Tour de France Wildcards revealed

[rich p]

FWIW, I think wildcards should only be given on merit in World tour events. They can dosh out on a more 'nationalistic' basis for second tier events.

 

[lyn1]

The statistics I find really odd or funny were assembled by inrng in a blog about the age and nationality of Pro Tour riders.
France has 78 riders, Italy 65, then Belgium, Holland & Spain around 40 etc
GB has only 16 !
Sure this is a product of who forks out the cash and where the road racing cultures are most established but isn't it funny when you think the last 2 tour winners were British (ok, Kenyan and Belgian but you know what I mean… France is not actually that successful in results terms).

I think National bias is a big issue and riders from some countries get into WT and PC teams when they would not be considered if they were a different nationality. The 5 countries you show above all favour their own nationalities to a far greater extent than for example, Sky do with Brits. This may explain why when some WT teams fail, their riders have to drop down 1 or 2 levels to get a contract with a non-nationalistic team . Here's the full "bias" list from WT & PC.
Bardiani 100% Italian
Columbia 100% Columbian
RusVelo 100% Russian
Topsport Vlanderen 100% Belgian
FDJ 90% French
Bretagne Seche 88% French
Drapac 88% Australian
CCC Polsat 84% Polish
Nerri Sottoli 81% Italian
Europcar 81% French
Caja Rural 75% Spanish
Androni 75% Italian
Wanty 74% Belgian
(Euskaltel 70% Spanish)
Cofidis 68% French
Belkin 66% Dutch
Lotto 63% Belgian
Movistar 63% Spanish
AG2R 63% French
Lampre 58% Italian
Katusha 57% Russian
Orica 54% Aus
Cannondale 54% Italian
(Vaconsoleil 52% Dutch)
United Healthcare 43% USA
OPQ 40% Belgian
MTN 40% South African
IAM 38% Swiss
Astana 34% Kaz.
Sky 29% British
Garmin 28% USA
Tinkoff 26% Danish
Trek, BMC, NetApp-Endura and NovoNordisk all less than 25%

 

[Louch]

Team CC Ecosse again overlooked

 

[raindog]

Here's the full "bias" list from WT & PC.

interesting - thanks for that!
Smaller budgets seem to go for local talent and the rich teams are more international. Seems obvious really, and I suppose it's like that in other sports - it is in rugby - the only other sport I'm interested in.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I don't think regional or national, or local 'bias' in teams is a problem - teams are perfectly entitled to select their squad on whichever critieria they wish, and teams that are based significantly in a particular region, nation or locality can add significantly to the variety of the peloton.

However, I think it is a problem when it is in involved in assigning places to teams for supposedly global races. Surely, no-one can pretend that Bretagne-Séché Environment is a team of either the same quality or global cycling interest as MTN-Qhubeka - and, as Rich says, those should surely be be the main considerations for WorldTour races.