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

[Berniece]

I'm not a Roglic fan. He was just the most obvious person to mention as being better. I wouldn't even call Remco the fourth best. The guy didn't win a single stage that was a mountain finish. Just because he had a lucky once in a lifetime podium finish at the Tour doesn’t mean he was third best climber.

Lucky?

 

[KoopaCycling]

I'm not a Roglic fan. He was just the most obvious person to mention as being better. I wouldn't even call Remco the fourth best. The guy didn't win a single stage that was a mountain finish. Just because he had a lucky once in a lifetime podium finish at the Tour doesn’t mean he was third best climber.

You would not even call Remco 4th best, cause he did not win a mountain finish....
Okay.

 

[AmRacer]

Lucky?

Yeps, that's right. Lucky.

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Remco was great in that Tour. Sure, Roglic wasn’t at his best at the start and crashed out, but Remco earned that podium fair and square. A ton of hard work, sacrifices, and great riding went into that. Lipowitz was infinitely luckier last year.

 

[Pozzovivo]

Some thoughts on Remco’s Volta a Catalunya (Sorry for long post).

I came into this race genuinely expecting a strong Remco. He is usually good after altitude camps, and the whole point of changing teams and training setup is to move closer to Pogacar and Vingegaard in Grand Tour GC level.

That expectation was clearly wrong. He was nowhere near that level here. He was not even clearly better than several of the other b-contenders, and he was plainly below Vingegaard. Just as concerning, if not more, he raced the GC in a way that seemed completely detached from the actual objective. Attacking in crosswinds is fine. Pulling hard with your main rival sitting comfortably on your wheel is just stupid. Crashing himself in the run-in was a fitting end to a race that, unfortunately, also felt very on-brand for him.

His behaviour throughout the race was childish, and revealing. The constant yelling, gesturing, and complaining about rivals not pulling when they had every reason not to pull was just embarrassing. It may create drama and entertainment, but for a rider in his seventh professional season it is getting old. At some point he has to grow out of this. Stop wasting energy on theatre. Ask whether Pogacar behaves like this. He does not. Learn from that.

Tactically, Remco is very poor. Frankly, I think he is among the worst tactical riders at the top level of the sport. Give many other riders his engine and they would get more out of it. The one smart thing he did in races was attacking over the top of climbs, where he could use his power and aerodynamics on flatter and downhill terrain. Then on the final stage he went back to attacking on the steep wall, which suits him far less, and I almost lost my mind. Even when riders held his wheel on the climb, he still dragged them full gas on the descent and flat, handing them the maximum possible advantage. It was dreadful racing. And then what happened? Complanin both in race and the post-stage complaints about rivals, after a stage he very likely could have won with better choices made by himself. No introspection of course.

I still believe in his talent. I still think he has the physical ability to win the Tour one day, or at least the kind of ability that should put that within reach. What I doubt more and more is whether he has the brains and temperament for it.

This was one of the least enjoyable Remco races I have watched.

Sincerely, a concerned Remco believer

 

[canina82]

Some thoughts on Remco’s Volta a Catalunya (Sorry for long post).

I came into this race genuinely expecting a strong Remco. He is usually good after altitude camps, and the whole point of changing teams and training setup is to move closer to Pogacar and Vingegaard in Grand Tour GC level.

That expectation was clearly wrong. He was nowhere near that level here. He was not even clearly better than several of the other b-contenders, and he was plainly below Vingegaard. Just as concerning, if not more, he raced the GC in a way that seemed completely detached from the actual objective. Attacking in crosswinds is fine. Pulling hard with your main rival sitting comfortably on your wheel is just stupid. Crashing himself in the run-in was a fitting end to a race that, unfortunately, also felt very on-brand for him.

His behaviour throughout the race was childish, and revealing. The constant yelling, gesturing, and complaining about rivals not pulling when they had every reason not to pull was just embarrassing. It may create drama and entertainment, but for a rider in his seventh professional season it is getting old. At some point he has to grow out of this. Stop wasting energy on theatre. Ask whether Pogacar behaves like this. He does not. Learn from that.

Tactically, Remco is very poor. Frankly, I think he is among the worst tactical riders at the top level of the sport. Give many other riders his engine and they would get more out of it. The one smart thing he did in races was attacking over the top of climbs, where he could use his power and aerodynamics on flatter and downhill terrain. Then on the final stage he went back to attacking on the steep wall, which suits him far less, and I almost lost my mind. Even when riders held his wheel on the climb, he still dragged them full gas on the descent and flat, handing them the maximum possible advantage. It was dreadful racing. And then what happened? Complanin both in race and the post-stage complaints about rivals, after a stage he very likely could have won with better choices made by himself. No introspection of course.

