Re:
Zinoviev Letter said:
Why are there so few Portuguese riders at WT or PCT level as compared to the strength of their domestic scene? You would think that a domestic base of that size would produce a considerable number of riders at higher tiers.
Well i think that due to the whole Maia scandal in the last 00's the portuguese scene got a bit of a bad reputation amongst international teams and has been overlooked a bit too much ever since then. Also the lack of funds from portuguese teams and organizations means there they have little chance to show themselves against top level competition (no money to race internationally and no money to organize big enough races to have big teams) so they may fly a bit under radar.
Without going into clinic territory, after a day like today, Antunes, Brandão and Carvalho should all be riding on WT teams next year.
This is what Jens posted on tweeter:
Mihai Cazacu @faustocoppi60 3 hHá 3 horas Ver tradução
Brandao, Veloso, Antunes, Fernandez, Marque and Carvalho around 6,7 w/kg for 21 min. One of the best performances of 2015! #VoltaPortugal
It should be noted that Antunes is 24 and Carvalho and Brandão are 25, while Veloso is 35, Marque 33 and Délio 29, they are around their prime while those 3 are still fairly young.
And this are the climbing times, timed by Jens as well:
Senhora da Graca
2015:8,4 km@7,4%---21:10---average speed 23.81 km/h(Brandao-Veloso)
2014:8,4 km@7,4%---21:53---average speed 23.03 km/h(Pinto-Veloso)
2013:8,4 km@7,4%---22:48---average speed 22.11 km/h(Sergio Pardilla)
2012:8,4 km@7,4%---21:53---average speed 23.03 km/h(Rui Sousa)
2011:8,4 km@7,4%---21:48---average speed 23.12 km/h(Broco-Mestre)
2010:8,4 km@7,4%---21:36---average speed 23.33 km/h(David Blanco)
2009:8,4 km@7,4%---21:52---average speed 23.05 km/h(Cabreira-N.Ribeiro)
2001:8,4 km@7,4%---22:00---average speed 22.91 km/h(Zintchenko-Jeker-Mercado)
---25:00---average speed 20.16 km/h(Jose Luis Rebollo)
with all this said, caja rural has made good use of the portuguese market over the last few years, with guys like Costa, Machado, Oliveira riding well at the WT level ( Oliveira really seems to be picking it up with some good performances this year like at the Ronde and San Sebastian, he was also climbing pretty well on the last week of the Tour) and Azevedo in a DS spot on a big team, this trend could pick up over the next few years.
Imo Brandão, Carvalho, Antunes, Frederico Figueiredo, Nuno Bico, Ruben Guerreiro(he will be riding utah this week), Ricardo Vilela and José Gonçalves all have the talent to ride at a higher level than they are currently doing, be it PCT or WT.