Radio debate: Open letter from a reader

Sep 30th, 09. Paul Larkin, a team and athlete manager, read yesterday's article on Jorge Sandoval considering banning radios for his cycle tours and wanted to have his say.   



Original article: NZ tour consider radio ban

Halliday benefits from radio confusion to win (c)RoadCycling.co.nz

Hey Sarah,

I read the article on radios and thought I'd offer an opinion. I've worked with Oli and Steve, [who commented in the original article] and managed teams at lots of Jorge's tours.

Having radios at tours like the Men's / Women's Tours of New Zealand is crucial. The races would be very difficult without radios, and without major changes, also unsafe.

Radio coverage with Comm's has been very intermittent and unreliable over the years as Oli alluded to. Although I shouldn't complain, I was working with MB Cycles this year, and we were the beneficiaries of the confusion, with Amber Halliday winning the NZCT Women's Tour.

Without information being relayed to riders by managers, the Race Manager is required to - so Jorge would need to ensure moto's and comm / manager's cars carried P/A systems, blackboards and occupants able to impart information, and enough of them to cover the breaks and bunches that inevitably occur.

These same people will need to be able to relay information to team managers in the event of injuries, crashes, mechanicals, feeds, or other requirements.

More importantly is the convoy aspect.

At tours like Jorge's, there is an imbalance when it comes to teams, and this means that some team managers are volunteers with limited convoy driving experience. With no radios, the manager must drive into the peloton to impart information - a dangerous job at the best of times, hard even with radios, if you're not trained.

If this is going to become necessary, the UCI needs to seriously consider re-introducing the "convoy driving" licence, ensuring drivers who are in these situations know what to do.

I was at Tour in China earlier in the year where several riders were seriously injured by inexperienced convoy drivers, one very nearly paralysed. On narrow, open roads, with courses that have numerous hazards (the 1.1 Women's race even had trains passing through it!) removing radios is a move that needs to be carefully considered.

So, as you can appreciate, it's a larger issue than simply removing radios from the equation. If radios are to be banned, extensive thought needs to be given to how all the functions they assist can be preserved - for safety, effective relay of information, and race management.

Modern, teams based racing is something that New Zealand lacks, and Jorge's races, the Tour of Southland and Benchmark series are the only chance our riders get to prepare for the big show overseas. Taking a voluntary step back won't help our riders at all.

You can see where I stand, but I look forward to Jorge releasing details of how all these issues would be dealt with, well in advance of the entries closing.

Paul Larkin