Riis, Voigt and Devolder against Tour radio ban
Rider safety and security questioned
The decision of the Tour de France to ban race radios for two stages has been heavily criticised by Stijn Devolder of QuickStep and Jens
Voigt of Saxo Bank, with Voigt’s manager, Bjarne Riis, also weighing in with some strong words against the experiment.
All three highlighted their concerns over safety and security, joining a chorus of voices against the ban, which is due to be enforced during stages ten and thirteen. The Tour organisers, ASO, say that it is because they want to encourage more spontaneous, less predictable racing.
“If you were to ask Formula One teams to turn off their radios, they’d say, ‘Excuse me, are you serious?’” said an indignant Voigt. “The radios provide information and security for us, so I think it’s a bad idea [that they’re banned].”
“It’s a huge risk by the Tour,” said Riis. “Our sponsors pay a lot of money to help us try to win the Tour. But if Andy or Frank [Schleck] crashes, if something happens and we cannot get to our riders, or we don’t know if something’s happened, that would be a scandal.”
In other words, Riis believes that the Tour could be lost – or won – on one of the two radio-free days, simply through the teams being
unable to communicate with their riders. Rather than issuing information and instructions on the radio, said Riis, “We’ll have to drive up to the peloton to speak to our riders, which is dangerous. [If there are accidents] it’s not going to be funny. We can only pray that doesn’t happen.”
“What will they say next – two days without helmets, just to make it more interesting?” said Voigt. “Or two days without cables in our
brakes?”
Devolder also spoke out against the ban, though the Belgian did admit that the move would prompt “a different kind of racing, with a different result, I think.”
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He added: “For everybody, and for safety reasons, I think it’s better with radios.”
Richard Moore is a freelance journalist and author. His first book, In Search of Robert Millar (HarperSport), won Best Biography at the 2008 British Sports Book Awards. His second book, Heroes, Villains & Velodromes (HarperSport), was long-listed for the 2008 William Hill Sports Book of the Year. He writes on sport, specialising in cycling, and is a regular contributor to Cyclingnews, the Guardian, skyports.com, the Scotsman and Procycling magazine.
He is also a former racing cyclist who represented Scotland at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the 1998 Tour de Langkawi
His next book, Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France, will be published by Yellow Jersey in May 2011.
Another book, Sky’s the Limit: British Cycling’s Quest to Conquer the Tour de France, will also be published by HarperSport in June 2011.