I still believe in his talent. I still think he has the physical ability to win the Tour one day, or at least the kind of ability that should put that within reach. What I doubt more and more is whether he has the brains and temperament for it.

This was one of the least enjoyable Remco races I have watched.

Sincerely, a concerned Remco believer

No, he doesn't have the ability. We can't say he will win the Tour when his best GT performance is a 3rd place, almost 10' behind (yes, he performed better in the 2024 TdF than in the 2022 Vuelta).

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Some thoughts on Remco’s Volta a Catalunya (Sorry for long post).

I came into this race genuinely expecting a strong Remco. He is usually good after altitude camps, and the whole point of changing teams and training setup is to move closer to Pogacar and Vingegaard in Grand Tour GC level.

That expectation was clearly wrong. He was nowhere near that level here. He was not even clearly better than several of the other b-contenders, and he was plainly below Vingegaard. Just as concerning, if not more, he raced the GC in a way that seemed completely detached from the actual objective. Attacking in crosswinds is fine. Pulling hard with your main rival sitting comfortably on your wheel is just stupid. Crashing himself in the run-in was a fitting end to a race that, unfortunately, also felt very on-brand for him.

His behaviour throughout the race was childish, and revealing. The constant yelling, gesturing, and complaining about rivals not pulling when they had every reason not to pull was just embarrassing. It may create drama and entertainment, but for a rider in his seventh professional season it is getting old. At some point he has to grow out of this. Stop wasting energy on theatre. Ask whether Pogacar behaves like this. He does not. Learn from that.

Tactically, Remco is very poor. Frankly, I think he is among the worst tactical riders at the top level of the sport. Give many other riders his engine and they would get more out of it. The one smart thing he did in races was attacking over the top of climbs, where he could use his power and aerodynamics on flatter and downhill terrain. Then on the final stage he went back to attacking on the steep wall, which suits him far less, and I almost lost my mind. Even when riders held his wheel on the climb, he still dragged them full gas on the descent and flat, handing them the maximum possible advantage. It was dreadful racing. And then what happened? Complanin both in race and the post-stage complaints about rivals, after a stage he very likely could have won with better choices made by himself. No introspection of course.

I still believe in his talent. I still think he has the physical ability to win the Tour one day, or at least the kind of ability that should put that within reach. What I doubt more and more is whether he has the brains and temperament for it.

This was one of the least enjoyable Remco races I have watched.

Sincerely, a concerned Remco believer

Ok, good rant, but it‘s actually his eighth professional season already, not seventh

 

[Tim Cahill]

As someone who doesn't really care whether he wins The Tour and don't really have an opinion either way on him as a person I found his performance in Volta a Catalunya extremely compelling and entertaining, and always look forward to races he participates in, which is the most important thing, sport is to be enjoyed.

He reminds me a little of one of my favourites at the moment actually, 'Harry Brook', he seemingly has no brains (in the context of the sport), listens to no criticism, flat out refuses to change his style or approach which gets massive flack from all corners, but there's an air of greatness about him and you find yourself leaning forward every time you see him. 'Get ready everyone, he's about to do something stupid.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2004443767815000390

 

[houtdffan]

honestly, given his injury, he was not bad at this race

I have my doubts that he would have been up with Vingo, but he probably finishes second had he not crashed, as well as winning stage 3 (Vingo was not beating Remco in a flat sprint)

However, what is alarming is that he found a new way to crash. He's fully gone down the Contador route with his bike handling. Finding new ways to crash each race

 

[ashhutch1997]

Instead of complaining to the media about the way Jonas Vingegaard races 'defensively' to the media (despite him attacking and gaining almost 3 mins on him and winning 2 stages). He should maybe observe how Jonas rides and learn from it, rather than doing pointless attacks and wasting energy.
I've defended Remco in the past but this week he has been very unlikable. I don't think hell ever come close to winning the TDF, especially with the likes of Del Toro and Sexas coming through, I actually don't think he'll win another GT.
Bora are paying massive money for a luxury Domestique at this rate. He doesn't have the build or mentality for GT's. I think he'd be better off targeting classics.

