tour radio ban: what do you think?

[linnega]

I have yet to hear a good argument against banning radios.  Whether banning them is the solution to help the monotony of most stages is questionable though.

 

The "concerns" around safety are rubbish - there is no safety benefit in radios.  Teams cars will not "have" to drive into the bunch to deliver a message, they will simply have to stay out of the bunch at let the riders use those things a little above their noses.

 

The riders and team managers seem to think they are the most important part of this decision.  They are not.  If the race is made more interesting for the fans, particularly those that don't understand pro cycling tactics, then it is a good decision.  Riders seem to think they are paid to ride - they are mistaken - they are paid to entertain.  Like other sports they need to start to accept that big salaries are paid for out of TV rights and TV rights are paid for by viewership stats.  Like in tennis where the pros have to play at 2am or 3am in the Australian Open, pro cyclists will need to learn to deal with minor discomforts in pursuing their profession.

 

And all stages should be no helmet stages.

[TNT1]

 

  Riders seem to think they are paid to ride - they are mistaken - they are paid to entertain.  Like other sports they need to start to accept that big salaries are paid for out of TV rights and TV rights are paid for by viewership stats. 

 

Exactly the same argument you can use to say doping should be allowed.

 

[cyclenut]

If they wanted to make a point about safety they could have all piled into Vladimir Karpets on the last corner ....

[linnega]

 

  Riders seem to think they are paid to ride - they are mistaken - they are paid to entertain.  Like other sports they need to start to accept that big salaries are paid for out of TV rights and TV rights are paid for by viewership stats. 

 

Exactly the same argument you can use to say doping should be allowed.

You could, but it wouldn't be a valid argument.  Doping is not good for viewership as it would simply result in the biggest budget team always being the best, and essentially unbeatable.  The same applies in Formula 1 if unlimited budgets and car modifications were allowed, or in football where there is no cap on salaries.  There has to always be a mechanism for a newcomer to enter the arena, which is where cycling is going by getting tougher on doping, formula 1 is going by limiting the parameters and budgets and football is going by capping salaries.

 

[Speeddemon]

Banning the radio's is a great idea. I sure whould like to see how things turn out if a break-away can manage a 5-10 min lead on the peloton.

[cyclenut]

http://www.velonews.tv/?bclid=19954650001&bctid=29405706001

[Pieter Henning]

Haven't read the whole thread, but the radio ban is a dumb idea. 14 Teams echoed this in the petition yesterday, and anyone else who has ever raced with radios in a big bunch of 180 riders will agree.

 

 

 

Consider the following situation: A team's rider has a jersey to defend. All the guys are racing in a bunch of 180 riders. The rider defending the jersey punctures/crashes somewhere in the bunch but none of his teammates see this. How does he let his team know that he needs teammates to help him back? Dunno about you, but I would not want a GC contender to be taken out of contention because of an unimely mechanical incident or crash that could have easily been rectified by quick communication.

[Pieter Henning]

Also consider the fact that it's quite hard for a rider to ride up to all of his teammates and have a chat in a bunch of 200 guys traveling at 50km/h - If they aren't sitting close to where you are in that big group it takes considerable effort simply just to reach them.

[Christie]

Perhaps unpredictability is what the crowds crave?

 

Look at cricket - true fans like test matches bbest, but the crowds want 20/20, where stron teams get beaten by weaker teams thanks to one player/over/incident 

[ErikV]

So after it was all done and dusted, nothing changed really. Break escaped, rode at the front all day, got caught in the last 5km, Cavendish won bunch sprint.

 

But didn't we know that this morning?!

 

The only difference the lack of radios made was that the pace was pedestrian. Even Andrew McLean could have stayed with the bunch today.

[linnega]

Hardly a fair test given that the riders and teams are behaving like infants.  Phen - the point is the average TV fan couldn't give a stuff what riders or team managers think.  Their opinions quite frankly aren't worth anything in the bigger scheme of this show called the Tour de France.

 

[Tumbleweed]

the riders and managers are saying it was a failed experiment, but according to most, the slow pace was due to a "silent protest" by the riders.

[Gasping]

Maybe it was not so much asilent protest as scared/wary/cautious of dangerous corners as mentioned in an earlier post?

[Tumbleweed]

evans speaking to afp:

"It was a relaxed stage, finally we had some time to talk to the other riders," said Evans, seemingly happy at not having to wear a radio earpiece.
"There wasn't the stress of the team managers talking in your ear, sometimes that can drive you crazy."

[White Eagle]

IT DIDN'T WORK.

[Iwan Kemp]

In the end the lack of race radios - which some believe prompted the peloton to ride slowly as a kind of protest - seemed not to play a decisive role.

 

 

 

"The fact we didn't have any radio earpieces today didn't change a thing, it was really a sprinters' stage," Dumoulin said. "They controlled us just as they would have done anyway."