Belgium plans to attach messages to riders’ bottles during Sunday’s men’s World Championship road race in Montréal, according to Wout Van Aert.
This isn’t just a tribute to Sting and The Police: there is more to it. Race radios are not used at the World Championships, so Belgium is seeking other ways to communicate with its riders. The labels on the bidons will be one way to keep them informed, alongside possible roadside boards and occasional contact with the team car.
Van Aert said that in a peloton of 180 riders, he cannot always see who is at the front or how large a gap a group has gained. A rider may also lose track of who has been dropped.
“I’ll already be happy if that makes me a little better informed about the race situation,” Van Aert told Sporza. “I’m not a fan of racing without earpieces. I’ve said that many times.”
Belgium has several options in the men’s race, which starts at 09:00 local time on September 27 and covers 273.7km, with Van Aert and Remco Evenepoel the main focus. Riders can collect bottles in designated feed zones each lap, giving staff repeated chances to hand over a message. This could help the leaders and teammates decide what to do.
Van Aert said riders can sometimes get close enough to the team car to speak to staff. At other points, information has to come from the roadside. “We’re trying to be inventive,” Van Aert said of using boards and occasional messages on bottles.
Belgium tested the method with the under-23 riders on Friday. During their race, a bottle bearing a message accidentally reached a Sporza cameraman, showing that others could see it too.
“I hadn’t thought about that, but maybe we’ll have to agree on a code language,” Van Aert joked.
“It’s not a brilliant invention,” he said. “It’s been around for a long time, hasn’t it, although I’ve never raced like this before. For me, it will be new.”
