Brits find Frenchies rude and boring

[bobke]

sad eh, the Brits fall prey to the scourge of Xenophobia.
Pity.
I guess they DO have something in common with Lance Armstrong!!

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=272282&area=/breaking_news/other_news/

 

[saluki]

sad eh, the Brits fall prey to the scourge of Xenophobia.
Pity.
I guess they DO have something in common with Lance Armstrong!!

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=272282&area=/breaking_news/other_news/

All nationalism aside, does anyone have any theories about why the French are showing so poorly in cycling in the last few years? Is it just a statistical abberation or is there something else?

 

[Virenque]

They have very strict doping rules.

 

[micron]

French riders undergo 2 full scale medicals and 4 blood tests demanded by their Federation each year, as well as any in or out of competition testing they are subject to. I doubt if any other cycling federation has such stringent rules.

 

[micron]

Oh and we hate France so much that over a million of us live there already and more leave Britain for France each year...

 

[limerickman]

Oh and we hate France so much that over a million of us live there already and more leave Britain for France each year...

I was in Provence three years ago.
The amount of English people who have relocated there was clearly evident.

Nice part of the world.

 

[tcklyde]

sad eh, the Brits fall prey to the scourge of Xenophobia.
Pity.
I guess they DO have something in common with Lance Armstrong!!

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=272282&area=/breaking_news/other_news/

Oh thank goodness. I was looking for another nationalism thread in this forum. Brilliant.

 

[jhuskey]

My polls show that the persons born in France were 10 times more likely to be French than persons born in other countries.

 

[Virenque]

Quite interesting..

 

[saluki]

French riders undergo 2 full scale medicals and 4 blood tests demanded by their Federation each year, as well as any in or out of competition testing they are subject to. I doubt if any other cycling federation has such stringent rules.

Are you saying that French riders are competing badly because they cannot dope? So are you saying that the Spaniards and the Italians and the Germans are doping?

 

[Virenque]

Do you have a better explanation why Italians, Spaniards, Belgians, Dutch and other former big cycling nations still have winners, while French, with most of ProTour teams, doesn`t? I don`t have it and that about doping is most likely.

 

[lwedge]

My polls show that the persons born in France were 10 times more likely to be French than persons born in other countries.

Amazing !

 

[tcklyde]

My polls show that the persons born in France were 10 times more likely to be French than persons born in other countries.

You must have got that poll from those propagandists at L'Equipe!

 

[Dimos]

A poll made on a website by who knows what kind of a 6000 sample, should we take it for granted?

As about French riders there are some more reasons. They are well paid although they don't produce results because in many french teams the jobs are for French only, they are enough introverted riding mainly on French soil and they' re blaming the others for doping when it's the mentality that's missing (eg. where the hell was Bouygues Telecom in this year's Giro? Missing in Inaction?) etc.

 

[Virenque]

That`s not the reason. Just look at the TdF. There is max. 1 French rider in top 10 every year. They maybe won a stage and that`s it. It`s even worse with the classics and other stage races. I think that they participate on even more foreign races than Italians, Spaniards and others.

 

[lwedge]

They maybe won a stage and that`s it. .

The Peloton gives them a green light on Bastille Day.

Thomas Voekler is kind of French.

lw

 

[Virenque]

French with German roots.

 

[saluki]

Do you have a better explanation why Italians, Spaniards, Belgians, Dutch and other former big cycling nations still have winners, while French, with most of ProTour teams, doesn`t? I don`t have it and that about doping is most likely.

No, I don't have an explanation. That is why I asked. But I find it hard to believe that everyone else is doping and only the French are not.

 

[saluki]

That`s not the reason. Just look at the TdF. There is max. 1 French rider in top 10 every year. They maybe won a stage and that`s it. It`s even worse with the classics and other stage races. I think that they participate on even more foreign races than Italians, Spaniards and others.

It also seems that the sport is still very popular with the French people. They would love to see a winner. And the French sporting media seems to be frantic about finding a new French star. The support and the money are certainly there.

It's a mystery to me.

 

[Virenque]

The same here. Mystery of all mysteries!