March 11, 2004 – With the UCI having recently submitted a proposal as to banning the use of race radios, we thought it would be a good idea to reprint an article written by former national team coach Jacques Landry, who has both raced and coached with them.

In the past few years the cycling world has seen race radios appear in the peloton. These radios link the coaches or managers to their athletes on the road or on the mountain bike trails. This novelty has changed the style of racing at every level because riders now have access to more information at the flick of a switch; therefor a rider does not have to rely so much on gut feelings and the necessity to read the race because there is someone on the sidelines that sees the big picture and can call the shots. Much like the offensive co-ordinator in football can tell the quarterback via an ear-piece what play to make, a cyclist is now merely a pawn in the peloton. All this is fine and dandy up to a point. The point being that it is still important for a cyclist to have learned the fundamentals of the sport that is being practised. The tactics, the technique and the positioning must be acquired by his or her own means before having to resort to immediate feedback via the inner-ear. It is OK for a young athlete to be making mistakes in competition; it's all part of the learning process. If we, as coaches, are constantly talking in our athletes ears and telling them what to do and what not to do we are invariably giving them a handicap. The handicap being that if and when the time comes where there is a breakdown in communications in a big race the athlete may not have the necessary tools to react to the outcome of the race by his or her own means. Do we really want our athletes to become mindless drones that just pedal when they are asked to or do we want them to become individuals that can react to any circumstance that my come up?

The FQSC, in recent years, has seen the situation of race radios evolve and has decided to put it's foot down by limiting their use to certain events and categories. One of the reasons is because of the remarks mentioned above; that it is not in a youngsters long term interest to have them loose all sense of spontaneity and lucidity in a race scenario. Also, cycling is already an expensive sport. If Cadets and Minimes start having to buy radios because everybody else has one, then that might discourage some potential youngsters of coming into the sport.

In essence, I think race radios should be used as an information and education tool but must be used wisely. Events should be identified by coaches where athletes are to be Plugged In and as well as some events where they should be left on their own during the race.

We as coaches and managers have the responsibility of looking at the long term development of athletes and not only the up coming weekend race. By choosing the use of race radios wisely, we decide where this sport is headed. Also, we decide if riders are to be dependant or independent.

The choice is yours.