Tour de France - Blazin' Saddles: Off with their heads
Eurosport - Wed, 15 Jul 17:14:00 2009
How fitting that the peloton chose Bastille Day to lose its head and protest against the radio ban with a tedious go-slow.
At first Blazin' Saddles didn't fully understand the ban. Why were the riders so angry when French radio is so notoriously terrible? All that hip-hop and Gallic soft rock - surely a day without Cherie FM and Sky Rock was no bad thing.
And then there's crazy Jens Voigt who, when asked his opinion before the stage, seemed to advocate going a few steps further than altering the wavelength of the peloton.
"We should ride backwards and have no helmets either and also cut the cables for the breaks."
BS knows Jens is tough, but even Chuck Norris wouldn't survive under those circumstances.
The ban was a complete failure. Why? Because the riders repeated what they did on the streets of Milan during the Giro, refusing to race.
The result was "probably one of the more relaxed days" Lance Armstrong has experienced in over 10 Tours.
"Really enjoyed having the time and breath to catch up with some of the chaps today. We should do it more often," said Charly Wegelius, ever the Brit.
How often does he want a day off? Two nonsensical days in the Pyrenees followed by the official rest day and then this: that amounts to the peloton's fourth consecutive day of minimum effort. This is meant to be a race, not a sightseeing holiday.
Organisers said the radio ban was an experiment to see if such a thing would be feasible in the future. Well, thanks to the riders, they're no closer to the answer. What could they possibly have gauged from the stage, except that most people where against it - which they knew before.
In the event, the most interesting thing to happen was the four-man breakaway being held up by a passing train. Oh, and Filippo Pozzato changing his shirt to reveal a load of rather naff tattoos emblazoned across his back and down his arm.
The radio ban actually had no bearing whatsoever on the outcome. As Johan Bruyneel said: "Stage 10 done. Predictable outcome. Breakaway caught with 2k to go. Cavendish wins. With or without radios, end result was known this morning."
Incidentally, there does seem to be nothing stopping Cav, described so fittingly on the rest day by his green jersey rival Thor Hushovd as "the fastest sprinter in the world when it's flat and easy".
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Astana finally backed down on their ban of Belgian TV channel Sporza, allowing Lance Armstrong to be interviewed on the morning of the stage.
Employing a rather confused Shakespearean metaphor, the interviewer mused: "To earplug or not to earplug, that's the question today."
In fine comedic form, and spotting an occasion for mischief, the 37-year-old Texan deadpanned: "I wear earplugs every night. It's too loud in the rooms. I'm going to wear them in the race too. I don't want to hear anybody."
His English lesson learnt for the day, the reporter replied: "I meant radio system, of course. The UCI have just said that riders who wear earplugs don't get to start."
To which Armstrong gave the ideal riposte: "I'm going to give Alberto our radio then... just kidding!"
PLAT DU JOUR: BS has a suspicion that no one really reads this bit so he'll just keep the local mushroom pate and Burgundy red to himself.
PREDICTION: Stage 11 finishes in the little town of Saint-Fargeau, the only finish in this year's Tour that shares a name with a Paris metro station. As such, the winner will be the only rider with a similar accolade - Skil Shimano's Cyril Lemoine, whose distant relative may or may have not been a Cardinal in the fifth arrondissement.
Don't forget to follow Blazin' Saddles throughout the day on www.twitter.com/saddleblaze
Stage 11 LIVE at 1pm on Wednesday 15th July on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe
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Comment 10 - 29 of 29
fotodelicto: I think he was joking...
Chris - I stand corrected.
Armstrong's latest dig at Contador about making him wear an earpiece so he would be banned just shows yet again what a malicious little c*** Armstrong is and how he will stop at nothing to undermine his own teammates to suit his own ends. Is there anyone he wouldn't sacrifice for his own ego and ends?
I agree with IanLM: now they are all drugged up and controlled by radio from the team car, it's just like a big game of chess with the directeurs sportif as the players. Sacrifice a few pieces for the ultimate goal...
What a bunch of babies. "Please Miss I am going home and taking my ball with me because Billy scored a goal against us!!!!!"
All this rubbish, and I mean rubbish, about the radios being for safety. What did they do before radios were invented?
Road cyclists used to need a modicum of a brain, as well as good legs, now they are all turning into mindless robots, controlled by the team manager in the car.
In a time when they need their fans more than ever the riders have now, twice this season, given them the finger.
