Toyota Life Articles
Kirk Willett Weighs in on the Use of Radios in Cycling
Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team
PRO NEWS
July 2007
This month’s edition focuses on the debate in cycling regarding riders’ use of earpieces and radios. Many long-time observers of the sport say radios have taken away some of the spontaneity of bike racing. We asked Toyota-United Team Director Kirk Willett for his thoughts on the issue.
I think radios are a valuable tool. Having grown up and started my pro career without them, and then having them all the time as both a rider and a director, I don’t think the sport would truly benefit from their removal. Radios add an extra tactical layer to what you can do in a race, but I don’t think they profoundly change the excitement of an event.
That being said, they do add a little bit of insurance to your strategies, as they help to form more cohesive and timely team efforts. For example, when there is a breakaway and no one is exactly sure who is up there or where they are on the overall classification, radios can help. Instead of waiting for Radio Tour to identify the break, or for the gap to get big enough so that a team car can take inventory and assess the situation, you can communicate earlier and determine whether or not a break is good for the team. That’s one place where radios have had a change on tactics. Response time can be shortened in that example, and in gathering riders to the front for a chase, but that doesn’t necessarily change the outcome of a race, as teams can always take other measures and get the job done.
The reality is that if you use radios and plan out the best strategy, it is the riders who make the spontaneity of racing happen with their on-the-spot decisions to cover a certain move or time an attack. It’s their abilities to read a race and react which truly creates the most meaningful race dynamics. Radios certainly help communication, but at the end of the day, I don’t think the fundamental nature of racing has really changed.
