"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Tour trying radio silence! Oh shiii-

http://velonews.com/article/93621/tour-tries-radio-silence

This should be interesting :thumb:

Awesome. I'm glad. I wish the riders had to figure things out for themselves, instead of being pawns in someone else's chess game.

Just two stages at the Tour, in order to get a feel for "old school".

Lots of pros and cons, but I'll say this, when I did those years of stage racing in Latin America, radios came in very handy.

We never used them for tactics. Radios were for mechanicals, crashes, feeds and time gaps.

could be interesting.

"The steps mean that team managers will have to revert to communicating with racers by relying upon more traditional methods. "

Morse code? Bullhorns? Flags? Hand signals? Post-It notes? or just pulling back a lowly domestique and supplying the message?

smoke signal.

or just drive the car up to the guy and talk to him.

It'll be interesting to hear the riders' reactions. Bet we'll get an opinion or two.

very cool. Anyone know what the course profile is like for those stages? Oh man, I hope this encourages some agressive riding! WWJ(ens)D?!?

Love it!

Cool. So would this help or hurt breakaways?

I'm already in talks with Astana and Saxo Bank regarding my carrier pigeon services.

Some of the lower-budget teams have expressed interest in another of my products:
http://www.tailoredtime.com/images/pictures/tin_can_phone.jpg

bob dopolina is handling foreign distribution for me.

Time to break out the semaphore manuals and hand out some flags.

Time to break out the semaphore manuals and hand out some flags.

not aero enough.

signaling lights are where it's at now.

Yelling loudly?
http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/brick.jpg

^ lol

Racing was good before radios, motorcycles and chalkboards. hmmm could make breakaways possible once more

very cool. Anyone know what the course profile is like for those stages? Oh man, I hope this encourages some agressive riding! WWJ(ens)D?!?

Stages 10 & 13... 10 is flat, 13 is "medium mountain"

http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDF/COURSE/us/1000/etape_par_etape.html
http://www.letour.fr/2009/TDF/COURSE/us/1300/etape_par_etape.html

"This measure is not being imposed by the Tour de France but represents the application of the existing French Highway Code," Tour sporting director Jean-Francois Pescheux told AFP.

"It is aimed at preventing something dramatic happening one day."

What the hell does that mean? I don't understand it in context of the article. Bad French to English translation?

Traditional methods - moto/chalkboard?

Racing was good before radios, motorcycles and chalkboards. hmmm could make breakaways possible once more

When were chalkboards introduced? I guess it must have been after 2006.

"This measure is not being imposed by the Tour de France but represents the application of the existing French Highway Code," Tour sporting director Jean-Francois Pescheux told AFP.

"It is aimed at preventing something dramatic happening one day."

What the hell does that mean? I don't understand it in context of the article. Bad French to English translation?

Traditional methods - moto/chalkboard?

It means that ASO is doing a typically french thing: when doing something controversial, blame someone else as soon as possible. The veiled threat is something they must have learned from American politicians.

I will be interested to see how they enforce the ban on TVs in the cars, especially with mobile TV on cell phones. Will they search all the mechanics phones for mobile tv apps?

Traditional methods include having support staff standing by the side of the road, ready to shout time gaps or even relay a message they got from telegraph (cell phone nowdays).

When were chalkboards introduced? I guess it must have been after 2006.

:roflmao2:

Good thing I didn't have a mouthful of liquid or else i would have done a "spit-take" worthy of Danny Thomas. (Damn, I'm old. Does anyone on this board other than Pcad even know who Danny Thomas is?:lol:)

OK, back to reality for "traditional" methods.

What it does require is that if you have a "contender" in good position it will be a major advantage to have another rider with them to go back to the team car to get fresh information. This does make a major change in the race tactics because now it is a major "OMG" mistake to get isolated in the race.

I am wholeheartedly in favor of this change, BTW. It is to my benefit to make the race as cerebral as possible on the road by the actual racers. If only I was as "strong" physically as I am mentally.:lol:

Voigt said that he hates being a robot who has every single move dictated to him by the DS.

Velonews has it right when they said that this is an attempt to end years of formulaic stages where the breakaway is caught with a few K to go.

I will be interested to see how they enforce the ban on TVs in the cars, especially with mobile TV on cell phones. Will they search all the mechanics phones for mobile tv apps?

Arrests, team car ejections, random urine tests...

Racing was good before radios, motorcycles and chalkboards. hmmm could make breakaways possible once more

hahahaha Yes I wrote that terribly. Racing was good before the race radio. Back to the moto/chalkboard combo, or better yet the guy standing on the side of the road holding it up ...hoping the rider sees it. I have indeed gotta tired of the perfect breakaway catch stage after stage after stage. They have no chance of being able to form another because they were caught just before the line. I won't go so far as to say it's boring but it's been 15 years easily since I've screamed myself hoarse at the television hoping that some young domestique, who's feeling good and frisky on the bike and goes it alone in the first 20km holds it til the end of the stage. That's the type of heart and guts Phil pontificates about. Phil will just love this radio free idea i bet.

Agree this could make for some interesting racing. Im in the camp that is getting tired of the 15 min gap that "miraculously" gets caught 2k from the line!

Since a lot of todays riders have Never riden w/o someone in thier ear. I wonder if this will play out like some nervous Cat 5 race, with the field afraid to let any kind of gap form.

Remember the visible buzz when you could see the peleton getting fidgety, not sure if they should attack or hold? Hmm without race radio even the team members will have to signal each other "live" when it's time to form up and make a go of things..... can't wait.

Radio Tour broadcasts to the entire caravan, so Directors won't be in the dark about what's going on in the race or upcoming hazards. They' ll just have a harder time spreading the word.

Radio Tour broadcasts to the entire caravan, so Directors won't be in the dark about what's going on in the race or upcoming hazards. They' ll just have a harder time spreading the word.
The question then is will that added difficulty appreciably change the style of racing? Looking at Banesto under Indurain in the early '90's would seem to indicate it will not.

Those breaks will still be chased down, just with another k or two to spare.

Based on the route distance and topography, calculations will still be made as to when a peloton chase should begin. My guess is it won't be much different than with the radios in play. Wind or crappy weather would change things dramatically sans radio.

Cool. So would this help or hurt breakaways?Good question. In the Giro, 5 of 18 non-TT stages were won by riders from a breakaway, which is a pretty good number. In the Dauphine, 4 of 6 non-TT stages were won by riders from a breakaway. If radios are suppressing breakaway wins, hard to see it there.