Evenepoel vs. Roglic: The Golden Formula, Catalan Errors and Oldest General | gyro

Vuelta Giro Tour. Last winter, Remco Evenepoel once again defined the layout that was put in place.

After his overall victory in the Vuelta, he is now fully committed to the pink jersey in Italy, although he hasn’t really dared express that ambition out loud in recent months.

“The standards are set at a very high level,” says Renate Schott, our Italy correspondent. “He takes the pressure off himself in interviews, but you can’t miss it. Everyone only thinks about the final win given his stature and his accomplishments.”

In the lead up to the Vuelta Evenepoel he shone in San Sebastian, before this Giro he was impressive in Liege.

“Preparation is copy-paste. That’s a huge punishment, because now it’s happening at a different time in the season.”

“And if he succeeds again, he has the golden formula for years to come.”

In the spring, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert are always mentioned at the same time, in this period of the year are the twins Remco Evenepoel and Primoz Roglic.

Their preparation looked a little different: Roglic only raced in Tirreno-Adriatico and Catalunya and was suited to Liège, for example.

“Evenepoel will be fresh enough for this Giro,” Schott judges.

José de Cower: “Roglic had to go deeper in Tirreno and Catalunya. There was already the first peak there, because you don’t just win those races.”

In Catalunya we already got a taste of what will (usually) follow in the coming weeks: Roglic and Evenpoel collide almost every day.

De Caoer: “Evenpool must see that he doesn’t make the same mistakes he made in Catalunya. He’s done a lot with his team.”

“But on the other hand, he might as well have learned a lot. And then what? Isn’t he running 300 meters uphill.”

Schott disagrees with his cabin mate. “He didn’t make any mistakes. He just tried to win and he had to do something.”

De Cauwer argues: “He was better than Roglic, but he lost the race. He could handle Roglic if he started where he should start. He overdid himself and that won’t happen again.”

“I call it vain attempts,” Schott concludes the discussion. “Catalunya has been a great introduction to what we hope to see now in three weeks.”

“I especially hope for a fight without bad luck and breakdowns. Roglic is eliminated from the Vuelta and I want both of them to stay there until the end, which we know in Rome who is stronger after 3 weeks.”

For those three weeks, the third week seems terrifying. Could this difficult path also have a paralyzing effect?

“Sure,” Jose de Cauer shook his head. “The gain you made before may suddenly mean nothing anymore. You can be in the lead when you have already pushed yourself to the loss. It may one day be enough to fall into the ice.”

“And what are the weather conditions like at that altitude? There are still risks in May.” There certainly is, because at the moment many of the Giro’s giants are still surrounded by snow walls that paw the pass.

Conclusion: Can Evinbol outsmart their Slovenian rivals? “Yeah,” Schott didn’t hesitate for a moment. “We already know that. He could have done without that fall in the Vuelta last year. Evinpool is the number 1 favourite.”

De Cauwer: “Evenepoel is a year older than her, and Roglic too. At a certain point, being a year older is a positive element. In Evenepoel’s story, in this case.”