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

[Extinction]

Haven't they tried during the previous seasons? Not RBH but Remco and SQS

Health, with a solid base, I don't think so. He should focus on calorie deprivasion in training. Water and spirit.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Tiberi and Del Toro were not at altitude before this, however for those who have been keeping their ears to the streets, Swart has been banging quite recently on about some new 'methods' they've been using, saying they are looking to eliminate the need for altitude camps, read into that what you will.

Jonas Vingegaard did not do altitude before the 2023 Vuelta, nor Pogacar before the 2024 Giro, for what it's worth. Heat training does mimic some of the effects, increasing EPO/Hb Mass/efficiency, but someone cleverer than me will need to say to what extent/whether it can be stacked with altitude.

I would be interested to know more about this. I find it fascinating that, as altitude camps have been becoming more and more essential for top performance over the past 15 years, the best team in the world now seems to do very little altitude.

I remember swart saying specifically that they know a rider gets more from an altitude camp if he already went to altitude that season. So if you want a rider to fly after his pre-dauph
ine camp, you also send him to altitude before the spring races. This is what visma do, what ineos have been doing for 10 years, dsm, Lidl trek etc .

But then he does the opposite in his own team.

Pocagar hardly does any altitude, McNulty doesn't do altitude, none of del Toro, Almida, cristen, have been to altitude yet this season.

 

[Red Rick]

Altitude is what altitude has always been and it does not belong in this subforum.

 

[Sciatic]

If he doesn’t do altitude then the follow-up discussion to that would need to go that other subforum, like RR said.

 

[Netserk]

i hear a training camp in chile is as good

 

[Divergence]

You’ll have to provide more evidence for that claim about one-days races. I mean, if Pogacar wasn’t riding he likely would have won WCs and Lombardia last year. But he’s not beating Pogacar no matter what his weight is—because no one is beating Pogacar. Remco has won LBL, WCs, and Olympic RR.

The first peace of evidence is I have never heard anyone say I wishI was heavier during the race. Now, in all seriousness there is little to no trade off between power and weight. Road riders can be lean and deliver their best power. What become a problem is the dedication to stay in that shape and how does one react during an illness and so. The fact he would have won does not say much. I am not claiming the opponents are well prepared either. Froome and G have won the TdF by training fasted for crying out loud...

 

[Hugh Januss]

The first peace of evidence is I have never heard anyone say I wishI was heavier during the race.

Possibly Alaphilippe that time he got blown right off the road.

 

[Sciatic]

The first peace of evidence is I have never heard anyone say I wishI was heavier during the race. Now, in all seriousness there is little to no trade off between power and weight. Road riders can be lean and deliver their best power. What become a problem is the dedication to stay in that shape and how does one react during an illness and so. The fact he would have won does not say much. I am not claiming the opponents are well prepared either. Froome and G have won the TdF by training fasted for crying out loud...

Actually Pogacar said that exactly 2 yrs ago after RvV when asked whether he would do Roubaixin the future. He said he’d have to put on some more weight first. Of course he could have been joking around, but he said it.
Re: the 2nd bolded statement, it’s fruitless to discuss that outside of the clinic.

 

[saunaking]

the weight obsession on here is utterly ridiculous. He's not fat, he's just not good enough.
Pretty sure his teams and coaches havent been overlooking his weight his entire pro career

According to pcs he weighs less than pogacar already (not sure where everyone gets all these weight numbers from)

He just needs more watts

 

[Extinction]

Cl

the weight obsession on here is utterly ridiculous. He's not fat, he's just not good enough.
Pretty sure his teams and coaches havent been overlooking his weight his entire pro career

According to pcs he weighs less than pogacar already (not sure where everyone gets all these weight numbers from)

He just needs more watts

Clearly at 65 kg on a quasi 15 km climb at average 12% the last 7 km his watts are insufficient. Now maintain those same watts at 60 kg and the whole scenario changes. It doesn't matter what anybody else weighs, but only his own power to weight ratio. Again at 65 kg on long, hard climbs that ratio can't compete, so the only thing to do is increase the watts or decrease the weight. Which one is more doable?

 

[AmRacer]

Cl

Clearly at 65 kg on a quasi 15 km climb at average 12% the last 7 km his watts are insufficient. Now maintain those same watts at 60 kg and the whole scenario changes. It doesn't matter what anybody else weighs, but only his own power to weight ratio. Again at 65 kg on long, hard climbs that ratio can't compete, so the only thing to do is increase the watts or decrease the weight. Which one is more doable?

He surely has increased his watts, see his ITT.
He has tried, but cannot maintain a lower weight for longer than 3 weeks a year at the most.

 

[Extinction]

He surely has increased his watts, see his ITT.
He has tried, but cannot maintain a lower weight for longer than 3 weeks a year at the most.

I don't buy that. If other riders can visibly ride skinnier throughout the year, I don't see why Remco cannot other than he lacks proper guidance. If I'm wrong, which may well be the case, it's time he at least tries to race the season overall much leaner. As the formula that's been used so far, considering his lofty ambitions, surely aint working. At this point, he's really got nothing to lose and tempus fugit.

