Ready for the recon of the first #TDF2024 ITT. Photo: @BeelWout
"45 seconds is a big gap" - Remco Evenepoel's coach plays down talk of Belgian taking yellow from Tadej Pogacar in Tour de France time-trial
CyclingFriday, 05 July 2024 at 14:30
On stage 7, the 2024 Tour de France enters Remco Evenepoel's terrain with the first individual time-trial. Just 45 seconds behind the Maillot Jaune of Tadej Pogacar, there has been some talk of the Belgian finishing the day in yellow. Evenepoel's coach however, isn't so sure.
"45 seconds is a big gap. Against a non-specialist it could still be possible, but Tadej Pogacar is no cakewalk either. Against him it will be very difficult," Evenepoel's Soudal - Quick-Step coach, Koen Pelgrim analyses in conversation with Sporza, also noting his rider's near perfect time-trial positioning. "That time trial position is very specific. You hold your muscles at a different angle than normal. You have to stay used to that. During a Grand Tour you can't maintain that position, the only opportunity you get is during loose riding."
The current time trial world champion, Evenepoel has understandably taken a big focus to stage 7. “We reconned this time trial twice: at the end of December after Christmas and just before the Tour, after his altitude training camp," Pelgrim recalls. "It's an important goal for us, for the classification but certainly also for the stage itself."
"I have a pacing plan in mind, but Remco's own input is also important. In the first part he will have to start strongly, but he will have to keep some reserve for that climb, so that he can ride with some surplus there," continues the coach. "It is a time trial that certainly suits him, with parts where he needs to be able to use his strength. But compared to the other classification riders it would have been better if it had been a bit flatter. That is more to his advantage."
Ahead of his Tour de France debut, Evenepoel has notably slimmed down. Whilst this will undoubtedly benefit the Belgian in the mountains, could it harm his time trial power however? "In a completely flat time trial, that weight loss would also mean a loss in absolute power," concludes Pelgrim. "But the uphill section will also play an important role."
claps 0visitors 256
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Exactly who, Joey, is "they"? Flimsy, illogical conspiracy theories aside, it is in no one's interest (financial or otherwise) to "drive away small local events." Major cultural and macroeconomic factors are reducing ridership, but there is no "they" in this context.verve82520-12-2024
- And our virtual platforms allow us to "ride" famous place that we can't get to in person, which is a pretty fabulous aspect of this weird weird sport.RidesHills19-12-2024
- Which off-season are you referring to? The one after he won the Tour of California? The one after he won 3 stages and was on the podium of the Vuelta? The one after TJV screwed up, never put him away, and lost the Tour on the time trial? We've seen the guy hit the wall, lose energy, nearly fail, and lose races ("I'm dead") more than once. He's got a visible threshold and his fueling regimen is a clear weak spot. You'll need more detail to make this more than under defined insinuations .RidesHills19-12-2024
- Interesting analysis. And yet, I'm in the US, and at a recent wedding reception as a group of us older folks had to stand at a certain place to keep track of a thing, we got to talking, and every single one of us had a favorite rider, a favorite circuit of races, a moment when we fell in love with the sport, and a joy in the complexities of it all. None of us knew about the other's fandom until that moment. It's wonderful that these are my brothers-in-law, and we now know to talk about this when the spouses aren't listening. Point being: there are fans all over, and for US folks, the loss of GCN+ has been huge. As so often, it's the media bottleneck that matters more than anything else. Look at F1 in the US before Netflix, as an example.RidesHills19-12-2024
- On the one hand, what he says is trivial. Of course it's genetics. It always is, in any sport. That's just obvious. Look at Mondo Duplantis, whose sprinting speed is key to his pole vaulting, for example - he's just plain faster than other vaulters and good at the rest of the event as well. In cycling, even when you take the most genetically weird group of people and give them amazing training, some will be better than others, as well. Distributions are distributions and there are outliers and that's just that. Pogacar's body is built for this kind of thing, it seems, with him only recently having had to pick up skills that others have used all along. I'm still inclined to believe that these folks are using entirely legal means to arrive at their shockingly good performance, given how more senior riders kinda complain about (or at least comment on) the regimens and control over the nutrition and exercise and all that. And in every population, there are edge cases of truly exceptional behavior.RidesHills19-12-2024
- And it’s likely going to get worse. They are going all-out to drive away small local events which are where a lot of new riders come from. They want fee income and Olympic medals. That’s all.JoeyB19-12-2024
- Oh Lordspock12319-12-2024
- Interesting suggestion, fo you think testing Tadej’s (or Bolts’ or so many others’) parents would have given us a preview of his potential then or what criteria do you have to pick parents with?Mistermaumau19-12-2024
- Even amateur teams suffer this sort. But this is also largely due to the precarious sponsorship, in very few sports do you find kit with so many sponsors having to be integrated and changing so regularly.Mistermaumau19-12-2024
- I think it’s pretty obvious what was responsible for destroying interest that used to be there.Mistermaumau19-12-2024