Remco Evenepoel was not present in Paris this morning for the
Tour de France presentation, however he kept a very close eye on what was to be revealed in Paris. Of course, for those with a close eye the route was already fully out there, but the Belgian had the confirmation of what is to come in 2025 and has already shared some interesting insight into his ambitions.
“It’s a very particular and very beautiful route. Moreover, with the Grand Départ not far from my house," Evenepoel says in words to L´'Equipe. Born in the south of Belgium, he will only be a short drive away from his hometown if he is to start the Tour de France next July in the Hauts-de-France. As a strong classics rider and threat in the hilly races, the many opportunities in the first week make him a dangerous card for the overall classification once again.
Although on the first week, the presence of a time-trial on stage 5 before the presence of any high mountain stage makes him a great favourite to take on the yellow jersey if he is to put all of his chips in the Grand Boucle. "The fact that there is a time trial so early in the program gives me the opportunity to wear the Yellow Jersey in the first week. Of course, eventually this will have little importance for the final general classification".
But the
Soudal - Quick-Step rider is under no illusion that the race will be decided there; instead it will be in the many mountainous stages which feature a very similar formula, but each with a long and steep summit finish both in the Pyrenees, Alps and also Mont Ventoux. "There will then be many climbs and many stages to tackle. The mountain sections seem beautiful to me, with many legendary passes to climb," he concluded.
Sounds like a concession to me in Remco's mind.
RE is young you can't count him out, ok, T Pog., was really strong this yr & Jonas V should be back to strength and Pog knows this, - should be quite good
He needs a team. Protecting yellow so early will cost him in the end unless they just happily let it get taken away quickly.
Doesn't matter how strong his team is, he's not keeping yellow, if he even gets it
That's a narrow minded assumption that Remco isn't going to improve.
No, you're making an assumption of what I mean. Thr fact is that he would havfeto improve massively to be on the necessarily level, unrealistic amount and then survive everything Jonas and Pogi can throw at him, with the better teams
Considering how fast he improved to this year’s level, it is not to be dismissed. TP also improved a lot this year, however, given he’s been cycling endurance (unlike MVDP who only moved to real endurance later in life) at a top level since his early teens, he’s logically the least likely to continue improving long, 2-3 years max before he « plateaus »
Look at it very practically. If Remco was missing 30w on longer climbs this year, and he adds 20 next year and Pogacar only adds 5 more, Remco is still 15 behind. He can reduce the gap, but he definitely won't close it in a year
Never count anyone out. It could be anyones race. Odds are never 0 if you are in the race.
@Mistermaumau If that is true, then I suspect MVDP to beat TP in a few years. I doubt Pogacar is hitting his max in 2-3 years. Yes it wil level off (it always does), it will just get harder to improve. Knowing how smart TP is, he rarely crashes, rarely has injury, rarely has setback to ny knowledge. That makes him so superhuman. I think no one will get close in 2-3 years if he can keep up like this.
Remco is about 5-9 minutes after Vingo (normal year, not crashed) and Tadej. No matter what team/improvement he has/does: it's a huge gap.
Practically Pogacar won his first tour without a good team; he just had a superhuman good stage 20 time trial, and was in luck he wasn't further down behind Roglic.
But you know, some years later Vingegaard comes along with a top team and beats Pogacar because he hasn't quite got that good of a team, bit still. Now this year was especially easy for Pogacar because he was in superhuman form and the rest was not quite; imagine Vingegaard without the crash: I think he could have beaten Pogacar again.
Pocar is just improving every year so much that he is getting way to good for the rest. He is light and has high power output. That makes him a deadly force, because he will climb well and do well on the flats and time trials, and some sprints even.
and I think Tadej can improve more, have you seen his legs? this year is the first year that he doesn't have JUNIOR legs! Now you can see developed muscles. In a podcast of Giannini (main manager of the UAE) he told that in the past june, they celebrated the first vein in Pogi legs ahahah.