Michel Wuyts - "I am convinced that Remco had won this Giro d'Italia. I don't say 'could have won', but 'had won'"
CyclingWednesday, 31 May 2023 at 11:56
Primoz Roglic is the 2023 Giro d'Italia winner. According to Belgian cycling analyst Michel Wuyts however, the Slovenian's victory will be tainted by the fact that Remco Evenepoel was forced to withdraw due to covid.
"I am convinced that Remco had won this Giro d'Italia. I don't say 'could have won', but 'had won'," says the ex-Sporza commentator. Taking the win on two of the first nine stages, Evenepoel was holding the Maglia Rosa heading into the first rest day. Sadly for the Soudal - Quick-Step leader however, he wouldn't return to the race after the day-off, being forced to withdraw due to a positive covid diagnosis.
"On the basis of his boundless talent, on the basis that he had prepared for it for six months and that he was ready to contest that Giro at its peak for the full three weeks," continues Wuyts, listing his reasons why Evenepoel was the Maglia Rosa in waiting.
“In terms of thrills, this Giro is definitely going to be at the top, but in terms of intrinsic value, it is way at the bottom. The eternal waiting, anxious stuff, passive driving, staying in the block and hoping that something will happen in the final kilometre. And that too often failed. We have not been hungry in this Giro."
Heading into the stage 20 time-trial, Geraint Thomas was the man in pink and Wuyts was confident he would hold onto the race lead. "I had faith in Geraint Thomas, he radiated strength," said the Belgian. Sadly for Thomas it wasn't to be as Primoz Roglic overturned his 26-second deficit and took the win. "When you saw that bad luck, Roglic was clearly the better one. He lost the Giro when Tao Geoghegan Hart drops out. If that doesn't happen, they can keep playing both pawns. That gives a different race."
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- Maybe that is part of their strategy, get him to retire ;-) Anyway, we have Sky and Brailsford to thank for teams looking at every possible detail, and speaking of them, unfortunately now authorities are looking at every detail at Sky and it seems to be falling in more and more but like with Christian Horner in F1 for other reasons, some will cling on until the bitter endMistermaumau30-07-2025
- Because you are of the opinion Covid goes on strike at 40 Celsius? There was an extremely detailed study correlating Covid frequency to outdoor temp (without factoring in a/c that riders might resort to which increases risk even higher. I’ll only send you the title to check if you ask but you are just as much at risk around 40 than 5, safest temperatures seemed to be 17-24, worst 10-17. The range 24-40 is constantly high risk, at least as much as 5 and higher than anything below 5.Mistermaumau30-07-2025
- This is a more balanced take than most. It really is interesting listening to voices in the media exult in Pog's greatness, call him GOAT, and all that, then blame the results on Visma's tactics. Visma did the right thing by putting as much pressure on Pog as possible, but in the end Jonas had a couple of off days and Pog didn't. That's actually been the story of each of their TDF battles - Pog cracked on Granon, Hautacam, and Col de la Loze in Jonas's victories, Jonas cracked on Hautacam and the TT this year. Tadej's best is better than Jonas's best, but only slightly. If next year Jonas has all good days and Pog has one or two bad days, Jonas will win.MidnightRider30-07-2025
- Vollering is a cry baby, I posted on the other story related to this that it is an idiotic comment for Delcourt to make.mij30-07-2025
- Nobody cares what you think anymore, Johan. Go have your midlife crisis somewhere else.
santiagobenites30-07-2025 - I'll buck the trend, never been a fan of the ITV coverage always preferred Eurosport then GCN and now TNT. Make no bones about it this is all about money, Warner Bros and Discovery shafted Eurosport UK & GCN and what it was doing superbly well to tuck it behind the TNT paywall, of course the kick in the teeth was adverts back during the Tour. It's not even about cycling, it, Moto Gp and most of the other sports are simply there to subsidise football so they can continue to pay these over priced prima donnas vast salaries. Minority sports will always suffer at the hands of commercialism and sodding football, can you tell I hate football??. All that will happen is that more and more people will go down the Firestick VPN route that puts nothing into cycling pockets. the sport needs the commercialism to survive but not at the cost of expanding coverageslappers6630-07-2025
- Depends on Almeida classification: if Joao is consistently higher to Ayuso, then a lot of bees will sting Juancito (or some strange Covid that lives in summer at 40°C will infect him, like happened in Tour 2024)
maria2024202430-07-2025 - No Ayuso won't but I hope that Joao doesslappers6630-07-2025
- An interesting read but I think Simon Yates just winning the Giro deserved a bit of a mention.joebloggs30-07-2025
- The way Visma analyse him in minute detail so that Jonas can train to out-perform him in every respect has already exhausted him. An attempt at only one more Tour, I would think.Hill3330-07-2025
I have to admit that I'm laughing at this comment, so typical of sports comments in any competition. That he also thinks Geraint Thomas was the strongest, well, there you go, he's picking favorites based on impression, not based on competition. In the competition, we know who the winner is. Sports are cruel, most people lose, that's how it goes.
Primoz Roglic is the 2023 Giro d'Italia winner, and Remco is not. Primoz is winner, and Remco is not.
Indeed. I mean, if unfair breaks don't count and we just get to declare winners, Primoz is going to have quite a few more titles...including TDF.
Let me tell part time users like you, Remco will NEVER win any GT's in loaded rider field! He can't win the Giro and TDF, and certainly will not retain his Vuelta crown lmao. That guy is overrated!
Wow an unbiased opinion from a Belgian writer saying Remco would have won...come on now, you do know you have to finish the race to be considered the winner. They aren't won on 'coulda, woulda, shoulda's' ! Suck it up and give Roglic his due instead of whining.
I have to disagree.... I believe the problem of what he calls boring was the bad weather.