Riders protest radioban in Mallorca

[Roland Rat]

Have NONE of you ever worked for a pro team and know what the radios are actually used for? Really?

Okay... Here goes. We mostly use them for feeding, mechanicals and injuries. Yes, some tactical orders are issued but it's the non flashy stuff that is important.

OK, firstly how on earth did cycling manage as a sport for the decades before Motorola introduced radios in the mid-90's?

Secondly, and apologies for shouting but this has been said so many times and is the obvious answer to anyone except the UCI and the DS's who want to feel involved,
HAVE NEUTRAL SERVICE RADIOS THEN!!!.

The bureaucracy in cycling is ridiculous at the moment. A corrupt UCI, an AIGCP who are so swallowed up by their own interests they don't care about fans' opinions, and riders who are quick to protest the absence of radios but don't give a flying hockey puck about being cheated out of wins by dopers. It's a ****ing joke.

 

[cyclingPRpro]

sorry. the genie is out of the bottle. every rider coming up through the ranks is used to having a radio now...

might as we ban all carbon frames and make downtube friction shifters mandatory.

as others have said (and they are 100% correct) powermeters and highly specific training have done far more to change competitive cycling than radios ever have.

 

[Roland Rat]

sorry. the genie is out of the bottle. every rider coming up through the ranks is used to having a radio now....

And your point is?

You all still have brains, don't you? Wonderous things, they are, can do things like learn new skills and adapt to new situations. They're amazing really.

might as we ban all carbon frames and make downtube friction shifters mandatory.

ridiculous argument.

as others have said (and they are 100% correct) powermeters and highly specific training have done far more to change competitive cycling than radios ever have.

So radios aren't that important? You won't miss them then, will you.

 

[Mellow Velo]

sorry. the genie is out of the bottle. every rider coming up through the ranks is used to having a radio now...

Huh?
The UCI first banned radios in under 23 races in 2009, unless I'm mistaken.
Now the are gone from all .2 races.
Clearly the UCI's intention is to make riders coming through the ranks less radio dependent.

I do think there should be more consultation, to address the safety issues.
A middle ground could fairly easily be found.

 

[euanli]

Doesn't stop TJ Van Garden acting like a spoilt brat again

The race happened yesterday and Tyler Farrer won. If anyone wants to argue that, first show me your race number.

http://twitter.com/tvangarderen88/status/34548408056291328

 

[Roland Rat]

Doesn't stop TJ Van Garden acting like a spoilt brat again

http://twitter.com/tvangarderen88/status/34548408056291328

Screw him, he doesn't even know how to spell peloton.

 

[ingsve]

The big myth in the race radio debate is that if you ban radios then things will go back to how it was before the 90s. This is simply not true. Cycling has changed in many ways since then and radios are only a small part of that. Banning radios will solve nothing at all. All it will do is make more races into a crapshoot rather than a test to see who is stronger or faster.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Screw him, he doesn't even know how to spell peloton.

+1 on the spelling.
Always has been peloton, but I have noticed a few race televised captions cropping up using the dreaded "peleton".
Not hard to guess from where this "revision" originates.

I suppose, in his terms, the guy who always wears race number 1 would be fat old Pat.

 

[For The World]

He's also challenged people to explain how things will change without radios. He complained that they wouldn't know of a flood up ahead. I told him the roads are checked as they are closed, and they'd find out soon enough.

 

[BroDeal]

He's also challenged people to explain how things will change without radios. He complained that they wouldn't know of a flood up ahead. I told him the roads are checked as they are closed, and they'd find out soon enough.

A flood?

He has a point. The riders won't know if aliens have crash landed up ahead either. They'll figure it out, though, as soon as they see the big ass spaceship sticking out of the ground and the little gray men standing around with one saying, "WTF, bros. I told you we should have hung a right back there to get to the Olive Garden. Now we're going to have to eat at Dennys'."

 

[hrotha]

Screw him, he doesn't even know how to spell peloton.

Nevermind that, he spelled Farrar's name wrong too.

 

[hrotha]

Were there any protests at Étoile de Bessèges, GP Costa degli Etruschi, GP d'Ouverture La Marseillaise, Reggio Calabria...?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I think we keep forgetting that the higher the game the higher the stakes. For the last few years radio bans have been in the lower category races. Now it is starting to effect the meat and potatoes races and next year the sponsorship and payday events.
We are talking money, the engine of the sport. Teams are going back to chance and losing control of their investments. What other Pro Sport are coaches denied access to their athletes? The Superbowl is today, Anyone thing the quarterback is making the calls? Sure a good QB adjusts to the dynamic forces but the plays are called in. They don't get to freelance.
Safety is an issue too but it is only 1 factor.
We still have fat old men who once raced bikes in a more romantic era and are trying to direct the sport from conference rooms at World Championships.
They are not riding in the races. They are watching the races on TV and believing they know what is going on in the riders ears.
Right now the radio issue is a threat to the order established in professional cycling teams. It is playing with the game and part of the game is winning. Points determine access. Bad tactics can lose a race but so can dearth of information.
Would you feel more secure in you multi million dollar sponsorship agreement with a well disciplined pro team or 9 guys that are riding together? These rules can have huge financial consequences.

