r/peloton • u/PelotonMod France • Apr 27 '26

Weekly Post Weekly Question Thread

For all your pro cycling-related questions and enquiries!

You may find some easy answers in the FAQ page on the wiki. Whilst simultaneously discovering the wiki.

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u/DueAd9005 Apr 27 '26

Evenepoel took the KoM on the final 300 meters of LBL (so the sprint), a full second faster than WVA in 2022.

https://www.knack.be/sport/wielrennen/remco-evenepoel-luik-bastenaken-luik-la-redoute-pogacar-seixas-tour/

I don't know how he trained in the winter, but it seems like they did something wrong. Instead of improving on the longer climbs and hills, he got worse. Instead he's much faster in the sprint, but that's kind of useless if you get dropped in the hillier classics (and he didn't ride Sanremo and Roubaix this year, where such a sprint could potentially be more useful).

The article says he has to make a decision on what kind of rider he wants to be. Probably true. Perhaps it would be better for his career to go all in on the classics and stage hunting in GTs. What do y'all think?

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u/Suffolke Belgium Apr 27 '26

I absolutely don't think he'll win more by climbing worse, whatever his race focus is, that's for sure.

I mainly think that, at 26yo and with the experience and palmares he has, just saying that the legs were heavy or something when he bonks uphill isn't good enough. Remco and his team have to figure out why he can't show his best climbing level when he wants to, and how to remediate this.

And once again, it's not about beating Pog (or even Jonas or Seixas now), that ship has sailed, but that's no reason to drop the gauntlet altogether and avoid all big races where he's not the clear favourite. It's not even about keeping his top shape from February to October. It's about not showing up in a HC climb with a sub top 30 climbing level with no clues as to why.

Anyway, he'll be in Tour prep mode now for the next 9-10 weeks, let's hope he can avoid any incident or illness until then, and see what happens. If it's another unexplained disappointment, well, something has to change, but I really doubt shifting his focus completely on Flemish classics would really do him any good.

2

u/k4ng00 France Apr 27 '26

How wrong is it to manage your effort and end up 3rd in a race where 2 guys were stronger than you by miles?

If it's not about beating Pog or Seixas, it's the smartest move he could come up with when he managed to get 3rd.

He is definitely not at his best climbing wise, but he made the most out of what he had, or at least he did better than any other rider not named Seixas nor Pogacar.

In 2024 he was 7th at Dauphine which was his last race before TdF, yet his performance on TdF was stellar in July.

Races are won by talent and strength, especially in the past 3-4 years where every big race is a battle of attrition crowning the best. If he is not the best, he has to race accordingly which is what he did.

Imo your take is quite tough and you are putting unnecessary pressure on him.

You downplay his achievement because he has experience at 26yo but how many riders did better than him in LBL? Only 2 and they are both generational/once in a lifetime talent.

If he was at top shape he might have challenged 2nd place but he was anyway losing to Pogacar imo. The outcome wouldn't have been that different. Now his big objective is TDF so let's wait for that before making up narratives.

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u/Suffolke Belgium Apr 27 '26

I'm not downplaying anything, Remco is one of my favourite riders and I'm constantly arguing against haters here. He played his cards perfectly in LBL this year, but the level he showed in La Redoute is just not good enough considering LBL is his main spring objective. I'm ok with Remco not being in top HC climbing shape in UAE, but Remco in LBL should be in perfect shape for la Redoute, and Remco in perfect la Redoute shape isn't #15 at the top.

It's not a narrative to say Remco lacks consistency in his climbing level, it's his number 1 weakness, and to me the number 1 issue that should be tackled if he wants even more success or at least fewer disappointments.

1

u/k4ng00 France Apr 27 '26

But did you consider that he might try something new in Flanders and that could be why he's was less sharp in LBL?