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I just saw Romain Bardet in the live stream of the Tour de France stage. In the image, I can see there is a box-like form in his back.

enter image description here

What is it? Is it maybe a transmitter for the radio to communicate with his team?

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It is the body pack for the radio. The body pack contains the antenna (or more precisely, the antenna attachment), receiver, transmitter, microphone preamplifier, headphone amplifier, and all the other electronics that make up a modern digital two-way radio.

Here you can see a cyclist demonstrating all components of a typical cycling-oriented two-way radio pack: radio body pack, headphones, throat microphone, and push-to-talk button.

Cyclist demonstrating radio body pack, headphones, throat microphone, and push-to-talk button
Source: https://retevis.com/rbc01-bicycle-riding-gmrs-two-way-radio-bundle

This is the first image / product I could find. The body packs used by top-tier pro cycling teams would be a lot smaller, thinner, and lighter, and would have a flexible wire antenna or even one integrated into the casing of the body pack instead of the thick, fixed rubber stub.

Also, sometimes the lead rider of a team could maybe not have a PTT button but instead their microphone would always be open, so that the entire team hears them all the time. Same for the rider in an individual time trial. This is basically to free them from having to press the button.

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  • Thanks! Interesting the issue with the PTT button. On Jul 21th 2022 stage, it was clear from the stream that Pogacar did need to use the button to communicate, for example.
    – fedorqui
    Commented Jul 22, 2022 at 5:27
  • Without a PTT button, I wonder how they avoid transmitting much of their panting and grunting. Any ideas?
    – Amazon Dies In Darkness
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 10:09
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    @RockPaperLz-MaskitorCasket: They don't. It's the same for the head referee at football games. The line referees have PTT buttons built into the flag grips, but the head referee's microphone is always open and the line referees, video referees, and "fourth official" just have to deal with it. It is considered too much of a workload for the head referee to have to push the button, especially while running when you usually use both of your arms for balance and momentum.
    – Jörg W Mittag
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 11:00
  • Thanks Jörg. Makes sense, but wow, that must be distracting for the others listening to all that panting and grunting! Officiating football is strenuous activity.
    – Amazon Dies In Darkness
    Commented Jul 25, 2022 at 23:54

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