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Best and Worst National Champs jerseys

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Leinster said:
"The interest for national championships has been declining, while the interest for global races is increasing. More top-of-the-bill riders will skip the NC to prepare for the TDF. "

I think the other thing they're not saying is that there are a lot more national champions in the pro peloton these days. 20-30 years ago the only national champs you'd see in the Grand Tours/Monuments would be France, Italy, Spain, Belgium etc. the core European countries. Other countries wouldn't even have enough pro cyclists to have a pro road race Champs.

Now you have upwards of 50 different nationalities represented in the World Tour. In any given race a quarter of the field might be wearing a country jersey of some description.
This is a good point, and one that is a the heart of the constant tug of war for pro cycling between the commercial aspect and the traditions. I think there are 23 WT riders who are currently National Champions (and could be a lot more given how some of the races went this year), plus another 5 on teams who are regularly invited to WT events, plus the World and European Champions. So you could potentially have 30 riders in 'unique' kits. If these were all full flag jerseys, then a lot of sponsors would surely feel like they're not getting their moneys worth - especially as its often the most high profile/best riders wearing these jerseys.

You may even get a situation where teams with numerous national champions would have to omit certain riders from a race (who they would normally want there), just to ensure there were enough of their normal sponsor's jerseys on display.
 
Sep 12, 2016
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Dumoulin says he prefers to ride in full colours and that he understands the arguments of the team, but understands his own arguments (for riding in full colours) better. When asked whether he discussed this with Spekenbrink (team director) he replied: "It wasn't really a discussion. Iwan [Spekenbrink] basically told me what was going to happen and there was little I could do".

He continues to tell that the reason he rides the national championship is precisely the tricolore. "That's a feeling; it gives me morale".

Source, in Dutch: http://www.wielerupdate.nl/wielernieuws/41102/dumoulin-liever-zou-ik-in-een-volle-driekleur-rijden/
 
Re:

wouterkaas said:
Dumoulin says he prefers to ride in full colours and that he understands the arguments of the team, but understands his own arguments (for riding in full colours) better. When asked whether he discussed this with Spekenbrink (team director) he replied: "It wasn't really a discussion. Iwan [Spekenbrink] basically told me what was going to happen and there was little I could do".

He continues to tell that the reason he rides the national championship is precisely the tricolore. "That's a feeling; it gives me morale".

Source, in Dutch: http://www.wielerupdate.nl/wielernieuws/41102/dumoulin-liever-zou-ik-in-een-volle-driekleur-rijden/
Obviously Aru told Vino something very different! :cool: :lol:
 
Leinster said:
hrotha said:
Leinster said:
Now you have upwards of 50* different nationalities represented in the World Tour. In any given race a quarter of the field might be wearing a country jersey of some description.
[citation needed]
*Number of nationalities represented at World Tour level pulled right out of Leinster's behind. But I'd guess it's not tooooo far out.
I just skimmed through the World Tour squads and counted 46.
 
Re:

hrotha said:
It was more like, citation needed for the claim that in any given race a quarter of the field might be wearing a country jersey of some description.
Again, as much exaggeration for effect, but it does seem like we see a lot more Nats jerseys in the peloton than ever before, as cycling becomes more and more international. I maybe should have said that a quarter or more of the cyclists in any given race could have Nationals bands on their sleeves, given how some of the "smaller" countries can tend to share the title between their handful of elite riders.

Then you have the situation where Bob Jungels and Niki Terpstra were both 2016 Champs, racing for QuickStep, and the Luxembourg and Netherlands jerseys were almost identical; http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/bob-jungels-thanks-support-im-not-niki-terpstra-221395
 
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Re: Re:

Leinster said:
hrotha said:
It was more like, citation needed for the claim that in any given race a quarter of the field might be wearing a country jersey of some description.
Again, as much exaggeration for effect, but it does seem like we see a lot more Nats jerseys in the peloton than ever before, as cycling becomes more and more international. I maybe should have said that a quarter or more of the cyclists in any given race could have Nationals bands on their sleeves, given how some of the "smaller" countries can tend to share the title between their handful of elite riders.

Then you have the situation where Bob Jungels and Niki Terpstra were both 2016 Champs, racing for QuickStep, and the Luxembourg and Netherlands jerseys were almost identical; http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/bob-jungels-thanks-support-im-not-niki-terpstra-221395
Last year I spotted 9 Estonian champions in the peloton, it turned out to be Team Sky :lol:
 
Re: Re:

wouterkaas said:
Leinster said:
hrotha said:
It was more like, citation needed for the claim that in any given race a quarter of the field might be wearing a country jersey of some description.
Again, as much exaggeration for effect, but it does seem like we see a lot more Nats jerseys in the peloton than ever before, as cycling becomes more and more international. I maybe should have said that a quarter or more of the cyclists in any given race could have Nationals bands on their sleeves, given how some of the "smaller" countries can tend to share the title between their handful of elite riders.

Then you have the situation where Bob Jungels and Niki Terpstra were both 2016 Champs, racing for QuickStep, and the Luxembourg and Netherlands jerseys were almost identical; http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/bob-jungels-thanks-support-im-not-niki-terpstra-221395
Last year I spotted 9 Estonian champions in the peloton, it turned out to be Team Sky :lol:

18 if you count with Etixx.
 

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