[DUMBGRUNT]

Not sure about the Pros, but for me, a heart rate monitor is somewhat analogous to watts but with lag, sometimes lots of lag.

Any calls for the motorsports guys to black out the tachometer?

[oldplayer]

I will be surprised if this thread gets lots of comments. Mine? I agree with the author that they ought to ban race radios. Power meters are useful adjuncts to the radios.

[Blue Jays]

"...powermeters..."

---

I would also rather see race radios go away.
That would also make it a safer race for the riders, too.

[Roccus]

Want to increase excitement in cycle races?

Just equip each rider with a mace to clear the way through the spectators...especially in the mountains.

[Baynative]

Bike Ping

When the use of radio communication was allowed, I knew we were heading in this direction.

I have long held to my personal belief that there should be no restrictions on drug use in sports because the pro level business is entertainment in its purest form and in that vein, athletes are no different than actors, dancers or wrestlers.

I think if you asked top level amateurs in sports if they would risk potential health problems for fame and fortune by taking performance enhancement drugs, most would say, "Yes".

The technical advances being developed differ from physical advantages in that anyone can get them and use them. But the game changing attributes of either one are almost endless.

Even the simple and natural sport of golf is being changed by digital enhancements such as devices that measure distance, temperature, wind speed/direction and even read greens. If we do not return to pure physical competition there will be no end to the continued devolution of all sports.

[Yo-Yo]

Is the Tour De France still using FLIR cameras to detect cheating?

[Skywise]

Yeah - I find tachometers cheating in races. A pro driver should know when to shift by feel and sound alone as we’ll know how to take that turn.

It worked for Luke when destroying the Death Star!

[Para-Ord.45]

Not a fan of the France race.
Now, the other 2 races in the triple crown !? Hell yeah ! Giro and Vuelata are t-o-u-g-h TOUGH ! Hills right off the bat.

What i`d like to see:

1. No more 2 way rain communications.
2. Smaller teams of 5 only.
3. No more power meters, bands around their chest collecting data.
4. Only speedo/rpm gauges.

[llevrok]

For me, get more teams competitive. One or two dominate every TdF. 30 years of following the race. It’s getting boring more and more.

[Paal Gulli]

The real reason the authorities don't want power meters on bikes any more is that they show how heavily the riders are doping. And NOT getting caught. Power meters are proving the anti-doping officials are not doing their jobs.

It's a long established fact of cycling sport science that a "normal" rider can't produce more than 6 Watts of power per each kilogram of body weight indefinitely. The tests have been extensive and ongoing and no certifiably "clean" rider has ever managed to make more than 6W/kg for 30 minutes or longer.

So if a rider's power meter shows he made 6.5W/kg for an hour, he clearly is doping. It would be like putting a rolling dynamometer on a NASCAR which showed the car was making 1100 bhp under acceleration. And the power meters broadcast that information in real time via BlueTooth, so you can't hide it. Now significant numbers of the pro peloton regularly are making more than 6W/kg. Four-time TdF champ Chris Froome actually has recorded more than 7kW/kg for an extended period (30 minutes or longer) during the Tour (and was never caught doping). Even back in the early 2000s, Michele Ferrari, Lance Pharmstrong's dope doctor, preached to Lance and his teammates that you couldn't win the Tour de France unless you were making at least 6.5W/kg.

Enter EPO. Because no human can make 6.5W/kg riding on just -- as the Italians say -- pane e aqua (bread and water).

So despite the Lance Pharmstrong debacle, doping still is rampant. And the power meter numbers prove it. But because of pro cycling's omertà (code of silence), and because the anti-doping authorities are completely feckless and aren't catching them, no one outside of the teams know how it's being done.

Just like no one outside of the teams knew how Pharmstrong was doing it until Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton broke the silence.
The problem with race radios is they can tell the riders when it's safe not to go hard. Which only works to the advantage of one guy, the race leader.

In television coverage of the TdF you'll often see a small group of riders break away from the main peloton early in a stage and disappear from sight. Sometimes they will get several minutes ahead of the main body. But the main body doesn't invest in the energy to pursue until very nearly the end of the stage because they know a very large group of riders working together can ride as much as 20% faster than a small group. Depending on the relative sizes of the groups the main body can make up as much as a minute's worth of deficit per each 10 km (6 miles) on the road. So instead of catching them at the outset, and then fighting with them every time they decide to accelerate, the peloton just bides its time while the small group wears itself out from the effort. And reels them in in one fell swoop very near the end of the stage so there's no chance for the small group to retaliate.

Not having a race radio makes it a somewhat different world because the leader can't necessarily take the risk of losing sight of any of his opponents. He has to ride hard when they do and for as long as they do so as to not let them ride out of sight or risk them developing an insurmountable lead.

In truth, even before race radio the teams would post people along the race route with stop watches who would time the difference between the breakaway group and the main body. And they'd write that number on the equivalent of a "pit board" to show to the main peloton as they rode past. But that was only a rough estimate. Along with race radio (which is 2-way), now there's also GPS tracking and overhead surveillance provided by the television networks' helicopters. All of which gives the teams' strategists have a much more complete picture of how the race is likely to progress.

All of which works primarily to the advantage of the race leader because its greatest benefit is it tells you very precisely how late you can wait to start working hard without risking losing position.