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

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Sep 12, 2022
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Not saying he hasn’t improved in those short intense efforts, but what he did in Mallorca and Valencia shouldn’t be taken as evidence that he has. A fit Remco should always be able to drop those guys on those race profiles, not just this year.
Sure, but it's different at the start of the season of course. But he should indeed always drop them, just like he could at LBL 2022-2023 when Pogacar wasn't there.
 
May 9, 2025
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I'm a Remco fan, but I have to say I'm done with the excuses. The man is a limited climber at best.

His best GT performance left him more than 9mins behind Pogacar in TDF 24.

The amount of times we hit the proper climbs and we see him blowing up is unfair for him to endure. He is an outstanding TTer, one-day racer and brilliant at long range attacks on hilly terrain.

The man is NOT a climber. He is sacrificing results and potential victories in other races by chasing a dream of winning the Tour de France. He has ZERO chance of doing that.

Smoked in the UAE climbs, Meltdown in the Tour last year, Meltdown in the Vuelta in 23, didn't finish the Giro in 21 or 23, falls away in TDS stages once the road goes up.

Yet I hear all this tripe that he needs altitude camps, he needs to lose weight, he's not dialled in, he has no base, the AC was smashed. The man is killing himself trying to be someone he's not.

Excellent post.

This is exactly where I stand right now.
 
Aug 5, 2024
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I would like to see him race in the TdF, like he raced after his breakdown in the Vuelta 2023: go for the break, create chaos, try to rip the peloton apart, make it a mano-a-mano early in the race and early in the stages. The full first week of the Tour is perfect for that, and this type of racing is what Remco is best at. He isn't best at a pure W/kg vs. Tadej and Jonas. He is very talented and he can climb very, very well, but he isn't a natural born climber and shouldn't follow the procession up the mountains in the Tour and see Pog riding away after being launched by the UAE train.

ps: I don't get the fan / no fan / hate for Remco. He's one of the few riders that is super exciting to watch. Don't get me wrong, but e.g. Pog isn't exciting to watch (anymore) for the last 2 years, for example, except when he can't make the difference like in San Remo.
 
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Feb 27, 2023
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I would like to see him race in the TdF, like he raced after his breakdown in the Vuelta 2023: go for the break, create chaos, try to rip the peloton apart, make it a mano-a-mano early in the race and early in the stages. The full first week of the Tour is perfect for that, and this type of racing is what Remco is best at. He isn't best at a pure W/kg vs. Tadej and Jonas. He is very talented and he can climb very, very well, but he isn't a natural born climber and shouldn't follow the procession up the mountains in the Tour and see Pog riding away after being launched by the UAE train.

ps: I don't get the fan / no fan / hate for Remco. He's one of the few riders that is super exciting to watch. Don't get me wrong, but e.g. Pog isn't exciting to watch (anymore) for the last 2 years, for example, except when he can't make the difference like in San Remo.
The problem is that he is able to do that only if he loses a lot of time and is no longer relevant in the race.
 
Sep 5, 2020
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Remco should never seriously train and race for a 3 week GT top 3 places. He should focus on monuments, 1 week races and stages in 3 week races. This is where he's very good at. Now, he's just average everywhere with few ups and many heavy downs.
 
Feb 20, 2026
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Remco should never seriously train and race for a 3 week GT top 3 places. He should focus on monuments, 1 week races and stages in 3 week races. This is where he's very good at. Now, he's just average everywhere with few ups and many heavy downs.
He is far from average in hilly classics and TTs. I don't think he can be better even if he left his dream (of winning the Tour) die.
 
Feb 24, 2020
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Remco should never seriously train and race for a 3 week GT top 3 places. He should focus on monuments, 1 week races and stages in 3 week races. This is where he's very good at. Now, he's just average everywhere with few ups and many heavy downs.

If you have won a GT and finished 3rd at the TdF you are good enough to add one to the list each yeae . And yes he should focus on more monuments and major 1-week races too but I disagree he is just average when he is back on top after an injury. His autumn was great. Summer 2024 was great too.
 
