At least one day every year, the world's best road cyclists compete without their team director relaying calls by radio from a support car on tactics, hazards and encouragement.
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That is during the UCI World Road Championships, or every four years at the Olympic or Commonwealth Games as well.
With this year's world road titles in Wollongong, such a day arrives this weekend for the elite women and men riders who will compete in their respective road races - the women, over 164.3km on Saturday, and the men over 266.9km on Sunday.
Not having any radio communication can be a challenge if it is mismanaged, which is possible when national teams are racing together for the first time of the year and with riders who compete all year with race radios in their trade teams.
Without radios, instinct and communication with teammates is all riders can rely on to implement or change a team plan, to encourage each other when the going gets tough, or to warn of hazards such as road furniture outside the safety measures that have been put in place by race organisers.
It calls for smart and intuitive racing and requires a culture of instinctive trust, belief and unity within the riders of a team.
It can also heighten the significance of having an assertive team 'road captain' to direct a team much as a team manager would - and that of back-up 'road captains' should the main captain be dropped or exit the race for any reason.
The road captain for Australia's women's team is Amanda Spratt, a 2018 silver medallist who has recently returned to form after surgery.
She is also one of the team's main hopes for the overall victory on a course she says suits her well.
Meanwhile, the men's team has a triumvirate of options.
One is Simon Clarke, a stage winner in this year's Tour de France who finished a career best of seventh in the 2013 world championships and played a crucial role in Australian Cadel Evans winning the 2009 world title in Mendrisio.
The other two options are Luke Durbridge and Heinrich Haussler.
That the national team only comes together for a few days each year limits time and opportunity to build the cohesion ideally needed among the long-list of national team candidates.
But Australian Cycling Team Head elite road co-ordinator, Rory Sutherland says he has worked over the last year trying to build a core of unity among the Australian riders by developing channels of communication that also engages their trade team directors who work daily with them.
Sutherland's aim is for the Australian riders to have an instinctive sense of their roles and responsibilities by the time they assemble for national team duties that will mitigate the challenges of racing without race radios, and to the point where they are not solely reliant on a road captain.
"We want it to be automatic; so, once they get out there, they can lean on each other, know the decisions to be made and when they need to make them," Sutherland said.
"It's interesting without radios. I like it.
"The best teams in the world don't need to communicate. They all know their role ... their positions. They don't need to be told to do something.
"Once you build that unity in a group it becomes automatic."
Clarke concurs, adding it is vital to have a strategy agreed upon before the race when competing without radios.
"Then it's up to 'Heino', 'Durbo' or myself to make sure that plan is executed," he said. "The lack of radio makes that job more important; but with this group it is pretty clear what we need to do. I don't really think there is going to be a need to have that much direction on the road. Everyone knows the job they need to do. We're not going to need to have to have discussion. Everyone knows how they will have to interact."
Spratt prefers to race without radios and believes that it can even help a team like Australia when others struggle with it.
"That's advantageous for us. We're really good at racing on that instinct, communicating well and really understanding each other," she said. "It does involve being more on the ball.
"You do have to be positioned nearer together. You have to communicate quickly, see what's happening. You see some countries that really aren't as good without race radios."
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