"A few lives have already been saved by the earphones" - Lidl-Trek DS against 'terrible idea' to ban race radios
Cycling
It is very unlikely to happen, but there is still an ongoing debate to remove race radios from races. At the Tour de Pologne there was a test to race without radios that quickly fell under criticism. Lidl-Trek DS Steven de Jongh was very vocal on what he thinks of that proposal.
"It's a terrible idea," he said right off the gates. "I can't imagine them being taken away, because a few lives have already been saved by the earphones. For example, Pedro Horrillo fell into a ravine. Teammates were able to warn the team car. They said: 'I think Horrillo (Pedro Horrillo at the 2009 Giro d'Italia, ed.) fell, in this and that bend. Pay attention.' They stopped, and they found him then," Steven de Jongh said in the How To Become A Pro Cyclist podcast.
"Otherwise the team car would have just driven past, and then he wouldn't have been there anymore". This year at the World Championships, female junior rider Muriel Furrer fell into a forest section and it took over an hour for her to be found. She later passed away. At the World Championships, race radios are not allowed in races.
But not only in the case of crashes, the American team's DS argues another scenario where the lack of radios directly affects safety of everyone: "If Skjelmose has a flat tire and he can't say anything to the car, the jury can miss it. They are often busy, that has happened before. Suddenly he is in front of your car, and you have to brake quickly. That is so dangerous. We have already had this situation and it is really, really dangerous".
He argues that cycling is more dangerous, a lot due to the attention to detail that many more teams have: "In the past you had twenty men fighting for position, but now there are sixty or eighty. There is not enough space for everyone to fight for the same position". But also, that the changes in road bikes currently also have an impact.
"The handlebars are getting smaller, we can look at that too. If you look at mountain biking: they ride with huge handlebars, to have more control. Maybe that's why a limit is needed. Everyone rides on different tyres, on different brands. Everyone. Of course there are a few brands that are used a lot, but still. And those tyres have different grip levels. If you look at Formula 1, everyone has to use the same brand. Within that you can make choices about the different tyres. That's also something we might have to look at: that there will be one brand that will sponsor all the WorldTour teams and supply the tyres," he concluded.
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