Bicycle .net :: Angry Teams To Petition Tour Bosses Over Radio Ban

Angry Teams To Petition Tour Bosses Over Radio Ban

By editor on July 11th, 2009

by Ryland James

SAINT GIRONS, France, July 11, 2009 (AFP) – Top Tour de France teams will protest plans to ban radio contact between riders and their team managers on two of next week’s stages.

Johan Bruyneel, the team manager of Astana which includes yellow jersey favorites Lance Armstrong Alberto Contador, has described the decision as “unjustified and unacceptable”.

Astana is one of 14 teams who have already signed a petition against radio silence for stages 10 and 13 and will submit it later Saturday.

“The Tour has gotten so big and busy with so many cars on the route that it is completely unjustifiable and unacceptable that in the biggest event of the year, there is an experiment to see what will happen without radios,” said Bruyneel.

“We can’t accept that. I don’t understand why there should be two days without radio.”

During each stage’s racing, team managers communicate with their riders, who wear ear-pieces, by radio to advise on tactics, approaching hazards and other important information.

But Tour organizers, following initial discussions between the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the teams’ own representatives’ groups, are insisting on a return to the old days with radio silence for both Tuesday’s 194.5km stage from Limoges to Issoudon and Friday’s 200km-long ride from Vittel to Colmar.

In theory it should make for more exciting racing. Detractors of the use of radios by teams complain that bike racing is becoming dull, predictable and that some riders no longer use their own initiative.

Radios were introduced to cycling by Armstrong’s old team Motorola in the 1990s but have now become almost as crucial as the bikes themselves.

Yet they are still not used in under-23 races and, despite some claims to the contrary, radios have been banned in other top races.

At the French championships in June, Dmitri Champion stunned a handful of bigger favourites to win the national men’s road race while racing without a radio.

However, that has not convinced the likes of Bruyneel.

After a meeting of all 20 of the Tour de France teams in Monaco before last Saturday’s opening stage, Bruyneel says 14 teams have signed the petition which is an incentive from the International Professional Cycling Teams (IPCT).

“You can argue about it, but the Tour de France should not be a test ground and the teams are an important player in cycling and I don’t think we should just accept something ordered on us if it doesn’t make sense,” added Bruyneel.

“The riders agree, there are issues of security about the dangers of riding without communication.”

The petition is likely to fall on deaf ears.

A statement released Saturday by Tour de France organizers said: “In keeping with a decision by the Executive Committee of the International Cycling Union (UCI), the Commissaries Board would like to confirm that the 10th stage from Limoges to Issoudun on July 14 will be held without the use of radio communication.

“The Executive Committee of the International Cycling Union made this decision on June 19, 2009 and it will be upheld for the 10th and 13th stages of the race.

“We will do everything in our power to facilitate the job of the team managers.”

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