More than 50 Spanish pro's without teams

iainf72

Picked this interesting article up at Velo-Club

http://www.velo-club.net/article.php?sid=49495

Some fairly well known names in the mix, like Koldo Gil and Ruben Lobato. But then if they're not getting a contract there is probably some kind of reason.

GroupOfOne MkII

Hmm every year there are articles about the number of Spanish pros without a team, many of the Spanish teams, beneath the top two or three, seem to come and go quite quickly, which obviously creates this problem.

As for the list though, slightly inaccurate. Jon Bru has retired and surely Paxti Villa, Duenas and Triki Beltran are suspended rather than unemployed. Unless it means they haven't managed to find a job down the local B&Q until their ban runs out

Could make a fairly decent team out of those riders though - Lobato, Pradera, Ventoso, Lloret, Gil. Shall we club together and sponsor them, could spice up the Premier Calendar this year

Kléber

The Spanish economy is crumbling and the authorities have done next to nada to fight doping, the country has become a haven for cheats - even Italian teams would travel to Spain to dope! - and refuses to prosecute. The behaviour of the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation is disgraceful. The major teams are in denial, pretending they don't know who Valv. Piti and who even thought Mauro Gianetti and Matxin Fernandez were capable of running the Saunier-Duval team?

It's a shame riders have to suffer from this lax attitude but until riders wake up, organise and start demanding an end to doping, they will struggle to convince sponsors to back a team.