The Race Radio Debate

[goal sneak]

What are everyones thoughts on race radios?

I'm not sure why they chose to try without them in the tour, a smaller race would have been much more appropriate.

My personal feeling is that they are necessary for safety reasons, however it would be probably be more entertaining viewing without them as someone like Cadel may be able to escape in a breakaway without them.

 

[bigburger]

I reckon they should be there. Cycling is a team sport and this is just one aspect of that. Also if there not there then there will be more crashes with riders getting severely hurt as they will need to come closer to cars to get info.

 

[divvydan]

Just bumping this thread after reading that the UCI have voted to phase out the use of two-way radios.

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=867449

"World cycling chiefs have voted to ban the two-way radios which professional teams have come to rely on to help dictate tactics and to aid with security during races."

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=867449

Found another article on it;

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/sports/cycling/25cycling.html

"The International Cycling Union voted on Wednesday to phase out the use of two-way radios in all categories of road racing over the next three years, a move that is likely to cause controversy at the top level of the sport....

...The final phase of the ban will start in January 2013, McQuaid estimated, when the use of radios will be barred in cycling’s three Grand Tours: the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/sports/cycling/25cycling.html

Time will tell if this is going to be the right decision or not. On the positive side it looks as though they'll introduce it through smaller events so I guess how successful it is there will determine if it does indeed become a uniform ban on all two-way radios.

 

[bigburger]

Thats a good compromise imo.