Astana leads protest against radio ban

[Coach Hawk]

Perhaps we should take the headphones off of NFL players and coaches and make them go back to hand signals. That'll make the NFL more exciting.

Then we can take radios out of Nascar helmets. They can fly blind too. That'll help.

Oh, and we can eliminate that little phone between the bullpen and the dugout in baseball. Maybe they can use smoke signals to get a guy warming up.

Different sports are ummm...well, different. Should cyclists be wearing baseball mitts, too? And probably HANS devices for safety. If you want to compare other sports, try marathons or tennis. But instead of throwing out analogies that don't really make sense, let's look at it on it's own merit.

To cut to the chase: the radios provide the opportunity for those in the car to make the decisions, riding without them forces a lot of that responsibility back on the riders.

Personally, I'd like to see the cyclists have to read and understand the races themselves. If others prefer the racing be dictated by team cars, that's their prerogative, but it's not my thing. When I'm in a race, I need to understand who's where, where are the critical points of the course, which breaks are dangerous, etc. I'd love to see the pros have to do some of that thinking for themselves as well.

 

[colwildcat]

Different sports are ummm...well, different. Should cyclists be wearing baseball mitts, too? And probably HANS devices for safety. If you want to compare other sports, try marathons or tennis. But instead of throwing out analogies that don't really make sense, let's look at it on it's own merit.

To cut to the chase: the radios provide the opportunity for those in the car to make the decisions, riding without them forces a lot of that responsibility back on the riders.

Personally, I'd like to see the cyclists have to read and understand the races themselves. If others prefer the racing be dictated by team cars, that's their prerogative, but it's not my thing. When I'm in a race, I need to understand who's where, where are the critical points of the course, which breaks are dangerous, etc. I'd love to see the pros have to do some of that thinking for themselves as well.

Marathons and tennis are individual sports. There is no need for in game coaching. Although I believe Tennis is considering or already allowing players to talk to coaches in between games in some instances.

Cycling is a team sport, not an individual sport. Name me another team sport where coaches are not permitted to speak with their team to strategize and to dictate the actions by the players? I can't think of one. My analogies were related to team sports, where coaching is necessary.

When you're in a race, you're most likely racing by yourself, not in a team environment. That's completely different.

 

[Irish2009]

Allow the radios but put them on a band width so spectators/Supporters/TV channels/other teams can listen in...that would be fun.

 

[VeloFidelis]

To cut to the chase: the radios provide the opportunity for those in the car to make the decisions, riding without them forces a lot of that responsibility back on the riders.

Personally, I'd like to see the cyclists have to read and understand the races themselves. If others prefer the racing be dictated by team cars, that's their prerogative, but it's not my thing. When I'm in a race, I need to understand who's where, where are the critical points of the course, which breaks are dangerous, etc. I'd love to see the pros have to do some of that thinking for themselves as well.

These guys have all done that when they raced down at your level. And now that they are Pros they do more of it, and against a much more competitive field. What makes you think they have forgotten how to read a race? We're talking about an earpiece here, not a lobotomy. As far as giving up individual will to a higher authority... isn't that the definition of a team sport?

 

[Coach Hawk]

Marathons and tennis are individual sports. There is no need for in game coaching. Although I believe Tennis is considering or already allowing players to talk to coaches in between games in some instances.

Cycling is a team sport, not an individual sport. Name me another team sport where coaches are not permitted to speak with their team to strategize and to dictate the actions by the players? I can't think of one. My analogies were related to team sports, where coaching is necessary.

When you're in a race, you're most likely racing by yourself, not in a team environment. That's completely different.

You could argue that doubles tennis is a team sport, but that's an argument for a different time.

In soccer/football, the coach is "allowed" to yell at/to the team, but for the most part there's very little communication possible. There's always half-time. Maybe we should add half-time to bike racing!

And when I race, I do have a team. And we manage to communicate and/or execute a race plan without radios. But a race doesn't always (or rarely?) goes as planned, and that's when we have to improvise, which is what some of us think is missing with the race radios.

I saw someone else mention it, but I want to second the opinion--in the Tour of California this year there wasn't much radio due to weather, and it led to some of the least predictable racing I've seen in years.