Having watched a number of races on TV this year I would have to say that the more exciting to watch by far are the races which are predominantly Continental and Pro Continental. In the majority of these races there are no radios and surprise surprise less crashes. Positive exciting racing as opposed to negative "processions to the finish".
Quite a few DS's have said that the reason there are so many crashes is that all the managers are telling riders to move up at the same time in the race (via radio) hence 100+ riders all trying to get to the front at the same time.
There are always going to be dangerous riders in whatever tier of the sport, think of the amount of crashes caused by Graeme Brown, or the risk that Froome puts others in my staring at his stem instead of the road in front of him. I think some Pro-Tour riders behaviour is appalling towards lesser tiers. Take the Tour of Britain one year when Tom Boonen et all decided to have a non race day due to safety. A young UK rider decided he wanted to race broke away and he abused and intimidated by the pro-tour riders for doing so.
Quite a few DS's have said that the reason there are so many crashes is that all the managers are telling riders to move up at the same time in the race (via radio) hence 100+ riders all trying to get to the front at the same time.
There are always going to be dangerous riders in whatever tier of the sport, think of the amount of crashes caused by Graeme Brown, or the risk that Froome puts others in my staring at his stem instead of the road in front of him. I think some Pro-Tour riders behaviour is appalling towards lesser tiers. Take the Tour of Britain one year when Tom Boonen et all decided to have a non race day due to safety. A young UK rider decided he wanted to race broke away and he abused and intimidated by the pro-tour riders for doing so.