The last country without a victory?

[ingsve]

South Africa or Denmark. Rensburg is a solid rider, but he won't get many chances with Kittel and Degenkolb on the team. Lander could be the best bet for Denmark, but the learning curve is steep.

Well, he'll mostly be on a different schedule than them from the looks of it so anything can happen in smaller races.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Well, he'll mostly be on a different schedule than them from the looks of it so anything can happen in smaller races.

Rensburg.
Do we know his early schedule?

 

[trevim]

voted norway. ebh isn't really a winner and hushovd is pretty much done for

They have Nordhaug. Considering his evolution and the fact that he rides for Blanco now, he'll get one sooner or later
And if Sky uses EBH as stage hunter, he'll get them the wins.
And of course, the first win will come no later than Roubaix where Hushovd will win

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

They have Nordhaug. Considering his evolution and the fact that he rides for Blanco now, he'll get one sooner or later
And if Sky uses EBH as stage hunter, he'll get them the wins.
And of course, the first win will come no later than Roubaix where Hushovd will win

Ive been saying for years that Hushovds year is the one of 2013

 

[trevim]

Ive been saying for years that Hushovds year is the one of 2013

I'm praying you're right. I'm a very big fan of the guy, Geelong was an amazing day for me, cycling wise.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I think he's already proven that he can win at a certain level in Europe, and that's all he needs really.

argos doesn't ride 2.2 races

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

They have Nordhaug. Considering his evolution and the fact that he rides for Blanco now, he'll get one sooner or later
And if Sky uses EBH as stage hunter, he'll get them the wins.
And of course, the first win will come no later than Roubaix where Hushovd will win

how many races has nordhaug exactly won in the past few years? besides he rides with rabo now. that's a recipy for disaster

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Ive been saying for years that Hushovds year is the one of 2013

agree 100%. This years P-R is between Cancellara, Boonen, Hushovd and one of the boys from Sky. Major battle coming up.

 

[trevim]

how many races has nordhaug exactly won in the past few years? besides he rides with rabo now. that's a recipy for disaster

You certainly agree he has improved a lot last year. He won 3 races last year, one of them in February. And now he rides for a team that is on a roll Am I so wrong to assume he can win a race?

 

[iZnoGouD]

Anyone who voted Portugal is ***

Tiago Machado will win Algarve and Rui Costa will win Paris Nice

 

[kanari]

ebh isn't really a winner and hushovd is pretty much done for

I am afraid you're right when it comes to Thor, but I have to take your bait on EBH though... I know he hasn't bagged a monument yet but FFS he isn't even 26 and must have more professional wins than 95% of the peloton already...

 

[greenedge]

Kristoff will also get a win for Norway, sometime soon.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Kristoff will also get a win for Norway, sometime soon.

He surley got more top 5ish stages than anyone else in the freakin peloton

 

[quiqui]

South Africa was close to a win today in Oman. If only those three in front would have been caught...

 

[maltiv]

voted norway. ebh isn't really a winner and hushovd is pretty much done for

Yup, he has only won 34 races since 2009.

By March last year EBH, Kristoff and Nordhaug had all won at least one race. So it seems very unlikely that all three of them would fail to do so this year. Also, if everything else fails, EBH will surely win Tour of Norway in May, which is probably early enough to not win this poll

 

[gunara]

What about Slovenia?

Is Slovenia too certain a choice to even be on the poll? Yes Vrecer, Mezgec, Kocjan and Kump are now in WT teams, it's hard to tell. And yes their "bigger names" are not winners, at least anymore.
Except that there will be Tour of Slovenia just before nationals....

 

[theyoungest]

On Sunday the Ruta del Sol starts with a short prologue. I'm curious if Reinardt Janse van Rensburg can make the majority regret their vote for South Africa already

 

[djlovesyou]

So we can scrub Colombia and Norway off the list now.

Portugal will have to wait for another day it seems.

 

[quiqui]

Tsatevich gave Russia its first win, so six countries remain:
Denmark
Kazakhstan
Poland
Portugal
South Africa
Switzerland

 

[Mad Elephant Man]

Tsatevich gave Russia its first win, so six countries remain:
Denmark
Kazakhstan
Poland
Portugal
South Africa
Switzerland

Denmark have Fuglsang who has at least 1 win in each of the last 4 years, Bak who had two victories last year, Breschel who won in 2012, 2010, 2009 amongst others. Hard to see Denmark not winning something sometime this year.

Kazakstan will probably had to rely on Maxim or Valentin although Dyachenko might be a chance as well. Gruzdev won the tour of Hainan last year so might do it again. I could see them going winless for the season.

Poland have Kwiatkowski who probably will win something. Even if he does not Rutkiewicz will probably win the Szlakiem Grodow Piastowskich again or another similar race. Poland will win something.

Portugal have Rui Costa who is a race winner and should get something this year as well. The Volta a Portugal also has a Portuguese stage winner every year so they will get a win there at least.

South Africa have Rienardt Janse van Rensburg as the main chance but Darryl Impey picked up two wins last year as well. Some on the MTN riders might pick up wins as well and there is african 2.2 stage races like the Tour of Rwanda which Darren Lill won last year. Still possible there will be no wins I guess.

Switerland have Cancellara and if something happens to him Albasini has won something every year since 2007. They will win something.

So after all that I think I will go as Kazakstan as the most likely to go without a win for quite a while.

 

[quiqui]

There's no doubt all of these countries will win something this year (even if not counting the national championships). These are last year's victory counts:
South Africa 27
Kazakhstan 27
Poland 25
Denmark 22
Switzerland 20
Portugal 12
Funny enough, the two countries at the bottom received the lowest number of votes in this poll.

 

[Mad Elephant Man]

There's no doubt all of these countries will win something this year (even if not counting the national championships). These are last year's victory counts:
South Africa 27
Kazakhstan 27
Poland 25
Denmark 22
Switzerland 20
Portugal 12
Funny enough, the two countries at the bottom received the lowest number of votes in this poll.

How did Kazakhstan get 27 wins?

 

[quiqui]

How did Kazakhstan get 27 wins?

Mostly through wins in small stage races by sprinters on Continental Team Astana. Kamyshev got 6 wins and Tleubayev 4 wins.

 

[quiqui]

Some more stats: South Africa, Poland, Switzerland and Portugal all got at least one second place this year already, but Kazakhstan and Denmark haven't even got a top 5 yet. Kazakhstan is worst so far this year, with only two top tens.

 

[quiqui]

And yet some more stats: Date of first win last year
Kazakhstan 20 February
Poland 2 March
Switzerland 3 March
South Africa 23 March
Portugal 25 March
Denmark 7 April