Written by Finz of Nightmarechaos
  
  Progress is impossible without change, somebody once said. And that is what we got recently. A gamechanger effecting all the teams at the same time and that must make you decide wheter to play like you did or to change your plans according the change.
  
  A talent was always a talent before his training. After his training he would be either a lost cause, a decent teammate or a great star, ready to reap the points and jerseys due to his great progress during training. He would benefit from this training, given by his manager for a hefty sum of money, and earn it back through points, prizemoney and jerseys and trophies. A good rider, trained at a young age could be valuable for around ten seasons of joy, money and prizes.
  
  A few days ago it has been decided that a rider could train very well but an amount of experience is needed to put this training effort into cold, hard cash. Experience only to

be gained to race, race and race. There is no question that one must learn the rules of the peloton and earn a spot in order to become succesfull and join the ranks of the great ones from days gone by. You could be great at a young age but the experience gained by a rider a few years older is invaluable and will give you a setback in the race.
  
  And in a way that is correct, one should know when to attack or stay behind, go in the breakaway or not. But if you are a great sprinter, wait long enough and have this gut feeling about when to jump where, would age matter. You just have to stick around, go in front at the last kilometers and follow a fellow sprinter and jump from behind him to steal the win. A 21 year can do that and so can a 25 year old, the older one will not have an advantage just because he is older. And a super climber can also climb very good when he is young and not only when he is 28 or something.
  
  The amount of weight put on these young riders

who turned out to be monsters could perhaps be too much and give a wrong message to all those who want to become an alltime great. You all know the names and their great achievements. Will training be beneficial, you train a rider, he turns out great and the next four seasons you are stuck with a great teammate or leadout. He earns no money, your other riders are probably not good enough. And when he finally is able to improve and gives you money and results the timespan in which he must do so is drastically decreased and your great rider is not so great at all. He will earn less than what he could do before, will decline rapidly when he is on his peak and in the end you are forced to sell or abandon due to the lack of funding and joy.
  
  I fear that we will never see the likes of an Äme Anderberg, Lean Ahnfeldt-Mollerup or Santiago Campelo again. Not because they are no longer there but because they will not be able to deliver as much as they could. And that, I think, is sad.