Race radios ok for 2012

iainf72

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/9688/ ... inues.aspx

Same as this year really.

At least it's not an unholy cat fight this time though.

LeicesterLad

Personally i'm glad, i imagine many won't be.

Rodrego Hernandez

Thanks goodness. All we need is riders turning the wrong way at the end of a stage, or getting hurt during them. Radios will be a savior.

Jez mon

Personally, I think if the UCI is serious about having more exciting (i.e. tactically inept) racing, we should get rid of Power/HR meters, along with race radios.

Without the distractions the riders can concentrate better on their surroundings, which would help allay the safety concerns arising from the banning of radios.

dave_1

while I miss the old days of Thiery marie soloing a 100 miles at 1991 TDF and keeping the bunch at bay thanks to the lack of info they in those days had to go on to decide when to start up their various team trains/organised chases to peg such breaks back...the damage of boycott is one the sport can't afford. The possible boycott of races such as Tour of Beijing-a country in which the sports future sponsors surely reside- would be too damaging. Poss best of UCI back down

top_bhoy

Jez mon wrote:

Personally, I think if the UCI is serious about having more exciting (i.e. tactically inept) racing, we should get rid of Power/HR meters, along with race radios.

Without the distractions the riders can concentrate better on their surroundings, which would help allay the safety concerns arising from the banning of radios.

I like it....banning Power/HR meters would get my vote. No rider information would nullify to an extent the tactical discussion on race radio as managers would have no certainty on the race day performance of their riders. However I would reconsider race radios initially if only to placate teams for their much cited safety aspect concerns (though I do think they are over exaggerated). Any rider found with monitoring equipment is disqualified and the team fined and docked Pro tour points.

MrTapir

Top_Bhoy wrote:

Jez mon wrote:

Personally, I think if the UCI is serious about having more exciting (i.e. tactically inept) racing, we should get rid of Power/HR meters, along with race radios.

Without the distractions the riders can concentrate better on their surroundings, which would help allay the safety concerns arising from the banning of radios.

I like it....banning Power/HR meters would get my vote. No rider information would nullify to an extent the tactical discussion on race radio as managers would have no certainty on the race day performance of their riders. However I would reconsider race radios initially if only to placate teams for their much cited safety aspect concerns (though I do think they are over exaggerated). Any rider found with monitoring equipment is disqualified and the team fined and docked Pro tour points.

I agree with that. I also used to be against race radios so that riders had to make their own decisions and thought that would make the racing more exciting.

But, seeing how some of this years racing has been superb I dont think they are that bad. Although perhaps more rider deciision would be good. Ive heard ideas about everyone having the same channel on their radio. I guess maybe if everyone had access to everyone else's radio it would be a mass jumble of lots of unintelligible talking. Anyway I'm cool with radios.

Kléber

I don't think the radio argument was ever really about radios, it was a squabble over control of the sport between the UCI and some team managers and the radios were a convenient subject, especially since talk of safety put them on the moral high ground.

Mark Bom

I agree that this years racing has been very exciting and as long as the racing is good, I've no problems with race radios.

Tom Butcher

Ideally I'd like to see the back of radios but the UCI has been forced into a corner and done the right thing for reasons others have said above. Can't see them banning power meters as there are business interests involved - Garmin wouldn't be pleased for starters. I suppose the more gear that can be flogged on the back of cycle sport the more potential advertising revenue there is.

Personally though I'd prefer to keep it simple - riders on mechanical bikes without feedback on how much power they are putting out, without radios, without electronic shifting etc etc.

forward_loop

I have a feeling that the Vuelta GC may be more exciting over the last few stages without race radio.

Road Ace

Stick them on the same frequency so it covers all the safety concern and then lets see what happens. Could be a good year?