Patrick Lefevere is against racing without earpieces at the Worlds and the Europeans. He told WielerFlits so. He has always been in favour of earpieces in races, he says, and gives an example: if there is an oil slick on the road, you can at least warn the riders.
An oil slick. Finally, someone talking about the road.
I read that at the workshop, a rag over my shoulder. Everyone talks about tactics, orders, who rides for whom. He talks about oil. Now that’s a subject. Oil on the road ends up in the brake pads, on the rims, in the cassette. You don’t see it, you hear it when you brake. If someone can tell the rider beforehand, I’ll sign.
Then there is the rest. The riders are well paid, Lefevere says, and the employer must be able to give them orders. Fine. But the order goes through a wire, a battery and a little box stuck on the rider’s back. That’s equipment. And equipment, where I work, gets checked before the start, not during.
Wout van Aert is clearly not a fan of racing without earpieces. Mathieu van der Poel is in the other camp. I’m not going to settle that one. I’m just saying that an earpiece that isn’t charged is a Worlds without an earpiece, and nobody has banned anything.
The rulebook bans the device. It makes no provision for oil. I note.
He found this championship bizarre and compelling to watch. What annoys him is that the bizarre side is now being linked to the absence of earpieces. There I follow him: when a race is bizarre, I look at the pressure first, mind you.
On Sunday, I’m putting a clean rag and a bottle of degreaser in the van. For the oil, I warn no one. I clean up afterwards.
It’s true, we checked: WielerFlits.
