I made this quick video to show his actions while losing the front which I think is more “stunned” rather than seat dropped and cannot push. You will notice he does not even get out of the saddle to try to follow like the others around him. This was... the race defining moment. If, say, the seat post was too low and the power was there, he would stand (just like he did to drop Healy later in the race) to create a solution for the low seat.show more

I don't know why we are talking about this. Remco can tell us whatever story he wants but he's never been able to follow Tadej on a climb like this. Was it his seat post at fleche? How about liege? How about literally any TDF climb the last 2 years? What are we even doing here

I think it’s interesting to look at it all as it is unique for a rider to stop twice in the heat of the battle and also interesting how they ended up second at the end. Rider psychology and decision making is a whole world which makes racing so much more than just the results.

I'm not critiquing your breakdown Tom. Just more frustrated with the people running to Remco's defense. I even understand his frustration! He wears his emotion on his sleeve and he must be so frustrated that no matter what he does, he can't hang with Tadej on those kinds of parcours. I get it, but it's time to stop with the excuses in public. It's kind of embarrassing.

I mean Remco had an excuse for every race he lost to Pogi this year. From rain jacket in Fleche wallone to Seat post on Kigali🤣

Remco is a threshold style rider who just can't match hard accelerations on steep climbs. Maybe that's something he can work on and fix, but he seems more interested in excuses.

The saddle dropped before the climb started, try to ride a bike with a saddle too low for a couple of km, you’ll understand where it starts to hurt

If your legs are cramping then it will be very difficult to stand on the bike

I think you're f***ng right man, the problem with remco is his mentality. Excellent analysis. Saludos!

He said he was cramping due to the seat pbm so how can he stand & push the necessary watts?

Remco's head is his problem

His mechanic already said there was no problem. Remco is well known for his excuses.

Lucky his team car motor paced him back 4 times (toilet, bike swap *3) back to 2nd.

In an interwiev after race he said he had bad seat on bike no.2 (he said he changed it before Mt. Kigali) and he started cramping. I think that's the reason why he hasn't standed up. I actually believe him this.

Let’s just call it what it was. Evenepoel just wasn’t strong enough uphill.

The car isn’t coming past the group so you may as well drop back during the climb in anticipation of the change. Why sprint up the hill only to stop at the top?

If he was cramping, he couldn’t get up…

You can clearly see it when he's pedaling while seated. He's not being able to extend his legs as you normally would. It's like he's pedaling a children's bike.

I believe Remco. Why would he lie?

Yes but 1) Riding few kms full gaz with a dropped/inclinded saddle is leg-killer 100% 2) this is Remco and I mean, any grip may put him in trouble, especially when it's the key moment of the race, and at this point the problem is Remco needs to show the whole world he has a pb

Two teammates confirmed immediately after their abandonment that Remco had problems with his saddle before the climb.

He was already riding from the foot with the problem, said he started cramping when he had to put in to much power, sorry but that sounds a lot more reasonable than what ever you are saying.

Crybaby Remco 😪😭

Si miras los tiempos por vuelta desde la subida larga solo 1 vuelta fue más rápido Remco, el resto siempre estuvo detras. Fue una contrarreloj con una carga de 160km precios y Pogacar ahí es el mejor. Remco no es capaz de seguirle en grandes escaladas pero contra el crono si

The batteries hit zero

Also keep rolling while waiting for the car,

If he had time to pull over and use a portable toilet come on!!! He said in the interview “ I started cramping.”

💯

His seat drop of the golden bike was confirmed after the race and happened BEFORE the Kigali climb which caused him cramping after some km's. Seems logical if you can't push 400 Watts no more bc of cramps you can't stand up no more neither. Second bike change is debatable.

His legs were cramping, how is he supposed to stand up then?

I wrote an in-depth personality analysis on Remco two weeks before he even abandoned the TDF.

even me who is not pro knows that he was lying ....imagine the weight on this os his fellow belgian friends and cycling riders...

When you look at the angle between his upper and lowerleg in the flat in the first part and on the climb, there is not much difference between those two. If the seat post was lower you would expect a big difference as 5 mm can give already a difference of 4-7 degrees

Ahí no había fuerzas y listo

I think Remco can't believe that he can't beat Tadej in a one day race, and in fact, he never has.

Yes. Even his mechano said that the settings were good. Remco his just a very bad loser. When Tadej loses he doesn’t try to find excuse and congratulates the winner. Remco won’t be a champion if he keeps acting like this.

So?

If you looked at the Netflix documentary about tour de France you will see he is really looking up on Pogacar. It's like Tadej is too much for him. Maybe he is convincing himself that he cannot beat Tadej on his territory. A bit of self fullfilling prophecy