git-svn: why fetching files is so slow

... compared to the standalone svn client. I'm working with repositories over the internet, using not-so-fast links, but still, a svn checkout takes somewhere around 5 to 10 minutes, while git-svn fetch takes at least 10 times that just to fetch the initial revision. Later fetches also take *a lot* more time than a svn update would.

Cheers,

-- Pazu