Would a return to national teams in the pro ranks be good?

spezial

It's been a while since the peloton was divided up in this way, but would it be a good time to shake up the structure of the sport in the mens pro race calendar?

With all the negative press over the last few years, plus the adverse financial conditions, a lot of teams have struggled with establishing and retaining sponsorship, so would this national team angle help with this? Maybe this link to a national organisation and any arguable sponsorship benefits this might have may lead to a bit more stability with teams. There have been a raft of positive doping tests riders who have been riding for teams who are on the verge of going out of business (Gerolsteiner, Xacebo, etc, etc), so could this even help out in this respect a little too?

There are a few de facto national teams out there, such as Sky, Rabobank, Katusha, Astana and now Pegasus & the Luxembourg team. Although these teams may not have their lead rider(s) from the nations they "represent", their roots are often tied into the national teams (Rabobank & Sky both sponsor their associations). The UCI could specify that teams should have a majority of home grown riders, with a few overseas riders in there to balance things out.

I know this idea is far from perfect, as some smaller nations would struggle to fill a roster with enough riders to field a team for a full season's worth of events, but I thought it might be interesting to throw it out there and see what everyone thought.

Bronzie

I can't see it would really make much difference to the current doping culture.

When there is sucess, money and fame at stake, people will be tempted to cheat. It even happens at amateur level where there's no money or fame.

rick_chasey

No it'd be rubbish.

Nationalism is sooo 19th & 20th Century.

Get over it!

OffTheBackAdam

And who'd want to sponsor Luxemburg? (Just as an example)
How would the Italian team be picked and what would those left out do?
It's a non-starter of an idea.

spezial

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

And who'd want to sponsor Luxemburg?

Well I guess we're about to find out!

There could be "B" squads as an equivalent to pro-conti teams I suppose for nations with more riders.

It's not an idea I've thought through massively, but it used to work, and it works in the Worlds, and I think the added stability it could potentially offer could be beneficial.

Most other sports where teams are involved have at least a handful of teams with established lineages and histories. What cycling teams can be traced back further than 20 years?

Bronzie

Spezial wrote:

Most other sports where teams are involved have at least a handful of teams with established lineages and histories. What cycling teams can be traced back further than 20 years?

The difference is that most true team sports require a venue (ie stadium) which has a fixed geographic location and the fanbase is often linked to that area. Cycling is too nomadic for any team to have anything like a geographical area of operation.

I blame modialisation.

inkyfingers

I think it's a bad idea as it's likely to just make the sport even more dominated by Belgian, Italian and Spanish riders.

shm_uk

I think Pro teams should be selected in the same way we used to pick the teams for football at school break times.

Nominate team captains, line everybody else up, then the captains take it in turns to pick who they want

spezial

shm_uk wrote:

I think Pro teams should be selected in the same way we used to pick the teams for football at school break times.

Nominate team captains, line everybody else up, then the captains take it in turns to pick who they want

Michael Rasmussen would be the fat (thin) kid nobody wants!

RichN95.

As arguably the best run and most successful team is an American owned, Taiwanese sponsored, German managed, British lead collection of 14 different nationalities, I'll say it's a bad idea.

And there's hasn't been a hint of doping about them since Sinkewicz two and a half years ago.

iainf72

I hate to be positive about HTC, but Rich is right. That is truely the model of the future.

Pokerface

Only problem is that some countries could field 3 or 4 teams and some countries only have a handful of decent riders - if that.

Garry H

I think Brailsford would suddenly find a lot of Italians with British ancestry. Cue "Grannygate" again (For those familiar with Shane Howarth!).

cajun_cyclist

Italy is pants at the Tour, all of their biggest riders too, Basso etc. have been popped for cheating but what else would you suspect? They've virtually had state sponsored programmes.