Yep. Remco needs to do better. What was good enough 3 years ago is not good enough today
Yep. Remco needs to do better. What was good enough 3 years ago is not good enough today
- Aug 30, 2010
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Dudes just too freakin fat. He looks like Caleb Ewan for crying out loud.
When Remco won the UAE Tour and Algarve, had he went to altitude camp? Or maybe the competition is just better now.
KoopaCycling
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- Jul 31, 2024
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I will not lie and pretend i did not expect more from remco this UAE Tour. I expected Del toro to be really good here.
(aside from some questions surrounding a multiple mountain climb stage, i already have him as a genuine GT contender, i would pick him ahead of Almeida if i'm the boss at UAE) But I also expected it to be a genuine battle. Instead the gap was large. The fact that he seems to have had a good winter, tells me the base this time around is there. I mean he always says the training sessions been going well.
I will assume the 'real' climbing training starts a week from now. I do hope he is good in Catalunya, cause if he's not, he'll be opening up a can of worms full of doubt methinks. In any case, he's got this year to show if he needs to go back to the drawing board or not.
(aside from some questions surrounding a multiple mountain climb stage, i already have him as a genuine GT contender, i would pick him ahead of Almeida if i'm the boss at UAE) But I also expected it to be a genuine battle. Instead the gap was large. The fact that he seems to have had a good winter, tells me the base this time around is there. I mean he always says the training sessions been going well.
I will assume the 'real' climbing training starts a week from now. I do hope he is good in Catalunya, cause if he's not, he'll be opening up a can of worms full of doubt methinks. In any case, he's got this year to show if he needs to go back to the drawing board or not.
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- Aug 13, 2024
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Yes, he has. Gaustatoppen in tour of norway and Classica San Sebastian for instance.
- Aug 13, 2024
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He just had an off-race after a good but not great ITT. It happens to every rider apart from Pog and Vingegaard.
Not worried at all. He is a crazy talent who is an excellent climber but sometimes struggles with that in the early season. Probably to do with his efficiancy on longer climbs - which will improve a lot after his next traning camp.
I think now is a good time to bet on him for Catalunya GC win. Just depends on Vingegaards shape there (if he is even doing it?).
Not worried at all. He is a crazy talent who is an excellent climber but sometimes struggles with that in the early season. Probably to do with his efficiancy on longer climbs - which will improve a lot after his next traning camp.
I think now is a good time to bet on him for Catalunya GC win. Just depends on Vingegaards shape there (if he is even doing it?).
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- Apr 13, 2025
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I´d phrase it the other way around. He's a bad climber, but thanks to his talent and dedication, he has sometimes managed to climb very well.
That's why he hasn't won any of the seven major one-week races; because, being a poor climber, he needs more dedication than the rest. Such a great deal of dedication that he can only make it for one race a season, like the Tour de France.
I think he would prefer winning the UAE Tour instead of the lesser races.
KoopaCycling
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- Jul 31, 2024
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I agree that remco rides real fast on the flat naturally whereas climbing takes effort and training.
I would not go so far as to say he's a bad climber.
I do find his interview this morning a bit strange. He's been found wanting on both summit finishes, yet he believed he could fight for the stage and podium. Was that hopeful thinking, believe in himself? Surely he must know, more than we, how he feels, how his numbers were, ... Looking at the data, he must have known today was going to be tough.
In any case , as I said i find it strangely encouraging he was not where i would want him to be today as well. That means Wednesday was not a blip, and it wasn't simply cause double digit climbs are hard for him, it is more a general case of having not enough climbing 'form'.
I would not go so far as to say he's a bad climber.
I do find his interview this morning a bit strange. He's been found wanting on both summit finishes, yet he believed he could fight for the stage and podium. Was that hopeful thinking, believe in himself? Surely he must know, more than we, how he feels, how his numbers were, ... Looking at the data, he must have known today was going to be tough.
In any case , as I said i find it strangely encouraging he was not where i would want him to be today as well. That means Wednesday was not a blip, and it wasn't simply cause double digit climbs are hard for him, it is more a general case of having not enough climbing 'form'.
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- Jan 8, 2020
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He's not a bad climber, but has to deal with a wave of huge climbing talent. Long gone are the days when a Thomas can win the Tour.
Pretty sure he did altitude before both races and btw san sebastian has short climb.
- Jul 4, 2016
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Dedication alone doesn't explian his climb results of 2022 and 2024. His progress stopped in 2025 when others stepped up. Maybe hitting that postal van was the crash too much, who knows. Anyway, we will see how this season goes (even years seem to be better as odd years for some reason) but lets just say that he has a lot of work to do. He shouldn't expect to win any race with steep climbs unless he shows dramatic progress.
Maybe he should switch focus. Rest, altitude camp, then only race one-days the rest of the spring.
- Aug 13, 2024
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- Aug 13, 2024
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Must be said that the climb was very unevenly paced. Much harder to do good climbing times when you have to surge and recover 3 times
Berniece
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- Sep 12, 2022
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This was such a *** performance and serious letdown. I don’t even know what it might be. I don’t believe in “he’s not a climber”, when he won Vuelta and finished podium TDF. That’s just what some people hope. The team has no explanation why he doesn’t have the legs from Valencia, which is even more worrying. I said before let’s wait for Catalunya but not sure that will matter much. Sure he will lose some weight and have that altitude influence, but still… worrying signs, and just overall disappointing
- Aug 13, 2024
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I don't think this distiction is meaningful. You ride faster uphill than almost every WT rider, you are a great climber. How one arbitrarily attributes that ability to different things based on gut feeling makes no sense.
He has done very well at several big one week races. So, if he had beaten Roglic or Jorgenson in Catalunya or Paris nice that would have changes things entirely? Nonesense.
- Aug 13, 2024
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But Thomas was the strongest climber in that Tour. It would be better to refer to Dumoulin's Giro win for instance. Where he was not the best climber but best overall.
- Jun 17, 2024
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Tao Geoghegan won the Giro but obviously help him 0 % now too. Zero relevance to today thats the definition of cope.
- Feb 20, 2012
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Team saying they have no idea is completely shocking....
For me the part where they skip classics because they want to focus everything on TdF GC, then proceed to apparently not train on long climbs all winter is absolutely astounding.
Berniece
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- Sep 12, 2022
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His performance in 2024 was still better than what others did the year after. So he lost that capability completely or something is wrong
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