The Explainer – Radiohead
- By Charles Pelkey
- Published May. 27, 2009
- Updated Nov. 3, 2009 at 11:48 PM UTC
Dear Explainer,
Have racing tactics changed with the advent of race radios as riders now all seem to be communicating directly with team cars? Do you think the riders race more conservatively, knowing the whereabouts of their opponents or do radios make racing more exciting tactically?
Stephen O’Sullivan
Los Angeles, California
Dear Stephen,
You’ve hit upon one of my favorite pet peeves, that radios take some of the “romance” out of bike racing. There’s really nothing more painful than seeing some poor guy bust his chops for five hours in a break only to be pulled back by the peloton within sight of the line.
Riders in a break now have an electronic “leash” of sorts, in that the peloton pretty much knows precisely where the riders are and can usually calculate the time it will take to pull them back in. I say usually because riders who try still do succeed at efforts to stay away — as was already the case twice in this year’s Giro — but you will probably never see something akin to Fausto Coppi’s 12-minute victory over Gino Bartali on the Cuneo to Pinerolo stage of the 1949 Giro. I think that is at least partly due to the precision of modern racing, including radios.
But I have to admit, you raise issues with which I have never dealt directly, so I thought I’d ask some folks who actually do have some insight to offer and sent your question out to a group of riders and directors who have worked with radios and without them.
Columbia’s Michael Barry is currently racing in the Giro. He said he has mixed feelings about the use of radios, but that their overall impact on the sport is negative.
“I would argue that the radios have made the races more dangerous and less intriguing,” Barry said. “Radios have some advantages, but many disadvantages. Races have become formulaic as the directors orchestrate things from the car, where they have televisions, radios and all the info needed to change the outcome.”
Control center or car?
That last point is an important one to underscore. Team cars at the Giro and the Tour come fully equipped with televisions, GPS and even the equipment to monitor riders’ power output and heart rate. Directors can use that to analyze the race, their riders’ efforts and then convey instructions via radio. Barry is among those who think that ultimately takes an important element out of the picture.
“Riders have become less instinctive and more reliant on that information,” noted Barry. “A cyclist is not only a set of legs but also a mind. Some of the greatest cyclists were not the most physically talented, but won by using their intelligence and instinct.”
That position is echoed by Scott Moninger, whose career as a rider dates back to the days when radios weren’t de rigueur. Moninger, regarded as a tactically honed rider in his own right, has since made the transition to being a director and pointed out that when riders become too reliant on that information, they can flounder when things inevitably go awry.
“I think the first stage of this year’s Tour of California is a perfect example of that,” said Moninger, recalling the stage in which Rock Racing’s Francisco Mancebo stayed off the front for the entire day, due partly to the fact that weather had interfered with the usual flow of information.
“Most of the field — or at least Astana — was waiting for info (time gaps, etc.) that was very delayed or inaccurate because of the serious weather conditions,” recalled Moninger. “Chris Horner, an old-school guy, finally said ‘screw this, we need to start riding NOW! We can’t wait for the word from the boss.’
“Chris has the knowledge of reading a race from a time when riders were forced to read a race because radios didn’t exist. His call ended up saving Astana’s butt and afterwards they all recognized this,” Moninger added. “Lance (Armstrong)’s first real pro team was Motorola, so he was one of the first riders in the world to use race radio technology and he was the type of rider who really needed it and benefited from it. Considering that Chris and Lance are about the same age, I think Chris has a much better ability to read a race and I think the radio is the difference there.”
The freedom to improvise
1984 Olympic gold medalist Alexi Grewal agreed, saying that while he never had much exposure to radios, from an outsider’s perspective he thinks that they tend to take away some of the guesswork.
“There was a recent Sports Illustrated article that noted that (NFL) football players actually look at the Jumbotron during plays to ‘see’ rivals that are normally outside the field of view,” Grewal said. “It’s an eyes in the back of the head sort of thing.
“Prior to radio, your teammates had to be alert and be in position in order to respond to developments on the road,” Grewal said. “The biggest difference that I can conceive of is that your knowledge of the roads is not the advantage is used to be. There is now no way to forge surprise moves, because everybody knows immediately who is where. In the earlier era, moves could be infiltrated, which then were hard to retrieve … the freedom to improvise is more or less gone.”