Hmmm, maybe the answer is on-way radio. The riders can call back to the team car but nothing the other way
GIN - When has professional cycling ever been a gentleman's sport? Drugs were being used in the very first Tour way back in 1903. Doping was allowed for the first 60 years of the Tour. Other forms of cheating were around just as early. In 1904, only 15 of the original 88 were not disqualified making Henri Cornet the winner at 19 years of age. This is big business now and people's livelihoods. There are few places left where sportsmanship is as important as the winning. Golf would probably be the best example where even the greatest players call penalties on themselves. Tennis maybe, but you rarely see a player calling a ball in for the opposing player anymore. But these sports were built on the idea of being a true sportsmen, its part of the tradition.
i wonder how long it will take before we can work out if they are racing or not, worryingly for cycling it took a long time to work out yesterday
H C they are removing the radios on a mountain stage, stage 13. But the race will probably be without protest like this one because it is more difficult to chase down a strong break in the mountains. So what you will find is that the stronger teams will keep the pace relatively high on the first climbs and then push the first Cat 1 climb which will shed most of the peloton and catch any breaks that survived the first two climbs. Then once they know that they don't have anyone in front they will keep the pace high and maybe one of the lower placed GC contenders in the group will try an attack about half way up the last climb and try to hold off the chase until the finish. The stage will probably play out pretty much the way that they normally do. The real problem is that there are teams out there that are stacked with great riders while others have one or two and the rest are younger more inexperienced riders. How do you evenly spread out the stars so that they don't congregate on a few teams? Other sports have tried to do this by using salary caps. A teams total salary can only be a set amount so that it would be hard to have more than a certain amount of stars on your squad. With or without a radio, Astana still has 4 riders who could be leaders on any other squad plus very good support riders. While Rabobank has Menchov plus who. Saxo-Bank has the Schleck brothers plus Cancellara. Sastre is alone. Cadel Evans..alone. Columbia with its sprint train. And they are thinking that radios are the culprit for "boring" racing
At one point, there were snails crossing the road, it seemed they were faster then the circus driven pelaton.
The team sanction is a disgrace to sportsmanship, and just proves right the decision to band the radio ... We might get lower average speed all over the race, but bring back competition and winning spirit to the riders (not the sponsors). I wish road biking will head back to be a gentlemen's sport, as it should.
ps I booked my hotel for Mont Ventoux in January, when the itinary came out, and we also have a gite on Annecy for the two stages that finish there .. Beig otu on the Tour is a grear party thing, esp the contre la montre.. which I've seen many times. Mountain stages are harder to arrange, but I agree, spending hours getting down the mountain afterwards is no big deal... we always find a friendly camper-vanner to stand by, so we can keep updated on the stage's progress on their telly!
yes - I'm another plat du jour fan - tho I don't drink alcohol, so I won't be raising a glass of red to your blog. Keep it up, BS -- I think your writing is great fun ... and gets right to the heart of all the issues .. see you on Mont Ventoux ..
Armstrong refers to there being bigger issues in cycling to fix than radios- do you notice how clean the tour has been in the run up and after the first week?
'
Perhaps those clever biological passports are working. Vive le tour.
They ought to try the radio ban again in the Vuelta, but release all those Pamplona bulls after them. That should make things interesting!
What a shame that riders now are so pampered that if anything doesn't go their way - a slightly tight and bumpy course in Milan which had been used in the past, an interesting experiment to see if riders can rely on their wits like riders of old - that they simply refuse to co-operate. Stop being such divas you lot!
In fairness, I do think that much of the UCI nonsense is just that - they seem to impose such arbitrary restrictions on bike technology that we have pretty much reached the peak of what can be achieved within those restrictions. Why not allow bike manufacturers to push the boundaries of technology, making races faster and more exciting plus potentially safer, and the technology will then filter down to us mortals as it does in motorcycle racing? Such staunchly conservative rulings are ultimately a dead-end.
But I do support the radio ban on certain days as it is nice to see how modern riders cope with the challenge of being disconnected from the team-management. Coppi had to do it, Merckx had to. Just a shame that the modern riders can't just take it seriously as an experiment and stop throwing their toys out of the pram.
you are not alone,find your c lassy l over on _C lassymingle C om_ so dont miss the love in your life.
I thought the snails were the plat due jour!
Give us a Cote du Rhone and I'll be interested :))
Remove the radios on a Mountain Stage and see if they take it easy then!!!
Comment: mjpmclean....
Having just come back from the Pyrenees and watched the tour and stayed in hotels I feel you may have your facts wrong! The hotels are of excellent quality and ALL the villages pull out all the stops for 'Le Tour' towns and villages come to a stand still and as for the traffic I sat on the Col de Tourmalet for nearly 4 hrs trying to get off it and didn't mind one bit......everybody is in such high spirits as they have witnessed one fo the worlds greatest spectacles...I followed the 'Le Tour' all over the Pyrenees as a Masseuse working for a cycling company so I'm privileged I know but where the tour goes in France is not naf.....
Oh and I fly out of London on Friday for 12 days to cover the rest of the tour........roll on Ventoux.....going to be amazing in the Alps and I will try not to stay in a 'naf' hotel
I guess you could always camp as the temps were in the 30's on the Aspin and the Tourmelet.....
The snails were great! Fortunately they didn`t bring anyone off their bikes.
The ban on radios should be accompanied by insisting that they all fit stabilisers just for one day. Menchov will be all for it!
Otherwise that was the most boring Tour stage ever.
"Would be nice to get over there and follow the Tour sometime, however, I think I would need to be paid for it to put up with the traffic and naf hotels :)
From mjpmclean, on Wed 15 Jul 12:36AM"
Get yourself a motorhome/camper & head for the next stage after the peleton has passed you, with a satellite TV to watch the evening highlights; can't beat it, well as long as you can read a map, and drive on the right :-)
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