Race Radio ban

[Armchair Cyclist]

I was just about to post the same thing when I read the post you responded to. It's like (s)he doesn't realize that radios are currently (and have been for a some time) forbidden in non-WT races.

And yet (s)he used to know:

for clarification... there are no rider - team car radios being used in the ATOC. At all.

 

[oldcrank]

That's right: in non WT-races, there is no consideration for rider safety as can be seen in the vast number of casualties in every race; riders are left to race with no food or drink other than their pre-race fry up; flats and other mechanicals are fixed single handedly by the riders (and no hiring small boys to operate the bellows!); and race organisers account for the otherwise total lack of care for ill or injured riders by employing vets with humane killers every 10km.

My nomination for Best Use of Sarcasm 2014
in a post in the PRR section of the forum.

 

[RedheadDane]

Quick question: Do the riders have radio contact with each other? Could Contador for example send a message to his team mates telling them to get to the front because Froome was cracking?
Of course this would require that each team had their own closed signal.

 

[Bexon30]

Quick question: Do the riders have radio contact with each other? Could Contador for example send a message to his team mates telling them to get to the front because Froome was cracking?
Of course this would require that each team had their own closed signal.

Thought it was more Contador tells Riis, Riis then tells team over radio? Might be wrong though. I'd say s ban personally as racing should improve ever so slightly, and tactical mistakes are more likely as far as I could tell.

 

[DirtyWorks]

Luuc Eisenga @EisengaL

There still will be use of 2-way radios in bike races in 2015, same conditions as in 2014; cfm'ed by @UCI_cycling.

https://twitter.com/EisengaL/status/549332017717190656

More UCI rules in the rule book they don't follow. At all.

This is reason 1001 why this will always be a minor sport.

 

[Angliru]

There is always an element of randomness to bike racing. But just as with crashes, even the apparently random elements are actually an interaction between luck on the one hand and skill or intelligence on the other. Being more likely to know what the hell was going on without radios was an advantage for smart riders and alert riders. Being more likely to respond wisely to a changing situation without a DS pouring the necessary tactical instruction into their ear was an even bigger one.

Radios take a lot of that out of the hands of the riders. They reduce the importance of racing intelligence as a factor. The main reason why team radios are bad is that they allow teams to make races more controlled and orderly and thus less entertaining. But they also reward the stupid and oblivious rider.

This brings to mind, my memory fails so excuse me, one Tour where Pantani had made a long range attack, and Armstrong, via his radio, contacted Bruyneel to ask that he contact Dr. Ferari to determine if Pantani would be able to stay away and how soon should they begin their pursuit. Ferari did his numbers crunching and scientific gazintas to assist Armstrong in leaving Pantani out to dry, letting him spend as much time out there solo, burning himself out.

 

[RedheadDane]

Thought it was more Contador tells Riis, Riis then tells team over radio? Might be wrong though. I'd say s ban personally as racing should improve ever so slightly, and tactical mistakes are more likely as far as I could tell.

That's what I was asking: Do contact between riders have to go through the DSes, or can they contact each other directly (over the radio, of course they can talk to a rider who is right next to them)?

 

[pastronef]

This brings to mind, my memory fails so excuse me, one Tour where Pantani had made a long range attack, and Armstrong, via his radio, contacted Bruyneel to ask that he contact Dr. Ferari to determine if Pantani would be able to stay away and how soon should they begin their pursuit. Ferari did his numbers crunching and scientific gazintas to assist Armstrong in leaving Pantani out to dry, letting him spend as much time out there solo, burning himself out.

did not know about that!
it was the Morzine stage of the 2000 Tour

 

[ILovecycling]

Nahh,too much fuss about it,I knew its pointless to discuss UCI are cowards

 

[Granville57]

That's what I was asking: Do contact between riders have to go through the DSes, or can they contact each other directly

Usually it's an open-air system, so that if any rider calls something out, everyone on the team will hear it.

There was some footage of exactly that in Chasing Legends.

 

[RedheadDane]

Usually it's an open-air system, so that if any rider calls something out, everyone on the team will hear it.

There was some footage of exactly that in Chasing Legends.

Oh. Cool.

 

[ustabe]

This brings to mind, my memory fails so excuse me, one Tour where Pantani had made a long range attack, and Armstrong, via his radio, contacted Bruyneel to ask that he contact Dr. Ferari to determine if Pantani would be able to stay away and how soon should they begin their pursuit. Ferari did his numbers crunching and scientific gazintas to assist Armstrong in leaving Pantani out to dry, letting him spend as much time out there solo, burning himself out.

No your memory isn't failing you. I remember the stage and I remember the story. Bike racing by numbers.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Automaton racing tactics now extend from previous WT only to all *.1 races, and onto the women's circuit.

The use of radio links or other remote means of communication by or with the riders, as well as the possession of any equipment that can be used in this manner, during an event is prohibited except in the following cases:
a. Men Elite: UCI WorldTour events, class HC and class 1 events;
b. Women Elite: UCI Women’s WorldTour and class 1 events;
c. Time trial events

Red: new as of 01/01/16

 

[Broccolidwarf]

It's a philosophical question if you want radio comms or not.

If you prefer to view cycling as a team sport, you want comms - if you prefer to view it as an individual sport, you are against.

Personally I think the team aspect, is what makes cycling interesting.

 

[Jancouver]

It's a philosophical question if you want radio comms or not.

If you prefer to view cycling as a team sport, you want comms - if you prefer to view it as an individual sport, you are against.

Personally I think the team aspect, is what makes cycling interesting.

Because bunch of domestiques getting instructions and timing from the team car, so they can bring back just about every breakaway make bike racing so much more interesting.

