Back In The Day, there were no race radios.

Professional bike riders used their own personal judgement and relied on the absence of bad luck to secure victory. Except Eddy Merckx, who used the modus operandi "win everything, all the time, from the front, mostly solo". (This worked well for Eddy).

There was no one telling everyone who wasn't Eddy what the gap to the leaders might be or who was in the break.

No way of notifying their team car if they had a mechanical problem or had been involved in a crash.

Riders also carried their own tubular tyres over their shoulders, smoked cigarettes during stages and occasionally sneaked onto trains to get ahead of their rivals. Well, so the myths go, anyhow.

Aren't we all pleased that time has passed!

We now have cars that go faster than 40mph, mobile phones and race radios.

Riders can communicate with each other and with the team car (that's Lance Armstrong, above, talking to his team via radio in last year's Tour de France), and the team car gets up to date information from Official Race Radio (usually a Belgian race commissaire, in beige, pleat-fronted trousers, often sporting a mullet) and spectators can even watch real-time power data from SRM sponsored athletes.

This means that the rigours of elite cycling have been somewhat eased by staff having greater access to their riders during a race - we receive food and water, information, and assistance from the team car.

Some say race radios have removed responsibility from the rider; sucked their tactical and analytical powers away, leaving them drones, capable only of responding to a team Director's beckoned call (see page 785 of the UCI manifesto for any other evil features of the race radio).

Too often, they don't work. Or in my case this season, instructions or information gets barked across the airwaves in a foreign language anyhow (one gets the gist, though. Think: GO! GO! GO! NOW, NOW, NOW!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!!)

From the team's point of view, however, the biggest advantage of the race radio is harm minimisation.

Cadel Evans believes his infamously slow wheel change in the penultimate stage of the 2009 Vuelta d'Espana cost him the overall victory. And that was with a race radio.

Obstacles on the road, crashes up ahead, the possibility of topless women half way up the Tourmalet, all these things can be relayed to the rider and allow them to evade disaster or groom themselves for the audience.

But that's all regressed again, thanks to a new ruling from the UCI removing race radios and preventing any rapid communication within the team.

Last week's UCI World Road Championships in Geelong was the first time in the modern era that a championship race was held without radios. And for those who watched the events live or on TV, certainly, the winners of every race were worthy and exceptional athletes - no one won by accident.

The course provided an extraordinary challenge for all who rode it, and the UCI would argue that no great contender was robbed of victory due to the absence of a race radio.

Perhaps Judith Arndt (GER) and Nicole Cooke (GBR) might be lamenting their missed opportunity in the women's road race: the pair had a 10-second gap on the field for the final 5km, but were caught by a fast chasing group of 20 that closed in on them in the final 500m.

Or Fabian Cancellara (SUI) could have kissed more babies, signed more autographs and indulged in a longer uphill victory salute as he powered to his fourth world title in the men's individual time trial, had he known he was leading by over a minute.

‘Spartacus' himself has vocally opposed the new rule banning race radios, explaining that he certainly doesn't need them to be told when to breathe, pedal or attack. But he believes it compromises safety of the peloton, and that we are living in a modern era and should race accordingly.

Without adequate information, we can expect an increase in the Dukes of Hazzard-style driving by the convoy of team vehicles following the race, and trust me, this is already a dangerous place to be!

Now, staff and riders rely on receiving accurate, real-time information information from the race commissaires on motorbikes patrolling the race.

In those races where this is not provided, our mechanic, Nico, has adopted an unorthodox protocol.

They hear mumblings of a crash, and roar out of the following convoy in our team car, to quickly survey the bodies strewn on the road.

If one of us is in a ditch, they can help get us back up & running straight away, but if there's no Aussie involved, they merge back into position, feigning confusion and he can go back to arguing the finer points of Collingwood's game plan.

(Bridie O'Donnell, who rides with UCI Team Valdarno, competed on Saturday in the women's road race in the Road World Championships. She is Back Page Lead's cycling columnist - and editor of her own blog, Bridie.com.au.)