Originally Posted by An old Guy .
I hate to burst people's bubbles but ...
Currently a lot of ex-professionals are riding as Cat1 in the US. Their jobs as professionals simply went away. When the top US professionals get to Europe they are at the bottom of the professional ranks.
There is a good list of professionals that have come from the US that have done real well in Europe. I would go as far to say that in the past 10 years the United States has produced more GREAT pros than almost any other single country. Now as to if the US produces as many quality pros is certainly up for debate, but it seems that we produce more than our fair share of the greats..
I think what you were trying to say is that the difference of "any Joe" racing as a Cat 1 is far from a good pro in Europe and I would agree, but I think that is exactly what the poster that you responded to was trying to say, if you want to be the best you have to put yourself up against the best and see how you stack up.....
I would argue that it is not so much a difference in talent as it is experience at racing at a level where everyone is that good. There are certainly great athletes in other country's who have the speed, skill, size, strength that the greatest NFL players have, what they don't have is the experience of going up against so many others that are just like them....