 

[Extinction]

Some wildly dramatic takes on here. The only thing stupid Remco did was to insist in his attack with Vingegaard sitting on his wheel during stage 2. The crash was due to hitting a pothole he didn't see. Stuff happens. Attacking on the last stage was part of the team strategy. It's just that each year the level of the peloton keeps rising; and everybody knew he was going to attack then, so they were ready for it. It would have been better to go all in with one, last lap attack from about a third up the climb. Attacking over the top was never going to do much damage. His climbing was affected by the crash on stage 4, whereas on the queen stage 5 he climbed with best until droping half way up the finishing climb, losing 27 secs to a clearly high level Jonas. Not bad. He's still finding his way at Bora, but showed team spirit in working for Lipowitz. Winning the Tour is highly unlikely, but Bora must have known that, but will still get a return on their investment. As long as Remco remains one of the top stars of the sport who constantly draws attention, which, for better or for worse, he undoubtedly does, it's money well spent. He's a personality who is always going to provide publicity. In this sense, he doesn't have to win the Tour, but just give Bora lots of exposure. And if he wins the Tour, they hit the jackpot. His real problem is that he's not going to win Liege either, unless something happens to Pogacar. Bora's and his big mistake was insisting on a calendar that doesn't really change anything from the past. It's high time he turns page and starts anew, or at least tries something very different, spices it up a bit, even for himself in trying new challenger, but above without stress. As I've already stated, he should have done MSR and be doing Flanders at least, if not Roubaix also, this year. Then I'd do Giro-Tour combo, like used to be done in the 80s. That's how Bora would get maximum exposure and hence spend their money best. He's not going to win the Tour anyway, so at least the possibility of doing something unexexpectedly great is put on the table. Yet Bora has chosen the hard-headed, conservative approach that likely will be falimentary. It's a pitty.

 

[Berniece]

No, he doesn't have the ability. We can't say he will win the Tour when his best GT performance is a 3rd place, almost 10' behind (yes, he performed better in the 2024 TdF than in the 2022 Vuelta).

Finishing on the podium literally shows you also have the ability to win

 

[peterfin]

I wanted to answer to the overly dramatic takes but Extinction already made a great post. A few additional observations. His antics and complaining where not unusual or inaccurate. It just exposed the difference in mentality and strategy between Remco en Jonas. His sprints were really good and will give him confidence for the classics. Considering his crash, his base level is great for the longer races coming up. He showed RBH he is a real team player and will even better integrate in the group. While Jonas was good, Remco also correctly felt that he was not that exceptional so that will likely give him some confidence too.

 

[KoopaCycling]

I wanted to answer to the overly dramatic takes but Extinction already made a great post. A few additional observations. His antics and complaining where not unusual or inaccurate. It just exposed the difference in mentality and strategy between Remco en Jonas. His sprints were really good and will give him confidence for the classics. Considering his crash, his base level is great for the longer races coming up. He showed RBH he is a real team player and will even better integrate in the group. While Jonas was good, Remco also correctly felt that he was not that exceptional so that will likely give him some confidence too.

He did make a gesture towards Lipo on the final stage (didn't see it myself but saw it mentioned).
It may sound little compared to the rest, but small things can irk.

In any case having another co leader only works when the race is close (when talking about the win, not top 10 placements) . Aside from taking away some stress.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Some thoughts on Remco’s Volta a Catalunya (Sorry for long post).

I came into this race genuinely expecting a strong Remco. He is usually good after altitude camps, and the whole point of changing teams and training setup is to move closer to Pogacar and Vingegaard in Grand Tour GC level.

That expectation was clearly wrong. He was nowhere near that level here. He was not even clearly better than several of the other b-contenders, and he was plainly below Vingegaard. Just as concerning, if not more, he raced the GC in a way that seemed completely detached from the actual objective. Attacking in crosswinds is fine. Pulling hard with your main rival sitting comfortably on your wheel is just stupid. Crashing himself in the run-in was a fitting end to a race that, unfortunately, also felt very on-brand for him.

His behaviour throughout the race was childish, and revealing. The constant yelling, gesturing, and complaining about rivals not pulling when they had every reason not to pull was just embarrassing. It may create drama and entertainment, but for a rider in his seventh professional season it is getting old. At some point he has to grow out of this. Stop wasting energy on theatre. Ask whether Pogacar behaves like this. He does not. Learn from that.

Tactically, Remco is very poor. Frankly, I think he is among the worst tactical riders at the top level of the sport. Give many other riders his engine and they would get more out of it. The one smart thing he did in races was attacking over the top of climbs, where he could use his power and aerodynamics on flatter and downhill terrain. Then on the final stage he went back to attacking on the steep wall, which suits him far less, and I almost lost my mind. Even when riders held his wheel on the climb, he still dragged them full gas on the descent and flat, handing them the maximum possible advantage. It was dreadful racing. And then what happened? Complanin both in race and the post-stage complaints about rivals, after a stage he very likely could have won with better choices made by himself. No introspection of course.

I still believe in his talent. I still think he has the physical ability to win the Tour one day, or at least the kind of ability that should put that within reach. What I doubt more and more is whether he has the brains and temperament for it.

This was one of the least enjoyable Remco races I have watched.

