neils on wheels

We've just had a Barbour catalogue delivered at home this morning.

They have a number of new jacket styles names "Colley", "Colomer" and "Burgat".

The question has been posed many times about how many titles Toni Bou may win or indeed who may beat him. This raises a broader of issue of how riders are developed through the Youth and Junior ranks up to WTC level.

The top 5 riders have not changed in many years, with only Doug's decline from 1st to 6th changing the consititution of the top five.

What is notable is that the five World Youth Champions, all who have been crowned since 2005, currently riding WTC (Challenor, Wigg, Gubian, Brown & Dabill) with Ferrer having joined them in the last round, have not made an impression on the top five.

This stagnation of the top 5 & lack of progress from Youth to World level suggests that this is not the route to develop the very highest level of achievement.

Maybe if riders want to break into the top five they need to progress more quickly through the Youth & Junior ranks. What do others think, would this see more variety at the top of the WTC?