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Tour de Pologne 2020

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Can't chapeau for this, it's bit high to handle personally. If it looks too good to be true, it usually is. Sorry. What I mean is that other athletes are mostly no beginners.
I have no issues if you "think this is too good to be true", even if it's baseless, but what bothers me, is the fact that i've seen posts of yours in the past, to ridicule people who were calling what he did superb, and downplaying his former exploits and waving the "we'll see when he faces real competition" flag. Now that he does it against real competition, he's a doper. Sorry, seems like you made up your mind a long time ago that you would either ridicule his minor wins, and play the doping card with his major wins.
 
Nobody mentioned Kamil Małecki? A big thing for him to be in the top10 overall among those names, especially considering the fact he was burning energy in a breakaway on a flat stage earlier in the race. And he was even able to show nice acceleration to the finish line despite being in the early break today too. I wonder if it's a one-off or we will see more of him in the future.
 
This is insane. He can win whatever race he wants to win in his career, anything. Paris-Tours just to get one up on Merckx if he wants, he is like a cheat code on a Playstation game. It’s like when you could make a player on Pro Evo or Fifa and you give them full stats on everything.

You can’t bet against him to win the Giro now.
 
Has anyone here experienced the Merckx era? Can this be compared to his dominance? I’ve watched cycling for around 30 years and I’ve never seen anything similar.

in a word. Yes.

however the test of three weeks and successive high mountains awaits.

however this type of ride harkens to merckx tour de Flandres 1975 and his gratuitous stage win in orleans in 1974 (look it up). :)

the ability to simply ride people off his wheel on almost any terrain and then steadily pull away from a group is something I have only see Merckx and Hinault do on a regular basis.

And he is only 20...
 
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Wow. Just watched the stage. This reminds me of Jan Ullrich's 70K breakaway in a hilly stage in i think Hessen Rundfahrt (or was it Niedersachsen Rundfahrt? at least a German 1 week tour with lots of hilly climbs) or maybe rather Tyler Hamiltons +50K hilly breakaway in the Tour 2003.
And then at the last climb I thought Fuglsang would narrow the gap significantly - but complete the opposite!
Remco is the beast to follow for years to come.
 
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Can't chapeau for this, it's bit high to handle personally. If it looks too good to be true, it usually is. Sorry. What I mean is that other athletes are mostly no beginners.
I’m not suspicious for one important reason: he was the best junior rider by a large margin. His performances as a pro are in line with his junior performances. It’s the same reason why I trusted VdPs run last year. I don’t want to continue this discussion in this thread as I think this is against forum rules.
 
Has anyone here experienced the Merckx era? Can this be compared to his dominance? I’ve watched cycling for around 30 years and I’ve never seen anything similar.

I didn't experience the Merckx era, but I'm guessing that many of the big races other riders looked like they wanted to win. What I saw today was a group of about 30 riders waiting for Eddie Dunbar to all the chasing for 30km while RE racked up a minute's lead. At the moment he's winning races that no-one else seems to care about.
 
Wow. Just watched the stage. This reminds me of Jan Ullrich's 70K breakaway in a hilly stage in i think Hessen Rundfahrt (or was it Niedersachsen Rundfahrt? at least a German 1 week tour with lots of hilly climbs) or maybe rather Tyler Hamiltons +50K hilly breakaway in the Tour 2003.
And then at the last climb I thought Fuglsang would narrow the gap significantly - but complete the opposite!
Remco is the beast to follow for years to come.
Where did you watch it? Just have seen the highlights on YouTube. Thx!
 
I didn't experience the Merckx era, but I'm guessing that many of the big races other riders looked like they wanted to win. What I saw today was a group of about 30 riders waiting for Eddie Dunbar to all the chasing for 30km while RE racked up a minute's lead. At the moment he's winning races that no-one else seems to care about.
While his wins this year have all been lesser stage races, the idea that somehow others didn’t want to win them...well...I guess I’ll just say that doesn’t come off as a particularly astute comment.
 
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While his wins this year have all been lesser stage races, the idea that somehow others didn’t want to win them...well...I guess I’ll just say that doesn’t come off as a particularly astute comment.
Well I watched the race. And no-one seemed interested in chasing until it was too late. It was as if no-one really cared.

I see there's a thread about who underachieved the most. Put me down for Remco in 10 years time. He'll do well, but he won;t meet the current hype.
 
Not taking anything away from Remco, but they could have brought him back if they'd worked together. Instead it was if they followed the "How NOT to bring back a breakaway" handbook.

Remco's timing was also incredible. If this guy also has great tactical nous to go along with the legs, the peloton is in trouble

He always attacks on a moment where others have to catch a breath after an effort. And he’s really good at sensing that. I think others could have definitely followed but that might have meant Remco stepping on their lungs. And in the chase there just weren’t that many good teammates of favorites left. And as a favorite you don’t want to get isolated too soon with him being up the road and the tank of energy he has.
Best thing you can do is just sit in his wheel the whole time. But then again..with Remco you never know when he goes..
 
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Well I watched the race. And no-one seemed interested in chasing until it was too late. It was as if no-one really cared.

