OFFICIAL, ear radios blamed for bad result In Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne

Im starting this poll because I was perturbed that radios are now an official excuse for not winning a race.

This appeared on Cycling news.com website.

Johan Museeuw blamed the team's ear radios, that weren't working well. "We didn't know, for instance, how good Bettini felt and whether he was sure of winning the sprint. Therefore we had to gamble. Do we let Paolo, still an absolute top rider, commit himself? Or do we chase still? Finally we chose for the latter just a bit too late."

Full story on www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/mar04/mar01news2

If a well respected professional like Museeuw says that, isn't it time that cycling goes back to basics, and the riders have to use their brains to work out how a race is going and not rely on team managers and the men in the team cars telling them what to do.

 

>If a well respected professional like Museeuw says that, isn't it >time that cycling goes back to basics, and the riders have to use >their brains to work out how a race is going and not rely on >team managers and the men in the team cars telling them what >to do.

I don't understand why radios are allowed and yet they ban things like Obree's positions and restrict wheel and frame designs.

Why don't they just impose restrictions on safety-related issues rather than cycling's technological advancement?

There's the "tradition" argument, but what's the deal with radios if that's their angle?

confuzzed...

 

And while we're at it we should also ban the moto with the chalk board - peloton riders should have to guess how far up the break is.

 

Sarcasm ROCKS!

 

They are both non-traditional performance enhancers - why ban one and not the other?

hippy

 

"Why is there a distinction between radio use and faster wheels and frames?"

I wasn't aware that wheels could hold conversations, or am I missing something?

 

Try reading it in the context of the conversation...

Why are certain wheel designs and frame designs banned (for providing a performance advantage and "breaking tradition") when team radioa are allowed?

hippy

 

I'm not worried about technical details, they could be riding a penny farthing for all I know.

What bothers me is the communication aspect, its taken alot of the spontanaity out of racing. There doesn't seem to be the mad breakaways like there used to, and the whole field trying to catch them. Everything seems to be so measured.

Here's a hypothetical, The big what if... In the TdF 2003 they had no radios,

Ullrich wouldn't have known Lance had crashed and would have kept on riding.
Then there's the time trial that David Millar won, what if there hadn't been a radio when Ullrich crashed and Lance slowed down.

But then you get a pro like Museeuw actually blaming the darned thing for the race result, that is passing the buck a little too far

 

Okay, I see what you are saying. I just picked up on the " isn't it time that cycling goes back to basics" line. UCI restricts some technology but not others - why?

As for radios.. yeah I'd like to see races without them. I don't know what they'd be like compared to how races pan out now, but I'd like to see. Maybe they could alternate radio/no-radio every second year?

hippy

 

Cycling worked fine with out radios , all they do is hinder riders with a brain . If they are that vital let them be tuned to radio tour , so they hear what everybody else hears and no more .

 

I can certainly appreciate a little luddism, but anything that's not a safety issue and doesn't provide anyone with an unfair advantage over anyone else, while it may dillute the purity of sport, seems fair game to me.

 

From Cycling news.com the following article appears today

Proposed ear-radio ban meets with resistance
A UCI proposal to ban the use of ear radios in racing has been met with strong resistance from riders and team directors. UCI technical consultant Jean Wauthier has argued for the ban, saying, "The riders have less say, it's as if they were robots. Many races remain closed because the team leaders have decided everything. And the riders are more easily distracted. The earpiece came for safety, but Kivilev still crashed when his transmitter worked. And team directors can no longer drive the cars because they are continually screaming instructions."

Quick.Step-Davitamon manager Patrick Lefevere's response was blunt, as he told Het Nieuwsblad. "The earphones have to stay in cycling. We are against prohibiting the device; nobody wants it to go. It's not because they no longer allow the use of the earpieces in soccer that the same has to happen in cycling. The situation is totally different. In the race you are confronted more and more with roundabouts, dangerous points, narrow roads and so on. Compared to ten years ago, so many things have changed. There's no way back."

Is the rider's concentration lessened? "That's bull****," said Lefevere. "Ah well, that's another bright thought from someone who's never in the race itself. Wauthier is also the man who wants to stop the evolution of the bike."

Peter Van Petegem commented, "In races like the Ronde van Vlaanderen or Paris-Roubaix I couldn't do without them. Your team director is straight up the front if you have a mechanical problem. Without earpieces, you easily lose a full minute."

Marc Wauters didn't think that the tactics had changed much with the introduction of ear-radios. "Before, the team director still decided the tactics. Only then he had to drive beside his rider to tell him what to do. That was certainly dangerous. Now the team directors can stay calmly behind the riders."

Dirk Demol, US Postal's director, commented, "Dangerous situations, like speed bumps and roundabouts, are fourteen-fold, and the peloton is now twice as big."

Frank Vandenbroucke took the opposite side, "Previously you recognised a good team director by what he told you before the race. Now, every rider knows exactly what's coming, even in a maze like the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Now it's reported: look out for the stone at the left, that bad bit on the right. When there is a break, you get the information: ride or don't ride. There is not much room left for intuition."
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I never thought I would agree with the UCI about anything but this time.

Its also good to see a rider who is against them. VDB has annoyed me over the years, he's another rider who shows promise but also likes to play with the self destruct button. Nevertheless he's always very articulate in his musings so I do read them.