I’ve avoided talking about the Tour de France this week, because I know that 99% of readers will go off and have a nice cup of tea instead, but today there is an experiment in the competition that is interesting even if you couldn’t care less about the race itself, so I’m going to tell you about it anyway…
The cyclists in the race all use earphones to keep in contact with their support cars. They say it is so they are warned of impending danger, while everyone really knows it is so that their team captains can give them clues about tactics. For example if a break-away group is five minutes ahead and there is only 25 kilometres left to go, it’s time to speed up a bit…but if you don’t know how far ahead they are, you don’t know what to do.
(It’s actually quite complicated because of the way the race uses aggregate times – so a rider likes to know if someone five minutes ahead of him today is going to overtake him in the overall positions etc. – i.e. do they care if they catch up or not.)
Is this use of radios cheating? Life saving? Life threatening? Completely uninteresting? Everyone has a different opinion. Whatever the risks and benefits, today’s stage of the race is the first in more than a decade in which headphones have been banned.
Will we see cyclists setting off in the wrong direction, or not noticing a tree that has fallen across the road in front of them? I doubt it but I suppose nothing’s impossible.
The riders aren’t completely in the dark, even without headphones, because there is a motorbike with a blackboard that frequently rides alongside to tell them how big the gap is – but much less information than they get from their team cars (I always wondered how they always know exactly how big the gap is between two groups of cyclists, when both groups are moving, but that’s a separate issue).
Of course it’s possible they are just listening to music – something upbeat to get their legs moving faster perhaps, or maybe listening to an afternoon play on Radio 3. If my own children were in the race they would certainly need a decent ipod selection to see them through a whole afternoon.
The organisers say it is basic Highway Code stuff – you don’t cycle with headphones on, and the gendarmes along the route will point out any unexpected hazards without any great difficulty. Certainly more efficiently than a support car that is following along behind the race.
To make the point more clearly they have said that teams ignoring the ban risk being thrown out of the race and having to pay big fines.
Interestingly, 14 out of the 20 teams involved have signed a petition saying ‘bring back headphones’ while more than 75% of the public said the race would be better without them. So the riders are panicking about not having them, while the public are glad to see them banned.
More interesting, most of the teams that haven’t signed the petition are French teams, so if 14 of the 20 teams get sent home this evening for cheating there is a pretty good chance of the first French victory in the Tour de France in the last two decades. Rock on, Francaise des Jeux!
Its the French again trying to gain an advantage as they have been trialing this for some time.
Why you start an experiment with this race is beyond me.
I realy could not care less if they are in radio contact or not so long as its the same for all teams.
The French are just so upset that Americans keep winning and British names are now popping up.
The French are up to their old games. Bottom line is that they are bad losers.
Surely the way forward it to trial this on some lesser rides. make a decision and give ALL teams 12 moths notice of any change.
I hate to see this kind gamesmanship and it brings the French into disripute.
Its just not British old boy is it.
Cavendish still won I see. His interview was a bit different this time – he seemed very keen to thank his team and sponsors. Related to comments about him not playing as part of a team the other day? perhaps.
One of the team managers was pointing out that in every other team sport the coach was able to change tactics during the competition, so why not the Tour de France. Seems reasonable. And yes I agree that if they want to try something new they should give 12 months notice. If I was in charge, I’d leave things as they are for this year since it looks like being the first tour without drug scandals for a very long time, and creating new issues to disrupt things seems a bit reckless.
From what I can gather, off the record the riders enjoyed not having orders given to them via the ear piece. On balance with out being a Ludite I think it would make a more interesting race without the radio communication with riders, but times move on and if the main sponsors want it that is what will happen. As my neighbour in Metz told me ” You english are ok in small numbers” I said the feeling is mutual and we sank another pastis. he said he never liked the English till he met me. I said I liked the French till I met him. I could not stop him laughing, He loved insulting humour. He was a great bloke.He owned a meat stall in the indoor market in Metz and knew everyone. he told his customers I came over once a month from England to buy his meat it was so good. What a man.
Have been living in France for over a year now and this is the first time I’ve started following the TDF. Great to see Cavendish get the green jersey again – but doesn’t Bradley Wiggins deserve a little more support?
Regarding the discussion on earphones perhaps cycling could look to a sport I generally enjoy following – but have been switched off by the politics – Formula 1? The message is that technology is not the problem – merely the apparently arbitrary imposition of rules by the governing body that creates the problems.
Hope to be going down to the Annecy time trial on July 23.. any advice on what time I should plan to arrive to be able to park a car within reasonable walking distance?
The French interviewer was very hard on Cavendish today, asking what he thought about the suggestions that he didn’t play his role in the team, and then asking if it was true if he didn’t like the French riders. I’m surprised Cavendish didn’t hit him, instead he just sat floundering for an answer – or thinking he’d misunderstood the questions perhaps (they were asked in French).
I’m jealous about going to the time trial but can’t offer any useful opinion on parking and arrival times unfortunately – depends if you want to be somewhere along the route or on the finish line I imagine – for the latter I’d get there very early!
When we went last year to somewhere along the route we needed to be there about 2-3 hours before the expected arrival time (it’s complicated because the roads gets closed to traffic quite early on).
Just in case anyone is interested.. in the end we missed the early start and drove into Annecy just after 10 am. Found our way easily into a car park just a few hundred metres from the action. Easy – but plenty of people.
http://genevaexplore.blogspot.com/2009/07/first-experience-of-tour-de-france-at.html
Roll on Annecy for the 2018 Winter Olympics!
Thanks for letting us know, I’m surprised that the public have access to the ‘warm-up’ area.
I hope you managed to pinch a new bike from one of the teams – I quite fancy the bike that Damien Hirst painted for Lance Armstrong myself.
Getting started with cycling is pretty easy around here – slightly more of a challenge around your way I imagine – good luck with that.