the spanish armada

bipedal
bipedal Posts: 466
edited July 2007 in Pro race
I've never really bought into the two speed peloton stuff, but there are a hell of alot of spaniards in the top 20

40 spaniards started (20% of the field)
6 in the top 10
10 in the top 20

Comments

  • skut
    skut Posts: 371
    They are a major cycling nation. Also, one of the teams has a Basque only employment policy, which skews the numbers slightly, I expect.

    Having said that, I don't entirely disagree with you that it's a bit suspect
  • off the back
    off the back Posts: 168
    But to be fair they only do week long stage races in Spain. There are bugger all 1-day races. So there riders are brought up on tough hilly 1 week plus stages races. This is a major contributing factor. Outside of that they have a cycling fed with about as much bite as a sardine!
  • Naz
    Naz Posts: 353
    But think of the top 10/20 before Astana (Kloden/Vino/Kaschechkin etc)/Rasmussen got kicked out. More of a mix then (but still prescious few French/Italians in GC contention).
    Naz

    www.kingstonwheelers.co.uk
  • ricadus
    ricadus Posts: 2,379
    Some of the Italian riders don't do the Tour in addition to the Giro, or if they do it is too soon after the Giro to be competitive, so that might also skew the figures in favour of another strong cycling nation.
    Tour de France

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