These days, 90% of the peloton is riding like robots based on their powermeters and directions from the team car.

So exciting ... Jesus, are you blind?

 

[yaco]

It's a philosophical question if you want radio comms or not.

If you prefer to view cycling as a team sport, you want comms - if you prefer to view it as an individual sport, you are against.

Personally I think the team aspect, is what makes cycling interesting.

Because bunch of domestiques getting instructions and timing from the team car, so they can bring back just about every breakaway make bike racing so much more interesting.

These days, 90% of the peloton is riding like robots based on their powermeters and directions from the team car.

So exciting ... Jesus, are you blind?

Yeah - That's why Breaks often go to the finish.

 

[Vesica]

It's a philosophical question if you want radio comms or not.

If you prefer to view cycling as a team sport, you want comms - if you prefer to view it as an individual sport, you are against.

Personally I think the team aspect, is what makes cycling interesting.

Why? It still possible to communicate without ear comms. Yes it's more difficult, but not impossible.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

It's a philosophical question if you want radio comms or not.

If you prefer to view cycling as a team sport, you want comms - if you prefer to view it as an individual sport, you are against.

Personally I think the team aspect, is what makes cycling interesting.

Not necessarily: I consider it a team sport in which nous and experience count for more than blind obedience, with the team lead by a road captain using skills of reading the race, and taking additional info from the team car as something that costs effort and the slight risk of losing touch with the peloton.

 

[Jancouver]

It's a philosophical question if you want radio comms or not.

If you prefer to view cycling as a team sport, you want comms - if you prefer to view it as an individual sport, you are against.

Personally I think the team aspect, is what makes cycling interesting.

Because bunch of domestiques getting instructions and timing from the team car, so they can bring back just about every breakaway make bike racing so much more interesting.

These days, 90% of the peloton is riding like robots based on their powermeters and directions from the team car.

So exciting ... Jesus, are you blind?

Yeah - That's why Breaks often go to the finish.

Often? Oh boy, we both must be watching something different. Breaks rarely make it to the finish. Sure, from time to time, on rare occasion, the field will miscalculate the time and they will make it but other than that the break will very, very, very OFTEN get caught.

 

[Valv.Piti]

In GT's, breaks have a ridiculously high success-rate, while in pretty much every other races they get caught 90% of the time. And I hate that the teams apparently dont care about big stage wins in the mountains, at least thats the impression I have gotten the last few years in the GT's.

 

[Jancouver]

Re:

In GT's, breaks have a ridiculously high success-rate, while in pretty much every other races they get caught 90% of the time. And I hate that the teams apparently dont care about big stage wins in the mountains, at least thats the impression I have gotten the last few years in the GT's.

Correct, seems like lately, the GC teams would allow large breaks to go as there is point of chasing as the real race is happening elsewhere. Those are the "fake" victories that no one cares about and nobody will remember those.

One the other hand we will all remember many of these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZNgFiovZgk

 

[Broccolidwarf]

It's a philosophical question if you want radio comms or not.

If you prefer to view cycling as a team sport, you want comms - if you prefer to view it as an individual sport, you are against.

Personally I think the team aspect, is what makes cycling interesting.

Because bunch of domestiques getting instructions and timing from the team car, so they can bring back just about every breakaway make bike racing so much more interesting.

These days, 90% of the peloton is riding like robots based on their powermeters and directions from the team car.

So exciting ... Jesus, are you blind?

Well, if you want more breakaways going to the end, we can just stop the race organisation, giving the peloton and chasers time gaps to the breakaway

 

[yaco]

It's a philosophical question if you want radio comms or not.

If you prefer to view cycling as a team sport, you want comms - if you prefer to view it as an individual sport, you are against.

Personally I think the team aspect, is what makes cycling interesting.

Because bunch of domestiques getting instructions and timing from the team car, so they can bring back just about every breakaway make bike racing so much more interesting.

These days, 90% of the peloton is riding like robots based on their powermeters and directions from the team car.

So exciting ... Jesus, are you blind?

Yeah - That's why Breaks often go to the finish.

Often? Oh boy, we both must be watching something different. Breaks rarely make it to the finish. Sure, from time to time, on rare occasion, the field will miscalculate the time and they will make it but other than that the break will very, very, very OFTEN get caught.

Go and check through results of GT's as an example and a number of breaks make it to the finish - A balanced race is one where stage finishes are won by sprinters/climbers and from breaks.

Seems like you only want finishes that come from breakaways !

 

[MatParker1711]

Re:

In GT's, breaks have a ridiculously high success-rate, while in pretty much every other races they get caught 90% of the time. And I hate that the teams apparently dont care about big stage wins in the mountains, at least thats the impression I have gotten the last few years in the GT's.

It's a smart thing to do if your say Sky and the breakaway is all at least half an hour or so down why waste the energy chasing? Smarter just to keep the gap at around 8-10 mins and save the domestiques.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Re: Re:

In GT's, breaks have a ridiculously high success-rate, while in pretty much every other races they get caught 90% of the time. And I hate that the teams apparently dont care about big stage wins in the mountains, at least thats the impression I have gotten the last few years in the GT's.

It's a smart thing to do if your say Sky and the breakaway is all at least half an hour or so down why waste the energy chasing? Smarter just to keep the gap at around 8-10 mins and save the domestiques.

In the GTs, the domestiques and leaders are tired and cannot chase after every breakaway otherwise they may run out of gas before the GT ends. In the mountains & hills, the sprinters & their teams are no longer interested and the benefit of hiding in the bunch reduces which decreases the numbers of riders willing to chase and opens the chances for the breakaway specialists.