Originally posted by Xavier
Spanish cycling is doing great.
Kelme simply overblown rumors lately. Kelme is a very solid company and sponsor and always gets a team out there. Some riders may get a bigger head like Aitor and may want the world but that is simply life.
iBanesto since when Indurain left and Echevarri stopped being a big player has gone 'bad'. iBanesto simply needs to change a bit their director scene. There is talent there, just no motivation.
ONCE is doing great. They have always been solid due to the complete hold of Manolo.
Relax and Jazztel are simply smaller squads. They too seem to be doing good and glad to see them in the field.
Euskadi is doing great also. This may change as far as top ride but the same solid guys are there year after year.
Problem with spanish cycling is they concentrate on stage racing. So we do not see much of the teams in TV when many classics are showed. Also many teams again went for the Tour and forgot about the Giro. Later in the Vuelta we saw a great showing, but sadly not very popular here in the states as the Tour.
If they would do a bit more classics and really race the Giro, we would see Spanish teams more and more. I guarantee you there are some really good classic riders in these teams.
I'll bet IF they put the Giro on TV in Spain, the Spanish teams would race there again. It does not make a lot of sense to spend the sponsor's money to not have the sponsor's logo viewed in the area where they do business. As I recall, the lack of TV in Spain had to do with rights fees the Italians wanted to charge, the teams backed out after learning the race would not be on the tube.