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CYCLING HALL OF FAME: THE NATIONS

Which nations are more successfull in cycling history? According to results from big races and taking in consideration the 10 best placed riders of each nations from my hall of fame http://goo.gl/VPzCY the results are mixed. The top countries are unsurprisingly Italy, Belgium and France. Although France seems to live on the glory of the past, as do The Netherlands. Spain's top riders are more from recent times and is firmly in 4th place. Switzerland was a bit of a surprise for me in 5th place. Luxembourg is an amazing little enclave considering the size of their population as they manage to sit proudly in 10th place. Australia and Great Britain have the best outlook for the future, although GB doesn't quite have 10 riders in the hall of fame as yet. Ireland only have 3 riders but when they did well, they did incredibly well with 6th and 49th top positions. Countries from the East and Latin America don't seem to have had a great impact as yet.

The Hall of fame shows how many riders their respective nations managed to place in the top ten and in brackets their combined placements (the lower the better when comparing the same number of riders as it represents higher placings). Clear as mud?
UPDATE DEC 2012  Australia overtakes both Luxembourg and USA; USA loses two positions due to the Armstrong saga; Portugal enters in 28th place thanks to Rui Da Costa and even better from Canada in 25th position thanks to Hesjedal's Giro win. Kazakhstan jumps South Africa after Tour of Turkey is awarded to Dyachenko from Bulgarian cheat Gabrovski.

1   10  (129)    Italy
2   10  (220)    Belgium
3   10  (319)    France
4   10  (664)    Spain
5   10  (961)    Switzerland
6   10  (1176)  Netherlands
7   10  (1941)  Germany
8   10  (2745)  Russia
9   10  (3046)  Australia
10 10  (3164)  Luxembourg
11 10  (3341)  USA
12 10  (4981)  Denmark

13 9    (3691)  Great Britain

14 6    (2963)  Colombia
15 6    (3724)  Austria

16 5   (1577)   Sweden
17 5   (2323)   Norway

18 3   (839)     Ireland
19 3   (1095)   Kazakhstan
20 2   (1732)   South Africa

 21 2   (1057)   Slovenia
22 2   (1178)   Ukraine
23 2   (1646)   Slovakia

24 1   (256)     Lithuania
25 1   (281)     Canada
26 1   (304)     Greece
27 1   (318)     Latvia
28 1   (386)     Czech Republic
29 1   (483)     Portugal
30 1   (496)     Poland
31 1   (590)     Uzbekistan
32 1   (720)     Hungary
33 1   (760)     Bulgaria
34 1   (774)     Estonia
35 1   (794)     Mexico
36 1   (821)     Venezuela




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