Apr 30, 2011
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If you have won a GT and finished 3rd at the TdF you are good enough to add one to the list each yeae . And yes he should focus on more monuments and major 1-week races too but I disagree he is just average when he is back on top after an injury. His autumn was great. Summer 2024 was great too.
if evenepoel is like carapaz , he will contend a gt again in 2028
 
Apr 30, 2011
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Prudhomme said Remco does not lose enough time in mountains to justify adding long time trials?
i read it as the opposite

evenepoel is not good enough so far to be the main challenger for the victory , so the main effect of long tts now would be the effect on the pogi-vingegaard duel , where longer tts just favour whoever is also the best climber

if evenepoel was the main rival , then longer tts would make the battle for the victory closer
 
Sep 12, 2022
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i read it as the opposite

evenepoel is not good enough so far to be the main challenger for the victory , so the main effect of long tts now would be the effect on the pogi-vingegaard duel , where longer tts just favour whoever is also the best climber

if evenepoel was the main rival , then longer tts would make the battle for the victory closer
Indeed. Evenepoel isn’t as dominant in ITT as Pogacar in the mountains. As long as that level of dominance isn’t closer together it doesn’t matter
 
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Apr 13, 2025
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Remco lost 3 minutes on Hautacam.

In 2024, he finished at the same distance as Martinez in the Giro, considering that Vingegaard was Pogacar's rival. If they considered Remco a main rival for the Tour, they would surely put more time on him in the mountains because they would attack him.

Pogacar performs better in the Tour time trial because he trains for this; he wouldn't lose 5 minutes.

To think that Remco is just one long time trial away from winning the Tour is self-deception.
 
Sep 9, 2012
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In fact you have @houtdffan who thinks Remco has a chance in the Tour if we went back to 2 long TTs and 1 TTT in the TdF. So yeah, there is someone. And no, current Remco doesn't have a chance against Pogacar in any type of route.
canina82: there are people who say Remco is just one long TT away from winning the Tour.
flanders: Are there?
canina82: Yeah, there is this user who thinks he would have a chance if there were two long TTs and a TTT.
 
Aug 13, 2011
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I think a 1997 course would be good for Evenepoel. Though overall I wish we had more TT kms to split the race up more and hopefully incentivize those further down to attack.
 
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Apr 13, 2025
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Sometimes people forget how many kilometers had the mountain stages the routes of other decades, and how many HC climbs they had.

With those mountain stages, he'd lose more than the 10 minutes he lost in 2024.
And it's science fiction to think they'll include 100km of time trial if the mountain stages are ridiculous 150km stages with a one HC mountain pass.

Even so, with the current mountain stages, if Remco equalas his best mountain performance, he should win him more than 10 minutes in ITTs, and considering that he's became the second favorite with this route, those 10 minutes could be more because they would attack him.
 
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Apr 3, 2009
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In fact you have @houtdffan who thinks Remco has a chance in the Tour if we went back to 2 long TTs and 1 TTT in the TdF. So yeah, there is someone. And no, current Remco doesn't have a chance against Pogacar in any type of route.
Well first, that's hardly equivalent to the quote to which I responded.
...one long time trial away from winning the Tour...
If you have to change the quote to make the point...

Second, if there were 2 long (how long is the question) TT's and 1 long TT, yeah, I think he'd have a "chance". A small chance. But again, that's completely different than the quote to which I responded. It's not "one long TT away from winning".

Right?
 
Apr 13, 2025
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Remco lost 3 minutes on Hautacam.

In 2024, he finished at the same distance as Martinez in the Giro, considering that Vingegaard was Pogacar's rival. If they considered Remco a main rival for the Tour, they would surely put more time on him in the mountains because they would attack him.

Pogacar performs better in the Tour time trial because he trains for this; he wouldn't lose 5 minutes.

To think that Remco is just one long time trial away from winning the Tour is self-deception.
We'll, I've already given the reasons, in this post, why thinking Remco won't win the Tour because of the route is self-deception.

Remco isn't Indurain, and Pogacar and Vingegaard aren't Bugno.
 

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