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Race radio

Jul 8, 2010
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Watching today's Grand tours have become a bore feast. Race radio's are killing the sport because riders don't need to back themselves and their bike-craft. The riders these days are just robots being controlled by their DS in their air conditioned cars.

Get rid of them I say!

As far as safety is concerned, fine, allow the riders to keep the radios but only allow them one channel to the lead safety car advising them of course situations.

Remove the DS's radios and watch the racing come alive again.
 
Apr 12, 2009
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Is racing that much better in non radio races?
But I do agree:it's better to use one official channel, with information about time gaps, dangerous points, etc... instead of nothing.

There's already a thread about this somewhere, btw.
 
Buffalo Soldier said:
Is racing that much better in non radio races?
But I do agree:it's better to use one official channel, with information about time gaps, dangerous points, etc... instead of nothing.

There's already a thread about this somewhere, btw.
Actually that's the Race Radio, that should be kept. Team Radios out!
 
Jun 27, 2009
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Don't they still give out race bibles? Seems I saw a rider with a page wrapped around his handlebars..? All pertinent info should be in there, having televisions and team radios are unfair.. it makes some team like Sky's job easy, let the break away dangle out there for a bit of telly time, whilst they sit on the front of the bunch and ride tempo and get the rest of the telly time, free advertising from their rivals in the broadcast world.
I have heard all the arguments about removing radios, like, how far backwards do we want to wind the clock back....back to hairnets or no helmets, downtube shifters, split stages, you name it.. the only people who benefit from this ludicrous advancement are the big team directors who can calculate the splits, see who's in them and squash any initiative of smaller budget teams, they are under pressure to get all the wins, the sponsors, who are paying ever increasingly huge sums for advertising sponsorship demand it.
Remember a few years ago when one or two stages were radioless, the teams raced like juniors, these pros cannot think for themselves anymore.. Maybe a new UCI president might want to rock the boat a bit or pro cycling is going to continue on this absurdly banal path
 
Mar 10, 2009
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At a race where radios are allowed every team gets the same technology. The little team and the big team. Nothing about having radios gives Sky any advantage that health net does not have too and if a big team can take advantage of a technology so can a small team. As for who is calling the shots. Ds are alway driving up to the break to tell them what to do and every time a rider goes back for bottles he returns with water and tactical information. Most of the races today are radio free so the teams must learn to race with and without them.
I spent over 13 years in the car behind the peloton and radios serve many more purposes than controlling robots. My take on the past was the teams were able to execute these interminable chases because of "other" factors besides timing the catch for the last 1000 meters.

Get used to the tactics since these have been the same for decades. The difference in outcomes has been more to do with 2 speeds than the ability of the DS to tell the team to chase. Radios do allow quicker response that without them and they do allow tactical updates to be more timely. Without radios a tactical update often involves team cars moving up to the front of the caravan for talking and we already have them there for food and water. There is nothing greater for a rider to be able to call the team car with a service request like a front wheel before they get to the back and have the wait there. You are at the front and have to talk to the DS. slide back put up your hand, wait for the comm to call, wait for the car to arrive and then talk or service or feed.

I want to see a full return of radios to pro racing.
 
Lucifa said:
Watching today's Grand tours have become a bore feast. Race radio's are killing the sport because riders don't need to back themselves and their bike-craft.


Of course you're strictly concerned about it on GT's.

Classics, we don't care anyway. So you can as well let the radios on them..:rolleyes:
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Lucifa said:
Watching today's Grand tours have become a bore feast. Race radio's are killing the sport because riders don't need to back themselves and their bike-craft. The riders these days are just robots being controlled by their DS in their air conditioned cars.

Get rid of them I say!

As far as safety is concerned, fine, allow the riders to keep the radios but only allow them one channel to the lead safety car advising them of course situations.

Remove the DS's radios and watch the racing come alive again.

Agreed, Race radio is killing the sport :D
 
Mar 10, 2009
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ElChingon said:
Agreed, Race radio is killing the sport :D

Without EPO no one would have ever blamed radios for destroying the sport. Since the majority of races are radio free what are you talking about? They are only allowed in 28 races. 3 grand tours and 25 other world tour races? So what is destroying the sport in the other 300 races on the calendars where they are banned except for the TT stages? They are banned at all other races for women, juniors, U23, etc. Do you all mean to say they don't know what to do at the majority of the races they attend? Maybe you just miss the doping enhanced racing as clean racing is boring? find another sport to watch that meets your excitement needs. Bike racing is watching paint dry and I find that pretty exciting at times with a lot of televised peddling.
 
Lucifa said:
As far as safety is concerned, fine, allow the riders to keep the radios but only allow them one channel to the lead safety car advising them of course situations.

Remove the DS's radios and watch the racing come alive again.

Apologies for reviving an ancient thread but I couldn't get the advanced search working. Not only does team radio neutralise racing it is downright dangerous. I'd argue it contributes to crashes in the pack with riders taking a hand off their handlebar and being distracted by conversations about "getting to the front", but yesterday really validated the above post.

It was an emergency situation and having to route essential safety information via the teams caused unnecessary delays in neutralising the race, with riders continuing for several kilometres down the mountain after race radio had announced the race was being stopped. If a landslide had happened further up the mountain a frustrating situation could have been a whole lot worse.

If team radio is here to stay we need:
i) fines and suspensions for continuing riding when race radio has announced neutralisation on the grounds of safety.
ii) some means of team radio being made available to broadcast as in motorsport (so it at least gives something back to the sport it is hurting)
 
Fergoose said:
Lucifa said:
As far as safety is concerned, fine, allow the riders to keep the radios but only allow them one channel to the lead safety car advising them of course situations.

Remove the DS's radios and watch the racing come alive again.

Apologies for reviving an ancient thread but I couldn't get the advanced search working...

You couldn't get the advanced search working, but you were able to find this thread? :surprised:
 
Yes, race radios are bad for cycling. I don't even know when they started creeping in but here they are now in every race. Riders reduced to simple chess figures with no self choices. They need to get permission for ever maneuver basically and get scolded for going against it. The sport would be better off without it and also better for spectators. As it's been said riders could still receive important safety information, but text only like in Moto GP. and of course each motorbike should have yellow/red flags to warn riders.
 
I think Thomas Voeckler was the one who made an interesting point against the use of race radios. If I'm correct, he said race radios increase the danger because every race director knows the pinch-points etc. on a course and directs the team to the front to avoid problems. Problem is every race director is saying the same thing and it amounts to huge pile-ups.
 
Re:

the delgados said:
I think Thomas Voeckler was the one who made an interesting point against the use of race radios. If I'm correct, he said race radios increase the danger because every race director knows the pinch-points etc. on a course and directs the team to the front to avoid problems. Problem is every race director is saying the same thing and it amounts to huge pile-ups.

Some years ago Rein Taaramäe echoed a similar sentiment in either an interview to Estonian press, or in one of his blog posts (don't remember exactly which it was anymore) and actively supported the idea of getting rid of them.
 
Re:

Alex Simmons/RST said:
Does anyone have any actual evidence that radios are causing more crashes?

How could such evidence possibly be obtained? The best we can do is take anecdotal information from riders and note that the number of crashes in a bunch on flat straight roads at GTs appear higher in the years since radio has been introduced.
 

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