What nation breeds the best cyclists?

[broomwagon61]

This may be the biggest load of **** i have ever read, (sorry i have read a political pamphlet from the bonsi john howard) Australia is one of the most multi cultural nations. More free settlers than convicts period.

Ok! Anderson,Mcewen,Stephens,O'grady,Evans,Mcgee.....whoever,versus.Van steerbergen,Van Looy,Merckx,Museeuw,Boonen,Van Impe.De Vlaemink!.........Whatever!

 

[ewan52]

im british but people who say the uk are wrong. in my opinion, compared to road racing track is a lot lower standard and the reason britain are successful in it is because they focus on it a lot more than many other nations. i think bradley wiggins is a perfect example of this, he won the olympics but in the tour prologue over a similiar distance he finished 16th (or maybe 17th..), he was beaten by a lot of riders who dont race track, if people like george hincapie and thor hushovd chose to focus on the olympic pursuit then i am sure they would beat bradley wiggins. compare the calibre of riders racing track and then look at road racing and youll see what i mean. basically i think that the standard of track racing is nowhere near that of pro road racing.

also how can you definitively say which nation breeds the best cyclists? belgium produces many strong one day classics riders whilst a country like spain produces a lot of climbers and tour riders. you cant say that tour riders are better than classics riders or vice versa, so you cant compare nations because they often produce extremely different types of rider due to the nature of their domestic racing setup. tom boonen or phillipe gilbert arent going to win a major stage race anytime soon but then carlos sastre is never going to win flanders...

 

[stevebaby]

yes, and most of them's fore fathers where criminals from Great Britain, so go figure!

The number of convicts sent to Australia is about the same as the number of convicts sent to the american colonies.Very few Australians could claim descent from convicts.
Check Australia's record at the Olympics (not just in cycling).

 

[SaintAndrew]

i voted for spain because i feel they are coming out with the most good cyclists right now, including some huge names in the recent past and present like indurain, freire and valverde as well as a huge number of pros, although italy's produced a ton recently as well. all time i would def. say belgium though.

 

[senator52]

Australia have the best track riders in the world, and are certainly moving on up in the road world but perplexingly were left off the poll...we are very close but i'd have to say its the italians that take the cake, only because i weight road slightly heavier than track.

 

[Van Hilliard]

Every year, I am impressed by the number of fine riders from the Basque region and from Spain. If the poll focused on sprinting, my answer would switch to the Italians and Australians.

 

[lonympics]

http://www.lonympics.co.uk/fantasy/cycling.htm A game where you can win teh Tour De france and take back the Yellow Jersey