 

[AmRacer]

I don't buy that. If other riders can visibly ride skinnier throughout the year, I don't see why Remco cannot other than he lacks proper guidance. If I'm wrong, which may well be the case, it's time he at least tries to race the season overall much leaner. As the formula that's been used so far, considering his lofty ambitions, surely aint working. At this point, he's really got nothing to lose and tempus fugit.

He want's to be at this weight for the Ardennes and it is also good for ITT.

 

[Extinction]

He want's to be at this weight for the Ardennes and it is also good for ITT.

I don't think being lighter for Liege will hurt his chances against Pogacar. Actually it's the opposite. He should I think at the moment stop being concerned with ranking number one TTer and start being competitive on the long cols, if he wants to win the Tour. His TT, besides, will never become bad, but he won't win WT stage races on his TT if he gets shelled out the back on the climbs.

 

[canina82]

the weight obsession on here is utterly ridiculous. He's not fat, he's just not good enough.
Pretty sure his teams and coaches havent been overlooking his weight his entire pro career

According to pcs he weighs less than pogacar already (not sure where everyone gets all these weight numbers from)

He just needs more watts

PCS is not a good source. However, at what point is Remco considered a very powerful rider or just a rider who can be really aero and save a lot of watts compared to others? When it goes uphill, Remco can still produce decent watts but when he needs to maintain for a long period those watts, he falls apart. The ability to sustain a fair amount of watts for a long period is just not there. I believe he is not that powerful like most people think, he is just so much better when we talk about aerodynamics.

 

[KoopaCycling]

I think his supper body could lose some muscle/weight. Maybe he's naturally stocky and not much can be done, but that is were the biggest gain can be made in a healthy way imo.

 

[veganrob]

I don't buy that. If other riders can visibly ride skinnier throughout the year, I don't see why Remco cannot other than he lacks proper guidance. If I'm wrong, which may well be the case, it's time he at least tries to race the season overall much leaner. As the formula that's been used so far, considering his lofty ambitions, surely aint working. At this point, he's really got nothing to lose and tempus fugit.

Or he simply does not want to lose much more weight. Which may be true. In which case he is stuck where he is at.

 

[Berniece]

PCS is not a good source. However, at what point is Remco considered a very powerful rider or just a rider who can be really aero and save a lot of watts compared to others? When it goes uphill, Remco can still produce decent watts but when he needs to maintain for a long period those watts, he falls apart. The ability to sustain a fair amount of watts for a long period is just not there. I believe he is not that powerful like most people think, he is just so much better when we talk about aerodynamics.

That you can say this with a straight face after seeing his fall season is bonkers to me. Sure he was never as good as Pogacar, but after that he was much better than the rest. He showed that at WC, UEC and Lombardia. All long, hard races.

 

[canina82]

That you can say this with a straight face after seeing his fall season is bonkers to me. Sure he was never as good as Pogacar, but after that he was much better than the rest. He showed that at WC, UEC and Lombardia. All long, hard races.

I said long mountains. In any part of my post I questioned his level in hilly classics. There, he is by far the second best and probably the only one who can threat Pogacar in the future.

 

[Berniece]

I said long mountains. In any part of my post I questioned his level in hilly classics. There, he is by far the second best and probably the only one who can threat Pogacar in the future.

Like Plateau de Beille? Or Passo di Ganda?

 

[Salvarani]

That you can say this with a straight face after seeing his fall season is bonkers to me. Sure he was never as good as Pogacar, but after that he was much better than the rest. He showed that at WC, UEC and Lombardia. All long, hard races.

Nobody questions his ability in one-day races.

 

[canina82]

Like Plateau de Beille? Or Passo di Ganda?

Passo di Ganda:
1 - he didn't drop Storer
2 - GdL is a classic. Not a mountain stage done after several mountain stages.
3 - he lost more time to Pogacar than he gained to Storer in GdL

Why are you giving PdB as an example and you ignore every single time he imploded in long and hard mountains? Are you telling me Remco can do it? Yes, of course! He can climb with the very best sometimes but consistently? No, he can't.
But time will tell this season about his climbing ability. In one month we will see where he is after an altitude training camp and probably 2 less kilos.

 

[Cycling111]

Apparently I was wrong about Tiberi, really thought I read that. My bad.

Del Toro did prepare extensively for UAE Tour, not that all of it matters, Evenepoel just wasn’t good enough.

Almeida hasn't done any high-altitude training, and on the climbs in Algarve he's been at a similar level to his performance in other races.
Remco was in better shape than Almeida; his problem is climbing.

 

[Berniece]

Why are you giving PdB as an example and you ignore every single time he imploded in long and hard mountains? Are you telling me Remco can do it? Yes, of course! He can climb with the very best sometimes but consistently? No, he can't.
But time will tell this season about his climbing ability. In one month we will see where he is after an altitude training camp and probably 2 less kilos.

Because at TDF 2024 he showed he could do it consistently... Same at Vuelta 2022. Only issue he had was after his crash.

 

[Berniece]

Almeida hasn't done any high-altitude training, and on the climbs in Algarve he's been at a similar level to his performance in other races.
Remco was in better shape than Almeida; his problem is climbing.

Remco was at 85% at Mallorca/Valencia according to himself. We'll see at Catalunya if Evenepoel still has issues with climbing. More than enough multi-mountain stages there.