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

[James M]

After one single climb? Please… let’s wait until after Catalunya at least

Its year 5 or whatever its not one climb tho is it? Relative to others wheres the improvent on a general basis on these sorta efforts?

3 weeks in 2024 was an anomaly so far, dont get me wrong, thats good it shows hes capable, but it doesnt show hes a good climber on a general basis. In his position its about showing some progression. Somethings gotta give now.

He's got this year to prove himself imo. if he does not perform when nothing extra happens, than it's time to go back to the drawing board and rethink things.

Yes my take before the season aswell and not changing it now ofc but im just not holding my breath if you get me. Hes not a talent alone anymore its not enough but hope he proves us wrong. Whatever im not here to beat a dead horse if he starts showing signs then sure that would be welcomed.

 

[mikks]

Of course he is and it really matters once pogacar is out for whatever reason... THIS happens all the time - Pogacar is just incredibly lucky (and skilled) to avoid injuries and illnesses at the wrong time.

I agree, Evenepoel is a better rider than Onley and would have better chances. But my point is that if you take Pog and Vingegaard out, then the rest of the bunch is quite similar, and race becomes more open. Factors such as luck, who has a bad day and who doesn’t, who loses time in echelons, who makes a tactical mistakes and who doesn't, who is just lucky, how do team strategies change etc. who benefits from team tactics become much more prominent.

We don’t know what the racing would look like if you took Pog and Vingegaard out. Would it be basically the same—full gas from the bottom to the top? Or would it be different, more open, maybe more tactical, with more stop-and-go attacks, different attackers, and different counterattackers?

But overall, I am in your camp. I think that Evenepoel is capable of winning the Tour. But he is not a dominant rider (like Pog, Froome or Contador), where the question is not if they win the Tour, but when. Evenepoel needs the right circumstances and some luck on his side. Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn’t.


For instance, I would say that Roglič was the best GC rider around 2019-2020—not dominant, just a little bit better than the others—but he wasted his opportunities, or maybe he just wasn’t lucky and his window of opportunity closed. Maybe Evnepoel gets his chance, maybe not.

 

[houtdffan]

Remco should stop relying on high mountains to win GC. He needs to use some of the medium mountain stages and do Jalabert 1995 raids, things he is really good at

 

[Berniece]

Its year 5 or whatever its not one climb tho is it? Relative to others wheres the improvent on a general basis on these sorta efforts?

3 weeks in 2024 was an anomaly so far, dont get me wrong, thats good it shows hes capable, but it doesnt show hes a good climber on a general basis. In his position its about showing some progression. Somethings gotta give now.

What if he wins Saturday?

 

[CyclistAbi]

What if he wins Saturday?

Stage or the overall?

 

[Berniece]

I dont see what that changes in this particular issue at all. Different type of climb he typically excels at for his standards

So he only fails at extremely steep climbs? Which we don’t see in TDF? Or what type of climb is he so bad at that he can’t compete for GT wins?

 

[Berniece]

Stage or the overall?

Stage… overall is out of the question

 

[CyclistAbi]

@Berniece

If Remco wins the stage on Saturday then what happened on Jabel Mobrah isn't all that important any more.

 

[Berniece]

@Berniece

If Remco wins the stage on Saturday then what happened on Jabel Mobrah isn't all that important any more.

Indeed

 

[CyclistAbi]

Indeed

Although the climb itself is much easier so winning the stage or being close is somewhat important for Remco. As for steeper and harder climbs, there he obviously has some work left to do.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

by the time pogi declines, sexy paul will have fully matured

He did some maturation today, fo' sho'

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

They will use anything to make him look bad. That's why they are here. They flock to this thread whenever he has a bad result.

I don't dislike Remco. I also don't dislike reality, hence my position that he will not win the Tour. Ever.

 

[Berniece]

Although the climb itself is much easier so winning the stage or being close is somewhat important for Remco. As for steeper and harder climbs, there he obviously has some work left to do.

Still 10km’s climbing at 7% though. We can compare his climbing time with others from past years

 

[kingjr]

I agree, Evenepoel is a better rider than Onley and would have better chances. But my point is that if you take Pog and Vingegaard out, then the rest of the bunch is quite similar, and race becomes more open. Factors such as luck, who has a bad day and who doesn’t, who loses time in echelons, who makes a tactical mistakes and who doesn't, who is just lucky, how do team strategies change etc. who benefits from team tactics become much more prominent.

