The one after goes up and down a lot, I don't really see anywhere to attack.

Unless you do like Tim Cahill says and attack from the start, but that's extremely far out, who is going to work with him?

 

[Extinction]

It's not whether it's fixible or not, but the fact that others today, who "should" be beneath him, let alone Pogacar, showed up and performed. This seems to me, by now, to be a physiological problem or limit. Otherwise those who are managing him at Bora are as incompetent as those at Soudal.

 

[Red Rick]

It's UAE Tour, like just chill the next 2 days and try to win on Jebel Hafeet. If you think podium is still possible throw yourself in intermediate sprints when the break is 1 or 2 guys.

 

[MariaB]

It's not whether it's fixible or not, but the fact that others today, who "should" be beneath him, let alone Pogacar, showed up and performed. This seems to me, by now, to be a physiological problem or limit. Otherwise those who are managing him at Bora are as incompetent as those at Soudal.

I don't think it is a problem.

He is just not good enough.

 

[LookProGoSlow]

I 100% agree with the bolded. He can be mentally very strong even when on the back foot (Tour 2024, although I disagree that dropping minutes on the toughest mountain stages was some historical feat, Amstel Gold Race last year, etc.), but he more often than not completely collapses when someone attacks him unexpectedly or his legs don't respond the way he thinks they will. Giro 2021, Vuelta 2023, LBL 2025, Tour 2025, this...he has to figure out how to avoid the collapse. He went to the 2023 Vuelta for example fully believing he would defend his 2022 title. Then Roglic attacked unexpectedly, he didn't feel great, and Vuelta over.

In the two major exceptions I can think of - 2024 Tour and AGR 2025 - I think there were big psychological factors at play. In the 2024 Tour, he wasn't expected to win. Pogi and Vingegaard were world beaters, he'd had a crash, it was his first Tour, he hadn't won the 2023 Vuelta, etc. In AGR 2025, he was newly back from an offseason crash, so the stakes were low.

When the stakes are high and he believes he should win, he seems to need 100% control and cannot handle the unexpected.

I don't think that is unfixable. He has the mental strength, he has physical strength, he has displayed it all at the same time, he can get there. But he needs to understand and accept the issue and embrace the work to address it. Step 1 is acknowledging that he has severely underperformed in stage races relative to his talent, expectations, and pay, and that responsibility for that sits with himself. Then dig into the why - OK, a lot of it is sudden collapses and highly variable performance. OK, what's driving that? And so on.

Yeah sure good points you bring but say this is what needs to be done, how do you convince him he needs to look at it? His modus operandi seems to be to blame external factors whenever it goes sideways for him. His biggest ‘weak spot’ isn’t what you point out he needs to work on. His biggest blind spot is not seeing that he has a problem of attitude.

 

[Berniece]

Remco really talks too much. All of excuses again.

He literally said in his interview: "I don't have to look for excuses, I just wasn't good enough". 😂

 

[peterfin]

Yeah sure good points you bring but say this is what needs to be done, how do you convince him he needs to look at it? His modus operandi seems to be to blame external factors whenever it goes sideways for him. His biggest ‘weak spot’ isn’t what you point out he needs to work on. His biggest blind spot is not seeing that he has a problem of attitude.

He is not looking for excuses he said today. He didn't blame external factors. His problem of attitude is that his character doesn't allow him to be defensive or to acknowledge that he is still building up towards his climbing legs. He probably knows this but his recent successes and the responsability he feels to perform for his new team makes it difficult for him. Of course he can win any TT any time but he needs to learn that being top ar climbing requires a different attitude.

 

[Netserk]

He literally said in his interview: "I don't have to look for excuses, I just wasn't good enough". 😂

it seemed more like something he needed to remind himself of after the fact

 

[Berniece]

it seemed more like something he needed to remind himself of after the fact

Not to me. Looked more like he's aware this wasn't good enough.

 

[MariaB]

He literally said in his interview: "I don't have to look for excuses, I just wasn't good enough". 😂

Yep, after he made a ton of excuses.

His words:

"I don't think I digested yesterday's effort at all. I didn't have the best night either; I woke up from the heat. But ultimately, I can't make excuses."

 

[Berniece]

Yep, after he made a ton of excuses.

His words:

"I don't think I digested yesterday's effort at all. I didn't have the best night either; I woke up from the heat. But ultimately, I can't make excuses."

Indeed so no excuses. Can you read?

 

[MariaB]

Indeed so no excuses. Can you read?

Yes, I can.

Can you?

 

[Berniece]

Yes, I can.

Can you?

Yeah. A reporter asks, what went wrong. He says I slept bad but that’s no excuse. Literally saying there’s no excuse.

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Yeah he clearly gave some excuses then said “no excuses.” But obviously there are explanations, whether we want to call them excuses or not. He is as much a 2 minutes slower than Tiberi climber as he is a genuine threat to Pogacar on a climb.

 

[Netserk]

Indeed so no excuses. Can you read?

if i make a negative comment and then follow it up with " no offense ", that does not remove all offense

 

[MariaB]

Yeah. A reporter asks, what went wrong. He says I slept bad but that’s no excuse. Literally saying there’s no excuse.

After making a ton of excuses.

From my perspective, there is an important distinction between clearly stating “no excuses” and providing several justifications before ultimately concluding with “no excuses.”

 

[Berniece]

After making a ton of excuses.

From my perspective, there is an important distinction between clearly stating “no excuses” and providing several justifications before ultimately concluding with “no excuses.”

To me he’s just spitballing because he’s being honest and since he’s honest he says there’s no good excuse though. Which he means.

 

[Berniece]

if i make a negative comment and then follow it up with " no offense ", that does not remove all offense

I don’t think that’s the same. His statements were pure guesses, thinking out loud, followed up by no excuse.

 

[Unchained]

I hope so too, but the route doesn't really help him with this. He's targeted quite hard too anyway, and his team isn't good enough for this here. That hill before intermediate sprint 2 is basically 500m at 10-12%, the rest is shallow. The one after goes up and down a lot, I don't really see anywhere to attack.

Unless you do like Tim Cahill says and attack from the start, but that's extremely far out, who is going to work with him?

Attacking from the start likely won't work , let Bahrain burn a little energy, UAE has a reason to burn it a little, Visma has multiple reasons to work really hard and Astana also have reasons to be on the front, Bora has Remco is 1:44 off the pace..and the guys there supposed to be helping and terrible Finn Fisher-Black is riding with a bag of cement on his back at 11 and a half minutes back.
Next Boro rider is 18 minutes back, guys are of no help.
O'Connor and Porter didn't totally explode, so some allies for Plapp..something crazy for removal of 1 and 2 but Tejada is a little vulnerable, guy is a good rider, lots of guys nibbling at his podium place.
I expect Trek to not fully respect or support Gee, Alpecin doesn't need to race entire time hard, I would expect them to bring it and try and take 1 position or 2 positions in sprint points, almost nobody has a reason to work with Alpecin.
They raced outstanding today, including jumping out of the bunch to get 3rd place sprint points, the 2 breakaway guys took the most.. Milan was asleep.
I watch the race hoping for something good for Isaac Del Toro but Antonio Tiberi is quality and he is proven. Tiberi has had lots of good results over last couple of years , lots of top 10s and he always doesn't embarrass himself in time trials..I love Ciccone also and if Tiberi was at Trek they could win GTs this year.. Oh well. Finn Fisher- Black is completely binary, he is either on or he is off, let's hope he can put a couple of decent days together to help Remco.