UCI pussywhipped by Riders

Mrs John Murphy · UCI pussywhipped by Riders

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2...6/tour-de-france-radio-ban-lifted

Fuckwits. Guess Liestrong must have threatened to pull out of the Tour of Ireland.

Pussies.

Ralphnorman

Would you rather that the UCI didn't back down and continue with a decision that is unpopular with the riders who protested by have a go-slow and making the race less than interesting on that particular day? I agree that they never should have done it in the first place but you never know until it's been done.

Mrs John Murphy

The riders happen to be wrong in this case so yes the UCI should have continued.

Seems to me that this is less about safety and more about certain people trying to re-assert themselves as Patron of the peloton.

Ralphnorman

Would you support another kind of experiment (i hate calling it that), with only 1 way radios from the riders back to the cars for punctures etc? Or are you pushing for no radios at all?

Mrs John Murphy

The point is - why was it not an issue in the GP Plouy or the French National Championships but it is suddenly a huge issue now.

The complaints are coming from one man and one team.

Spoo

mayofan

its clearly not just one team. jeez.

jens voigt was way way more vocal than anyone in astana. just cos we like him some of you are trying to ignore that.

Spoo

mayofan

obviously the other 13 teams are just as uncomfortable with it..

bruyneel being made "leader" is a strange one alright, i guess he must have some clout.

armstrong, while opposed to the radio ban was certainly no more animated about it than a lot of other riders. and definitely less animated than quite a few.

just a question for everyone:
while obviously we would all like to see more exciting racing, do the riders have a point when they say the tdf is not the place to experiment with these things?

rule changes are often tried out in other sports, almost always at a level several steps down from the pinnacle of the sports.

for example what would rugby fans think if the ELV's had been introduced for the rugby world cup?

its interesting...

CapeRoadie

Bartali

MJM and Mayofan - both good points. I don't know the answer, but it does appear strange to me that the complaints are so vocal when there have been few if any complaints about this before.

Voigt, who I like, makes completely irrational points as clearly this isn't a safety issue as the organisers sorted that - and if they didn't they easily could. Poor old JV certainly is passionate about the subject, but suggesting they experiment banning helmets is not particularly helpful.

Are certain teams/riders that afraid? Are the riders so afraid to make decisions. Do certain teams have so much influence on the other teams? Certainly a mystery to me.

Is it really a

Spoo

Dainty Girl

Pussywhipped?!?
Avoid the pornification if you can please.

headwind

its all BS. Ive never head of an increse in race injuries becuase of radios...helmets yes...but radios. what a load of shit. i would have eliminated it for the whole tour and see decided not to show.

ban radio use NOW

headwind

HuwB

My only surprise is, this took so long to filter down.
French tv made the official announcement, almost at the start of yesterday's stage, just before Harmon said he didn't know how it would be resolved.

Isn't it ironic, that July 15th, with radios and earpieces, was an equally dull affair and yet 20 riders sustain a variety of crash related injuries.
The worst off being Caisse, who had 5 riders down and one abandonment overnight.
Jerome Pineau doesn't look too "crash hot" either.

Safety, my ass. It's gone way past that and into the realms of John le Carre.
It's now all about spying in on the opposition, listening to their tactics, to avoid getting jumped.
Neutralise before inception.

How that can be good for the sport, is beyond me.

SlowRower

Hommedesbois

Could be wrong but I got the impression yesterday that some teams again weren't using radios.

Not sure today. Good last 20km but too much Asscam for my liking. Also seems to perturb the France2 commentators.

mayofan

the safety argument is at best debatable and at worst an absolutely lie.

the only argument i agree with (and its a fairly good one) is that you cant implement things like this from the top down. Going from the french national champs to the tdf is a huge leap.

maybe next year they could say all national championships to be run without radio, and then maybe try paris nice or the dauphine if its promising.

once riders have experience with racing without radios theyll be more relaxed about it.

I think its the fear of the unknown having an effect on for what a lot of riders is the focus of their entire season thats the issue, and i think thats perfectly reasonable.

too much too soon, on a stage thats too big for experiments is the problem in my eyes.

Bartali

I think that's a fair point Mayofan. But is it such a big leap? Presumably they rode without radios at the start of their careers and some like DDL never (rarely) use them.

On balance you may be right, but you could easily say the same about the gravel climb in the 2006 Giro or even this years 65km ITT requiring standard road bikes.

Once you disregard the safety issue (which I think you are right to do), then IMO it comes down to them being professionals and getting on with the job irrespective of whether it is a good idea or properly pre-tested.

mayofan

well i dont see why they couldnt race bastille day without the radios. That would have been fair IMO as an experiment.

Where it falls down is on a stage like tomorrows where youre potentially talking about riders losing/gaining big chunks of time because of an artificial race condition that theyre not used to.

i think we, as spectators, have to recognise that this is the riders job, and that however much we want something the riders should have a fair say in what happens.

what it boils down to is that this should all have been discussed long ago and we could have avoided tuesdays mess. Not a fan of sportspeople protesting during competition.

hopefully if both sides can agree we might see this experiment given a fair go next year.

or maybe during the vuelta? could be a good publicity tool...

kathy

I still remember Richard Virenque tearing the earpiece out, and screaming something like 'I can't stand this bloke wittering in my ear all the time.' He certainly didn't like radios. That's why Pascal Hervé stayed so close to him They made Pascal wear the earpiece to relay the information.

Mrs John Murphy

Look at the history of the complaints and who has been most vocal and you can see who has been behind this protest. It started with Armstrong twittering to Brunyeel that this was setting the peloton 20 years back. They have been the most public opponents of the ban on race radio.

It is not as if this was sprung on the riders mid-race. They knew about this for a long time. The measure was trialed in two event. This is not a total ban but an experiment with a view to trying to encourage attacking racing on what could potentially be another boring transition day.

Why was it no problem in the French national championships?

As I have said this is not really about radios at all, if you listen to the likes of David Millar they said about how much they enjoyed it.

This is really about Armstrong wanting to re-establish his role as peloton patron. If he complains then the UCI loses its balls.

Dainty girl - unfortunately ' humilartngly subordinates itself to the control freakery of a man suffering a mid-life crisis' wouldn't have fitted in the title. So pussywhipped was short hand. Hardly 'pornification'.

Spoo