We don’t know what the racing would look like if you took Pog and Vingegaard out. Would it be basically the same—full gas from the bottom to the top? Or would it be different, more open, maybe more tactical, with more stop-and-go attacks, different attackers, and different counterattackers?

But overall, I am in your camp. I think that Evenepoel is capable of winning the Tour. But he is not a dominant rider (like Pog, Froome or Contador), where the question is not if they win the Tour, but when. Evenepoel needs the right circumstances and some luck on his side. Maybe it happens, maybe it doesn’t.

Neither Froome nor Contador would be winning any TdFs in the current era.

 

[Jan the Man]

Remco should stop relying on high mountains to win GC. He needs to use some of the medium mountain stages and do Jalabert 1995 raids, things he is really good at

In GTs or stage races in general? I agree medium mountain stages suit his skillset (in a way LBL does) but it also suits Pog if it was a reference to a GT…

In general though i agree that he should play to his strengths and while GTs have abandoned long TTs in this context it means the hillier and longer stages.

 

[houtdffan]

In GTs or stage races in general? I agree medium mountain stages suit his skillset (in a way LBL does) but it also suits Pog if it was a reference to a GT…

In general though i agree that he should play to his strengths and while GTs have abandoned long TTs in this context it means the hillier and longer stages.

In both.

He may not be able to get the win over Pog, but he may be able to pick up an extra stage win or 2. A long raid in a medium mountain stage could also give him a bucket load of points toward the mountain and green jerseys

 

[Red Rick]

Neither Froome nor Contador would be winning any TdFs in the current era.

Neither of them would do the watts they did then in the current era.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Jakob Fuglsang would be doing his best watts ever in every single era.

 

[kingjr]

Neither of them would do the watts they did then in the current era.

I see no reason to believe either would have been a big threat to the best cyclist we've ever seen and the only one who's been able to beat him. The level in their time was rather crappy compared to today.

 

[houtdffan]

'Impetuous, overconfident, and tactically ill-advised' - Remco Evenepoel regretting early aggression on UAE Tour climb, lost time

'Muscle damage' from intense time trial using 68-tooth chainring and broken AC led to bad day

www.cyclingnews.com

Remco admitted he rode the climb like an utter idiot. He got excited when he saw Del Toro dropped and went way too hard way too early

Basically, he did the climb as it was a 1km climb

 

[topcat]

Maybe if they put Remco in a room with AC he could teach Remco how to climb.

If they put Remco in a room with air conditioning, then Remco could teach Remco to climb.
Winning the UAE tour is like kissing your Imam. Ok you got the kiss, but it's stil your Imam.

 

[topcat]

Its getting to the point its time to face the reality boys in terms of climbing.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. Im sorry.

@Lequack

 

[rghysens]

I will say this, i do believe Remco will get at least one real chance to win the Tour.
Unfortunately that don't mean he'll be able to take it. I had genuine believe in Jurgen Van Den Broeck for a legit shot at the Tour during 2011. Only for him to crash on stage 9.

Now that Seixas has won his first mtf, we don´t have to expect much flat itt´s in the tour the next 15 years. Evenepoel won´t have one real chance.

 

[Divergence]

At some point as you drop weight, performance diminishes. I think that point is different for everyone. Or do you think Froome just wanted it more than anyone else in his generation?

The entire glp1 drug revolution has pretty conclusively proven, to me, that discipline is a myth. We are slaves to our hormones and we all have a different cocktail. And even if you have all the discipline in the world, where the body flips over to catabolism may be 6% or 2.5%.

I appears Froome was doing everything he can to be as lean as possible. Even things I would not recommend, such as fasted training and drinking only sparkling water and semi starving. And still, there was no apparent performance diminishment.
In, general I have never seen a pro rider say something akin to I was too lean so I did not do well on the Alpe. (This is possible, as I wrote earlier, but one needs to be doing some radical stuff).

It has been clear that there are drugs which suppress appetite (among other things) for quite some time now, so idk if I would call it a revolution. Nevertheless, it does not prove anything.
As I wrote earlier, what is important is to fuel your training well, train well, recover well and also very important to stay focused and disciplined (not just with food but with everything else in life).
That ensures that the body operates at its leanest point without sacrificing performance.
Edit: If we speak about Remco concretely, we have seen him leaner and performing well, so his current state is not even up for debate.

 

[Berniece]

If we speak about Remco concretely, we have seen him leaner and performing well, so his current state is not even up for debate.

I don't think that has anything to do with professionalism or discipline in his case. They have always thought he needed to weigh more during spring classics.