Cool advantage for Garmin-Chipotle?

donrhummy
donrhummy Posts: 2,329
edited July 2008 in Pro race
Usually during a grand tour, the riders get notifications about the upcoming terrain and turns they'll face from the radio. It can make a difference, but the radios frequently go out or mix with other teams' radios and they're not always as easy to decipher as a picture. Garmin has everyone on the team equipped with color GPS' on the bikes that can give them an immeadiate image of the terrain/turns ahead of them. That's pretty cool and could be an advantage in TT's and if a rider is in a breakaway and coming into a set of turns near the finish.

Comments

  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    And for the races in the US, it'll probably flag up when the next Chipotle burrito bar is coming up, so the riders can stop for a feed. Excellent!
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    All DSs have the finishes to hand in their road books and if they're are on sprinters teams, they will have done a recce and noted the finish for themselves, either before the race or on the day with a soigneur ahead of the race. Same for the TT stages, every corner and hill, even a bridge will be noted, so the rider will hear in his earpiece something like "ok, a short bend coming up but take the racing line and don't brake" or "small hill coming up, with false flat at the top, change down the gears as soon as the climb begins" etc

    They don't need a GPS system, it's all verified before.
  • andrewgturnbull
    andrewgturnbull Posts: 3,861
    Hi there.

    Perhaps the advantage is with the marketing department of Garmin!

    Cheers, Andy
    http://www.andyturnbull.co.uk
    http://www.stirlingtri.co.uk
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    Its only a small screen - you arent going to get much info off it to be honest, useless in the bunch, and who is gonna abandon the aero bars in a TT to scroll up the map to see whats ahead.

    Useful for badly signposted sportifs - no use for a TdF stage.

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