Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Radios - a difference maker?

The pro racing in the last week has moved heavily into the cobbled races. Along with that, has come some entertaining racing with exciting finishes. Were they more exciting with or without the radios?

Dwars door Vlaanderen - a three man break started with 20km to the finish and never had more than a 21 second lead. Yet, the pack could not pull them back. There were no radios

E3 Prijs - Cancellara attacks with over 20km to go and the pack cannot bring him back. This race also had no radios but Cancellara has done this before so I can't stress the radio angle too much, in this case.

Gent-Wevelgem - A four man break started with 35km to go. Ian Stannard broke away from that group with 2km to go and was caught 150m from the line. Radios were used.

3 Days of de Panne (1st stage) - Another four man break barely stayed away to the line, as Andre Greipel won. No race radios were used.

The fact that the three races without radios resulted in the breakaway succeeding, while the one race with radios resulted in the pack catching the break may be pure coincidence. But, you cannot help but wonder with such slim margins of victory in two of the race, whether the lack of radios made just the tiniest bit of difference between winning and losing.

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