you must be american...

ever wondered why all your sports suck so much?? because athletes are puppets of coaches, statistics and strategy, the mere opposite of what cycling is and has always been until 1997 when radio's were first used in pro peloton.

american football being the biggest example of "american sports" nobody outside of the usa cares for it and it's for that same reason it may be most effcient to winning games but it's boring as ****. I love the american mentality about winning "you don't win silver, you lose gold" but in the end sports is entertainment for the people. that is what should count the most

if radio's were in chiapuchi's days he would've won 5 or 6 gt's instead of zero but he would not have been el diablo, the crazy guy who won the hearts of millions of fans around the world. that's what it is about!

 

[leadville]

nice to see united pro cyclists fighting for their rights.they should do this more often.they are the centre of this professional sport,not uci or aso or wada or whatever.

Totally agree with that.

But besides that, i think a GT without radios could be pretty funny.

 

[Darryl Webster]

Secretly shot footage of a Radio Shack development squad rider in training!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srwk-i5aXRQ

By the end of the season there hoping to have him doing left hand turns!

 

[Roland Rat]

Secretly shot footage of a Radio Shack development squad rider in training!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Srwk-i5aXRQ

By the end of the season there hoping to have him doing left hand turns!

Darryl, you know, it's amazing that you're still with us. Given that you had to race in horrendously dangerous conditions throughout your career (i.e. no radio), It's a miracle that you were never killed. I salute you, sir, and will be nominating you for an OBE.

 

[Darryl Webster]

Darryl, you know, it's amazing that you're still with us. Given that you had to race in horrendously dangerous conditions throughout your career (i.e. no radio), It's a miracle that you were never killed. I salute you, sir, and will be nominating you for an OBE.

I know Roland,,its quite amazing...the only bone I ever broke ( coller bone) I didnt even know about till many years after I retired when another break revealed the old fracture....we were well hard!...
Rode Lands end to John O`Groats last year without a helmet and with no closed roads...amazingly I survived.

 

[El Pistolero]

Were there any protests at Étoile de Bessèges, GP Costa degli Etruschi, GP d'Ouverture La Marseillaise, Reggio Calabria...?

That race was a mess. And yes.

 

[Angliru]

I think it's still Gianni Bugno, isn't it?

While I understand their "concerns" over the radio ban, I don't agree with the riders & teams claiming that there are safety issues. If that is the case then why can't there be an open-channel system so there can be communication between riders and race officials so a situation such as Pedro Horillo's crash can be communicated back? I think that the lack of them suggesting a constructive alternative shows that the safety argument is BS.

That is an excellent point. It appears that those riders and team officials that are the most outspoken against the ban or even the testing of the ban that is being attempted are not willing to compromise. An all out ban I think is not realistic but one, as has been mentioned multiple times here, that allows one way communication from riders to their cars and two-way between riders and race officials is the best option.

 

[guilder]

without radios the practicality/efficiency of 9 to a team becomes an issue. 200+ riders on the road at once makes 'riders thinking for themselves' a liability and against team strategy. It would make no sense to have teams bigger than 4-5 without radios. Radio communication compliments the modern technological advances cycling has benefited from as well as enhancing this sport brought to all of us in real time. Why return to the stone age?

Truth be told McQuaid became committed to radio bans as a contingency to getting re-elected by provincial interests ready to benefit by the ban. Outsiders e.g. American riders will feel the disadvantage most.

 

[nowhereman]

nice to see united pro cyclists fighting for their rights.they should do this more often.they are the centre of this professional sport,not uci or aso or wada or whatever.

I agree with you absolutely. There must be a more democratic way of solving problems, the bicycle racing authorities seem to imagine they are up against. There needs to be participation from all the parties involved when it comes to governing this sport. And until that happens, it will remain a second tier sport, like it or not.

 

[Oldman]

sorry. the genie is out of the bottle. every rider coming up through the ranks is used to having a radio now...
might as we ban all carbon frames and make downtube friction shifters mandatory.

as others have said (and they are 100% correct) powermeters and highly specific training have done far more to change competitive cycling than radios ever have.

Specific training and power meters have helped riders train hard. That doesn't translate into Radios in any language. I know you are "in the pro peloton" but you haven't convinced me you have a clue to what makes a good race.

 

[BroDeal]

Specific training and power meters have helped riders train hard. That doesn't translate into Radios in any language. I know you are "in the pro peloton" but you haven't convinced me you have a clue to what makes a good race.

That's why he needs a radio

 

[auscyclefan94]

A bit more communication with riders would of been a bit better.

Evans' take!

 

[For The World]

Perhaps it was only a one way radio that the UCI used to communicate to the riders? Or that the riders were too busy riding to think they should talk back?

This has been coming since 2009, so the riders have known about it for a while.