luckyboy said:
This has probably been discussed somewhere else today, but Morocco, Venezuela and Iran have more riders than the UK?! I'm not patriotic at all btw, just seems very odd
Someone care to explain please?
1) UCI rules are stupid
2) Those countries have dominated their respective UCI Continental Tours - as the UK has most of its top names on Sky (who cannot score Continental Tour points, as they're a ProTour team, so only score points towards the World Ranking) and its Continental teams don't really race outside of Britain much, and Wiggins and Cavendish have had disappointing years, Britain hasn't scored much.
3) Because of teams like Sky arriving, teams like Bbox and Cofidis were kicked off the ProTour. Their riders have meant France were at the top of the Continental Rankings or thereabouts, meaning above Britain.
4) British Cycling and Team Sky have played the (unfair and bizarre) system to their favour all season long, getting invites to big races at the expense of teams who would offer far more. They fought hard to unify all the British talent under one team, and rubbed other teams up the wrong way. Having all the riders under one umbrella has meant that most of the time they've been working for other riders and not scoring in their own right, and the races they have been able to do well in have been .HC and .1 races that, while great for gaining Continental points with Barloworld, are now irrelevant, because Team Sky riders cannot score points at them. Hence, the very system they've been taking advantage of has served to hurt them. Tough luck.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram