Road Bike Racing - Radios - Like Them or Hate Them?

It's been a few months since the last thread on this, so I thought I'd start a new one...

I've been watching the real-time Giro ticker for the past couple of days, and as I watch all the breakaways fail, I can't help but think that the team radios are making things a lot less exciting. When the peleton knows exactly how far ahead the attackers are, they can adjust accordingly and turn it into a bunch sprint every day. And yesterday there was a top 10 overall rider in one of the breaks, and everyone knew it, so he was brought back immediately. I think it would be much more exciting if we saw overall contenders make attempts to win flat stages every now and then, but that's not going to happen very often with things the way they are.

I realize that a radio ban would be nearly impossible, but how about a time check ban?

I think that its much more boring if the peloton sits there, does nothing, and lets a breakaway cruise to the finish.

Time check ban? The guys in the team cars would just make their own unofficial checks by watching the TV, and they would send that info to the riders.

I think that its much more boring if the peloton sits there, does nothing, and lets a breakaway cruise to the finish.
If there were no radios, the peleton wouldn't be able to sit there and do nothing - thus a faster overall pace, and more riders getting dropped on small climbs, etc.



Time check ban? The guys in the team cars would just make their own unofficial checks by watching the TV, and they would send that info to the riders.
My point here was the idea of a time check ban, not the implementation of one.

ya can't stop science, i tell ya. ya can't!

I remember in a race last year, a rider or two in a small breakaway didn't know about a single lone leader, because of a lack of radio communication. Because of this, they didn't chase down the leader, and just raced for second place.
I'm saying, with radios, the peloton does actually work. They actually race to chase down breakaways because they know when their work is worth it (whenever they are unsure if they can pull the break back, they all sit up.).
I commented on the time check ban just to say why I think that it wouldn't be right to do.

There is a good article on this subject in Cycle Sport magazine, I have not read it but breezed through it so I can't tell you the details but it looked interesting. Definately gave some good insight into radio communications.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=47371&highlight=radio

I've said publically before that I hate the stupid things. Radios combined with in-car televisions reduce the amount of actually thinking that riders have to do. When a group breaks away riders in the peloton simply wait for instructions to be sent to them.

We're seeing less successful breaks since radios have been in use. There's a reason.

I like it when a sport naturally rewards bold, un-anticipated, aggressive, methods. I think that radios have eliminated a lot of this behavior and certainly made it less effective. Although there are benefits to the radios...tighter racing/more big sprints. I miss the days of the relatively unknown, winning on the bold breakaway. This helped propel some great careers rather than seeing them slave away in the pack to reel in the breaks at the last moments. Imagine if they tried without radios ala instant replay in the NFL. I believe all sports should try different things.

Right on, jkoman.

Bobke was talking about this yesterday. Saying how the use of radios has drastically reduced the amount of breaks that succeed.

He doesn't like them and Phil has been vocal in his dislike also.

Ban the bloody things and go back to real racing that requires cyclists to have a brain and tactical awareness : ever noticed that Oscar Friere always seems to be in the right group ?