JFKs a écrit :Tu peux nous copier ce que tu leur as dit?
J'ai fait ça en anglais, et c'est évidemment trop long et donc illisible, mais il fallait que ça sorte :
Regarding the return of the earpieces in .1 and .HC races
To the UCI,
It is with great diappointment that I learn that the UCI has authorised the return of the earpieces in .1 and .HC road races, rather than their banning from the whole road cycling calendar. With such a decision the UCI will reinforce the stereotype in the media and general public of riders being remote controlled by their managers, without having to think for themselves, without having to make decisions.
The whole goal of the UCI should be to ensure that the rider is put back at the centre of the race, at the center of the stage, as the main actor of the unfolding drama that is the race. What will make cycling popular again is admiration for the athletes, for their skill and brains and wit, not just for their robotic wattage capacity.
Making the rider the key cog in the race, ensuring that HE and not his manager is the one who has to make decisions, to adapt to the race, to watch out for his rivals and check if they are feeling well or not, would seem to be such a natural priority for the UCI that I am flabbergasted that the organisation could choose another path and bow to teams' interest.
The managers' and sponsors' interest, in race, do not concur with the UCI's when it comes to ensuring promotion for cycling as a show able to fend off competition from other sports : Managers want to have control over the race as long as possible, so they can tell their sponsor that until the very last k, their leader was in it, had a shot. This leads to evermore controled races where teams have very conservative strategies, where lieutenants are always bringing back attacks rather than being aggressive. This leads to parodies such as Simon Gerrans winning Liège Bastogne Liège in a bunch sprint as if la Doyenne was a mere flat stage or Edvald Boesson Hagen riding on Greg Van Avemaet's wheel at the ast RWC while Peter Sagan rides away to victory.
What would be good for cycling as a show would be more uncertainty, less control from the main teams and their managers.Fighting back against this ever expanding control of the race should be a priority for the UCI : no earpieces, less riders per team (following in the footsteps of the olympic race, say 6 per team on all races except the Grands Tours), these would be brave measures ensuring that the fans see more lively races, see the leaders having to get to work before the last K as opposed to what we see more and more now. Don't you think cycling would benefit from fans seeing Froome, Nibali, Contador, Valverde and co having to work from 30 or 40ks out rather than in the last 2ks of a race ?
I am just a cycling fan and measely sunday cyclist myself, have been for 25 years, but for the first time I feel like writing to the UCI out of sheer disappointment.
You may think that cycling could work like formula 1, with radios and radars and computers, but it won't work, because in Formula 1 the car is as important as the pilot in the audience's mind. Add to this the fact that the audience still admires the skills of a driver driving a car going 300k per hour. There will be no such admiration for riders being seen as just robots pushing on their pedals while monitoring their SRM/Garmin and radioeing their manager to know what they should do. The less riders have to apparently use their brain, the more they look like robots. Add to this the lasting damage caused by doping scandals in building the image of an athlete who is just a combination off chemically boostable PMA,VO2max and other purely scientific variables, and it makes the return of earpieces even more astonishing.
Not only is this new development sad, it is stupid from a sport development point of view, from an image point of view. The UCI should thrive to developp that epic image of cyclists being alone on the road, against the elements, against their rivals, against the grain of the road, on that ever changing stage that is the free road, surrounded by the public. This is what made cycling such a mass sport. Instead the earpieces will contribute to the image of a sport turning more and more autistic, more and more managed, where decisions are made more and more in a paddock or manager's car rather than by the champion on the road.
This is very regrettable.
Listening to the teams, having an inclusive management of the professional circuit is of course essential, but the UCI would do better in working with the teams to ensure their financial stability and lasting capactiy, notably via TV/new media revenue sharing and generation, which is a real issue, rather than by helping managers make actual racing more and more sterile through remote control of the riders.
Best regards.