Sincerely, a concerned Remco believer

One has to admit that he had a pretty valid excuse this time (the crash). His performance on stage 5 was poor indeed but on stage 6 his level was considerably higher (but his role was to work for Lipo). We expected more from stage 7 but he likely fired shots too early there, stage 3 was kinda showing off by him (so tactically indeed those stages were waste of energy).

 

[KoopaCycling]

One has to admit that he had a pretty valid excuse this time (the crash). His performance on stage 5 was poor indeed but on stage 6 his level was considerably higher. We expected more from stage 7 but he likely shot too many fires too early there, stage 3 was kinda showing off by him (so tactically indeed those stages were waste of energy).

Poor relatively speaking. he was 37 seconds of Third place finisher. Poor from what we want to see from him.
The question is how much did the crash affect him. And that is what i find frustrating. Not the result. I never expected Remco to beat Vingegaard here. So second place or fifth don't matter to me in catalunya. I wanted to be able to gauge his climbing. And with the crash it was still respectable. But i wanted to see where he was at without the crash. Now we must wait till the dauphiné. And he'll have allergies there, you wait and see... I dunno, in my mind this was the best place to gauge what we can maybe expect from him in the Tour (with a small layer of improvement added for the Tour)

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Poor relatively speaking. he was 37 seconds of Third place finisher. Poor from what we want to see from him.
The question is how much did the crash affect him. And that is what i find frustrating. Not the result. I never expected Remco to beat Vingegaard here. So second place or fifth don't matter to me in catalunya. I wanted to be able to gauge his climbing. And with the crash it was still respectable. But i wanted to see where he was at without the crash. Now we must wait till the dauphiné. And he'll have allergies there, you wait and see... I dunno, in my mind this was the best place to gauge what we can maybe expect from him in the Tour (with a small layer of improvement added for the Tour)

It's likely that he was more affected on stage 5 than on stage 6 (recovery). On stage 6 he was IMO close to Vingegaard, level-wise (but I also think Vingegaard didn't have a good day then).

 

[canina82]

Instead of complaining to the media about the way Jonas Vingegaard races 'defensively' to the media (despite him attacking and gaining almost 3 mins on him and winning 2 stages). He should maybe observe how Jonas rides and learn from it, rather than doing pointless attacks and wasting energy.
I've defended Remco in the past but this week he has been very unlikable. I don't think hell ever come close to winning the TDF, especially with the likes of Del Toro and Sexas coming through, I actually don't think he'll win another GT.
Bora are paying massive money for a luxury Domestique at this rate. He doesn't have the build or mentality for GT's. I think he'd be better off targeting classics.

He thinks he is superior to Vingegaard but the road puts everyone in their place.
Regarding his GT palmares, I'm sure he will not win another GT, let alone the TdF. His best performance is a race where he finished almost 10' behind a rider from his generation (same amount of professional years and his development seems less stagnant than Remco despite being 16 months older). Pinot never was a rider I believed, he would win the TdF despite his 3rd place 8' behind Nibali and I'm pretty sure his 2019 campaign is something Remco will never do (being so close to win the TdF).

 

[Berniece]

I dunno, in my mind this was the best place to gauge what we can maybe expect from him in the Tour (with a small layer of improvement added for the Tour)

According to RBH everything is going according to plan to be competitive during TDF. And if you put on your rose-coloured RBH branded glasses, it does look like this. If he actually was able to follow Vingegaard in Catalunya everything is going well.

 

[Extinction]

Bora needs to instill in Remco that he just has to concentrate on the day's performance, stage by stage, and a good GC will result naturally follow. In other words, stop thinking about having to win the Tour, just go and do your best each day, without stress. Would he be able to do this with his "must win" mentality? Probably not. However, it can be worked on and it's not too late to start doing so.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Finishing on the podium literally shows you also have the ability to win

Peraud says hello, among others that would need a lot going their way.

 

[Berniece]

Peraud says hello, among others that would need a lot going their way.

Sure, but it's silly to say he doesn't have what it takes to win the TDF. Obviously not if everything goes right for everyone, he isn't the best GT rider. But that's not how a GT is decided... Not every race, the best one wins. Luckily, that's the charm of cycling.

 

[Red Rick]

He has the same thing hes been saying for years. He would have been able to follow of if if if.

 

[Berniece]

He has the same thing hes been saying for years. He would have been able to follow of if if if.

Rich coming from a Roglic fan. Roglic himself doesn't talk like that though

 

[canina82]

Peraud says hello, among others that would need a lot going their way.

Basically what I'm realizing is Remco can win the TdF if he gained Nibali's best ability, the ability to make others fall (vodoo Nibali).