Why all the Claudio hate?

I've been perusing through some of these comments and it seems that my favorite person on the show is quite unpopular! Man that guy had a really tough job! He was on the same trip, riding through the same terrain, but was having to film it all which makes it much harder (staying behind to get shots of them leaving or going ahead to get shots of them arriving). So he had to do everything they did plus lots of extra stuff and it seemed that the two prima donnas were just jerks to him most of the time for being less experienced (well not everybody rides bikes 5 hours a day since the age of 15). Not only that, but Ewan and Charley bitch and moan most of the time about various things and Claudio doesn't have that luxury so he just keeps a good-natured smile and takes things as they come. In my opinion he stole the show and deserved much more credit. I think they realized it and didn't give him any camera time in the sequel pretending he wasn't there. He almost made their complaining seem like a joke with the way he was relaxed all the time - reminded me of the paralympics where the guy who leads the blind runners is faster, makes sure the contestants don't trip over each other and gets no credit for any of it - except neither Charley nor Ewan are in any way blind.

If anyone was annoying to me it was Charley (not so much in the sequel though). It seemed like he was trying way too hard to be funny (which he wasn't) and he seemed pretty dumb (Like when they're crossing from the Czech Republic to Slovakia and he forgot the stamps he keeps referring to leaving Czechoslovakia and entering Slovakia - wtf? He didn't even know what country he was in)

I liked Ewan for the most part though - really trying to understand and experience parts of the world foreign to him.