February 3/10 14:47 pm - Radio Ban in Effect for Most Canadian Events

Posted by Editor on 02/3/10
 

After the announcement by USA Cycling concerning the ban on the use of race radios in the United States (see Daily News - USA Cycling Bans Race Radios) we wanted to find out what the situation is in Canada.

Jacques Landry, the Chief Technical Officer for the Canadian Cycling Association (CCA), informed us that the 2010 race organizer guide states that the CCA will follow UCI regulations, banning race radios in 2.2 / 1.2 (or lower) sanctioned events. This covers all national and international sanctioned events (such as Tour de Beauce) except for the two ProTour events scheduled for Quebec City and Montreal in September - those events will allow the use of race radios. Since provincial sanction events follow the national guidelines, it means that radios are generally banned at these events also (Landry did say that potentially a provincial sanction could apply for an exemption to the rule, but said that it is a highly unlikely occurrence).

Landry also said that the CCA High Performance program has adopted a policy of no race radios (even for international events) since, "we want riders to learn to think for themselves, and, honestly, expect that the UCI radio ban will eventually extend to 1.1 / 2.1 events anyway."