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.
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.
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.
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.
Passo di Ganda:
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.
Because at TDF 2024 he showed he could do it consistently... Same at Vuelta 2022. Only issue he had was after his crash.
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.
PR is an interesting race to watch, even though it is as flat as a pancake. In that sense it is pretty unique in the calendar. And if doing well in PR is a priority, then, by all means, go to the gym and get jacked up. Mind you, being as lean as possible is still an advantage, but maybe adding muscles on the eyelids would make some difference. It is a race where weight makes very little difference.
It's his choice, but if he wants to challenge Pogacar, Vingegaard, Ayuso and now del Toro, Seixas not very smart.
Do those 14 normally always ride better on a climb than Evenepoel? Something clearly is wrong, and it's not that Evenepoel is suddenly a worse climber than those 14 riders... Some of them might be better, not all of them.
You've addressed my question with a question, rather than answering it? I would say that a good few of those riders have finished ahead of him before on uphill rides. And if it hasn't been those specific riders finishing ahead of him, there are numerous case of similar class riders finishing ahead of him on climbs. Riders who would be classed as 2nd or 3rd tier level climbers have regularly finished ahead of him.
If you want to say that Evenepoel is by default in normal circumstances a worse climber than those 14, go ahead. Wonder why SOQ ever had Van Wilder as a domestique for Evenepoel instead of the other way around
Right. The real question for me is whether he would have been the second-best rider in the spring with that same form. It was his best form of the season, whereas other riders would normally have already peaked (twice) by then.
I hope he polish what hes already elite at if its still the same at the end of the year, it doesnt help him in his position that theres people coming from behind developing full speed. Something eventually gotte give.
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