I see there's a thread about who underachieved the most. Put me down for Remco in 10 years time. He'll do well, but he won;t meet the current hype.
Your take is that the guy who is currently smashing the lofty expectations (the next Merckx) set upon him, will somehow not meet expectations and be labeled a disappointment. OK.

Can’t wait to see the scribed gymnastics required to square that circle in the coming months and years.
 
Your take is that the guy who is currently smashing the lofty expectations (the next Merckx) set upon him, will somehow not meet expectations and be labeled a disappointment. OK.

Can’t wait to see the scribed gymnastics required to square that circle in the coming months and years.

My take is he won a race that no-on else seemed to care about. Merckx won races that other racers wanted to win.
 
I have no issues if you "think this is too good to be true", even if it's baseless, but what bothers me, is the fact that i've seen posts of yours in the past, to ridicule people who were calling what he did superb, and downplaying his former exploits and waving the "we'll see when he faces real competition" flag. Now that he does it against real competition, he's a doper. Sorry, seems like you made up your mind a long time ago that you would either ridicule his minor wins, and play the doping card with his major wins.
...baseless...how many times have we been fooled, and maybe we are still fooled. I understand the skeptics, but won't get down that forbidden road. No one should. At least not here.

There are generational talents who redefine sports or open new eras, like Hinault at the '77 Dauphiné. Remco isn't coming from nowhere, what he did today was a thing for the ages. Really. Only the best attempt and achieve that. We may be seeing the...new Merckx.
 
My take is he won a race that no-on else seemed to care about. Merckx won races that other racers wanted to win.
Yes. He's actually quite liked in the peloton. People think he's arrogant and that nobody wants to have anything to do with him, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, last week, in Burgos, you can actually hear Bennett shouting towards Chaves: "hey Esteban, slow down, Remco can't follow". Chaves immediately slows down, and as Evenepoel bridges, you can hear Chaves say "Sorry Eddy, i didn't notice you were dropped, you can ride away now". It's clear as day.
Same thing happened at San Sebastian. You can see Remco discussing something with Skuijns. People thought that this was some kind of squabble, but they were in fact just discussing where it would be most believable for Skuijns to get dropped. Also, the guys chasing, Valverde, Konrad, Carthy, Mollema, you can literally SEE them talking and telling each other not to go too fast because else they might catch Remco, and that San Sebastian is a race they don't care about at all.

You really don't have to be a good cyclist, just ask the guys before the race starts:



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"Guys, can i please please please win today?"

And BAM, people call you the next Merckx.
 
My take is he won a race that no-on else seemed to care about. Merckx won races that other racers wanted to win.

this is actually kind of silly or just sour grapes perhaps (?)...

especially in this shortened season that might be ended at any time, many riders have actually stated that the quality and the stress level is very high as there is huge pressure to win now.

the notion, in any season, that other than the very established GT winners have the luxury to "not try" in these races is simply ludicrous.

ask that to yates and majka who looked positively shattered coming across the finish line having lost 2'22"...
 
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My take is he won a race that no-on else seemed to care about. Merckx won races that other racers wanted to win.
You’re already walking back your original statement, “his wins this year” (7) to “a race” (presumably today).

Suggesting no one wanted to win today just makes no sense. All the other guys in that break, all the work they did to get there, they didn’t care about the win? I’m sorry but that’s just nonsense.

It’s much simpler than that. He was too strong.

You still have him down as an underachiever in 10 years. He’s already done more than anyone thought he would at this point, repeatedly. He continues to reset expectations.

I wonder if some folks have just never seen an actual talent arrive on the scene. This is what it looks like. If he didn’t win a GT until he was 23 he’d still be a phenomenon. Anyone think it’s gonna take that long?
 
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Can't wait for the Giro, if Evenepoel can ride like that for 3 weeks, we are in for a complete revolution in stage racing.... he would become modern day Armstrong, to Bernal being modern day Pantani.

Oh and btw, am I a sadist, for having enjoyed watching Fuglsang torturing poor Majka, for the last 20 k of the stage? - I'm guessing he needed to take out some frustration ;)
 
I wonder if some folks have just never seen an actual talent arrive on the scene. This is what it looks like. If he didn’t win a GT until he was 23 he’d still be a phenomenon. Anyone think it’s gonna take that long?

actually, Tonton cites a perfect example -- Hinault at the Dauphiné in 1977.

He had actually won Gand Wevelgem by soloing from 30 kms out (sound like anyone?) and also won LBL for the first time. That gave everyone the sense at the time that a talent had arrived at the highest level.

However, his mountain climbing abilities -- as yet -- had not been tested against the best.

He went off to the Dauphiné -- where Merckx, Thevenet, Van Impe and others -- all the TDF riders were putting their final prep together.

Hinault beat them all -- and badly -- pulling himself out of a ravine to hold on in the mountains by 80 seconds over Van Impe (he was already in the leader's jersey but was attacking anyway).

At that point the new patron had clearly arrived.

He would destroy the rest of the field at the GP des Nations that year (basically the Worlds TT before there was one) -- the second rider was over three minutes behind (sound familiar?).

He would turn 23 that November.
 

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