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Date Posted: 11:39:07 08/27/04 Fri
Author: NSF
Subject: Re: Anyone Else Want An American Team?
In reply to: Mark 's message, "Re: Anyone Else Want An American Team?" on 10:08:27 08/27/04 Fri

I agree. I should have clarified that I really didn't mean an all American team. To me, the 1999 Tour was so exciting partly because this was the team:

1999 U.S. Postal Service Tour de France roster:
Frankie Andreu (Dearborn, MI)
Lance Armstrong (Austin, TX)
Pascal Derame (France)
Tyler Hamilton (Brookline, MA)
George Hincapie (Charlotte, NC)
Kevin Livingston (Austin, TX)
Peter Meinert (Denmark)
Christian Vande Velde (Lemont, IL)
Jonathan Vaughters (Englewood, CO)


>I understand your feelings, but I think that the idea
>of a (succesful) team consisting of riders from one
>nation is very unlikely. And even more so with the
>current situation of American riders in the peloton: a
>relatively small amount of riders, but with quite a
>few top (or subtop) dogs.
>
>Getting a lot of good GT riders (or sprinters, but
>there's not really a top American in that) to band up
>in the same team is virtually impossible, maybe even
>more so because of the fact that they would all be
>fighting for the status of 'best rider' of their
>nation as well.
>
>Just look at most of the other top teams: An Aussie
>leading a french and Belgian team (FDJ.com and Lotto),
>an American leading a Swiss team (Phonak) an Italian
>leading a Belgian team (Quickstep), a Spaniard leading
>a Dutch team(Rabo), an Italian leading a Danish team
>(CSC), and the list goes on. With the commercializing
>of cyclism, national boundaries seem to be fading ever
>more.
>
>To refer to V's example of La Boulangère: the only way
>you will keep an all-French or -American team in line
>is if it has riders that are all more or less equal in
>ability; good riders, but not super. Likewise, La
>Boulangère have a good team, but not a real big rider.
>(and let's not forget their Tour leader was in fact
>Beloki, a Spaniard)
>
>Erhm, this post is way too long, hehe. In short then:
>I think it has become impossible, certainly with so
>many good American riders in such a 'small' pool, if
>we're talking specifically about the US. :)

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Replies:

  • Re: Anyone Else Want An American Team? -- Vaughn Trevi, 12:01:12 08/27/04 Fri
  • Re: Anyone Else Want An American Team? -- Mark, 05:53:46 08/28/04 Sat
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