In Montreal, the rulebook cuts the radio. Belgium answers with sticky tape. Wout van Aert confirmed on Friday, at a press conference, that messages will be stuck onto the bidons of the Belgian riders during Sunday’s men’s road race, and that boards might also be used.
The starting point is simple. “It’s difficult to communicate with the selectors themselves during the race. Sometimes it’s possible to catch up with the team car, but for the rest, communication goes through the roadside,” the Belgian explained. Hence the plan: “I think we’re going to try to use boards, but also have messages on the bidons from time to time.”
“I’ve never raced this way. This will be new for me,” he added. He is not a fan of racing without an earpiece: in a bunch of 180 riders, he says, you can never quite see who’s riding up front, with what gap, or who’s been dropped. “I’ll be happy if it helps me be a bit better informed about the race situation. At a world championship, that information is missing.”
I’ve been riding with a message on my bidon for years. It’s my time on the Kwaremont (the cobbled climb in the Tour of Flanders), in marker pen, with “with the backpack” written next to it. I don’t know who’s riding up front either, on a Sunday, apart from the chap who zigzags. The rest, I see at the café. Take the earpiece away from everyone and we’re on equal footing, them and us, reading our bidons. The only difference is that when I read mine again, I already know what’s written on it. And nobody hands it to me from the roadside: I set off with it, at twenty past nine. I’m not saying it’s the same. I’m saying we can talk about it.
The Belgian team has already tested the method in the youth categories. On Sunday, it moves up to the seniors. Van Aert summed up the plan in his own way: “We’re trying to be inventive.”
It’s true, we checked: DH Les Sports+.
