Cycling | Rage broke out of the ear buds, where the cycling crowd blames each other

Professional cycling the most recent topic of controversy is ear studs. Cycling garages want cyclists to be allowed to wear ear buttons – the reason is safety. According to the International Cycling Union (Uci), the teams use them for tactical advice.

The dispute escalated during the stage race in Poland, where Uci is doing a pilot test. On two days, the stables had the right to use ear buttons only for two competitors. On Friday, they were completely banned.

“Today [keskiviikkona] it was chaos because there were no radios. Uci cannot continue to shelve them. This makes the games complete farces like we saw in the Olympics, where the cyclists had no chance to ask for help with technical problems. I hope no one got hurt today”, Visma–Lease a Bike team manager Richard Plunge wrote to X.

Just a few hours later, the chairman of Uci David Lappartient struck back.

“Hi Richard. You’ve been caught up in fake news. Today’s crashes at the Tour of Poland had nothing to do with the lack of a radio and you know it,” Lappartient replied.

According to Lappartient, Plugge wants to maintain radio contact to give tactical instructions, not for security reasons.

NRK asked about it, also the Norwegian participating in the competition in Poland Amund Grøndahl Jansen.

“In my opinion, Lappartient handles the matter in an amateurish manner. Saying ‘fake news’ without justification looks like a fool.”

Instead, NRK’s ​​cycling expert Sondre Sørtveit states that cycling teams too often blame Uci if something goes wrong in competitions.

“Blaming the cycling association for accidents because of the radio ban is too easy. Cyclists are responsible for cycling in a safe manner”, states Sørtveit.

Correction August 16, 2024 at 10:58 p.m.: Corrected the sentence in David Lappartient’s message to the form “you have been caught in fake news”. It used to be “you’re new to fake news”. In addition, the name of the stable has been corrected from Jumbo-Visma to the current name Jumbo-Lease a Bike.