That ability to read a race was far more important before the reliance on radios. Mike Neel, who served as the director of the 7-Eleven team and was the man in the car when Andy Hampsten won the 1988 Giro d’Italia, said the absence of such technology placed more emphasis on planning.
“Before radios were allowed, we relied on pre-race meetings, designating a team captain to carry out the team plan and watch for any surprises or mishaps,” Neel explained. “You talked about who to watch and the dangerous parts of the course and every rider had to remember what was said … or face the music during the next meeting. This left room for all kinds of improvisation when the unexpected happened. If Andy Hampsten had a front flat while the team cars were absent, a rider like Bob Roll would immediately give him his wheel without having to ask if he should. We had a team philosophy about how things worked and stuck to it.”
That approach, said Neel, gave a big advantage to smart riders and to the better tacticians among directors.
“Riders’ intelligence and willingness to help each other were the key factors to success,” said Neel. ”During these years (before radios) there were great directors like Cyrille Guimard, Jan Raas, Paul Kochli, Peter Post, Giancarlo Ferretti and others who achieved consistent good results using their methods.”
Neel, who later served as director for the Saeco women’s team in the late 1990s, said he made the transition to the radio world with ease, but found that it had its drawbacks.
“So here I am 20 years later, telling the team about every turn, hill or sprint coming up and what to do about it,” Neel said. “Come to find out there are other teams listening to my every word! I hate race radios and think they should be banned. Maybe one radio per team captain for unseen accidents or emergency situations would be something to consider.”
Barry said even the use of radios to warn of hazards has its risks.
“Radios provide the benefit of giving the directors (the ability to) relay information to riders to tell them about the hazards ahead,” he said. “This is useful to some degree but also creates panic in the peloton, which is often more dangerous than the actual hazard as every team races to the front.”
Moninger notes that one of the biggest problems with radios is that they’re not always that reliable.
“Radios rarely function well in the field,” he said. “You run a check in the hotel room and everything is great and then when the race is in rollout or neutral mode, you do another check and everything is great, but as soon as the flag drops, or the weather changes, you end up spending way too much time and energy trying to get them to work properly while the race is underway.
“If you’ve got an eight-man team, after the race, two or three guys will say they didn’t hear anything all day,” Moninger said. “At the end of the day, radios can be very frustrating.”
Unwanted chatter
And that leads me to my favorite race-radio-related anecdote. Covering the Saturn Classic — the brutally difficult one-day road race from Boulder to Breckenridge, Colorado — one year, I had the good fortune of riding in the commissaire’s car and sending updates via satellite telephone to my colleague who was typing in our minute-by-minute coverage.
After that year’s eventual winner, and a few others, managed to get a gap on the way to Guanella Pass, several top name riders were left to chase. We came upon one (for the sake of propriety, he shall remain unnamed) who raised his hand as he heard the Comm’ car approaching. It seemed odd that a rider, with a team car behind him, might be seeking support from race officials, but the driver approached and lowered the window to see what help was needed.
Reaching into his jersey pocket, the rider pulled out his radio, yanked his earphone out and then handed all of it through the window.
“Is it broken?” asked the official.
“No, it’s fine, so you can listen to the silly son of bitch all the way to Breckenridge, if you want,” he said referring to his often-overly-animated director. “I can’t take it anymore.”
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Charles Pelkey
Charles Pelkey joined VeloNews in 1994 after serving as press secretary for former GOP Whip Alan K. Simpson in the U.S. Senate. Pelkey has worked as a journalist since 1985 and held a number of editorial positions at VeloNews including Senior Editor of VeloNews.com. Pelkey earned a JD from the University of Wyoming College of Law and lives in Laramie, Wyoming, with Diana, his wife of 25 years, and their two children, Philip and Annika, whose presence serves as a constant reminder of what really matters. Pelkey left VeloNews in July, 2011, but continues to be a regular contributor. Charles can now be found at liveupdateguy.com