UCI to dismantle bikes in crackdown on hidden motors...

[AUbicycles]

In the cyclocross case, the rider said she was unaware of the motor as it was a borrowed bike which was identical to her own... I don’t think there was any doubt that the bike had the gruber motor and was used during the event.

I can understand the difficulty detecting as electronic groupsets are used and have a battery. Very tricky.

[Thoglette]

I can understand the difficulty detecting as electronic groupsets are used and have a battery. Very tricky.

Now that's a red rag to a curmudgeonly old luddite who's full of bull. After all, Eddy Merckx changed his own gears so .....

[Kronos]

It is a basic human right to be able to be presumed innocent before being proven guilty, these days its trial by media and witch hunts about things like this rather than giving a person a hearing which gives them a fair day in court.

depends what you mean by 'court'.

This is sport, not criminal activity.

Each sport has its own rules and procedures for dealing with violations of those rules.

Amateur sport does it best -- no lawyers or courts, usually a tribunal of peers.

Court/tribunal, same thing.

[Kronos]

It is a basic human right to be able to be presumed innocent before being proven guilty, these days its trial by media and witch hunts about things like this rather than giving a person a hearing which gives them a fair day in court.

You are barking up the wrong tree with this one Kronos -van den Driessche was given a hearing in accordance with the rules that she signed up to but chose not to appear, was found guilty & given a 6 year ban.

I believe it was a matter of going to Switzerland (or wherever), having arbitration and so on, and the expenses involved. It was decided not to contest it.

[AUbicycles]

Correction, she was using the vivax, not the gruber motor.

[Nate]

nup -- I don't buy it. Any mechanical assistance will be easily felt as it turns on and off. Riders need to take responsibility. Plenty of time for a once-over of the bike (does it do anything funny when I lift the back wheel and rotate the crank?)

I disagree - you've got a motor & power meter sensing when the cyclist is applying power. Program the motor to come on easy & ramp up over the pedal stroke & drop off again. Not a hard thing when you've got PWM controllers with frequencies of 16,000/sec - the accuracy is there.


As for tainted supplements - cyclists are going to carry a pocket gas chromatograph around & test?
How can you ever be sure that you dont have a dud supplement unless you have big $ & the equipment to test yourself?

[Jmuzz]

Yeah good Pedelec tech could be near impossible to feel, just deliver an extra 10% boost to power.

I don't think most would be such a sophisticated conspiracy to trick a rider though. Nothing is so complex off the shelf, they would need real good engineer to pull it off.

Suspect examples in the past have certainly not been high-tech, just plain on/off motor.

[Thoglette]

As for tainted supplements - cyclists are going to carry a pocket gas chromatograph around & test?

Ah, doesn't matter. The athlete is responsible for all things in his/her body.

The team management gets off scott free, every time (almost).

Unless the UCI starts fining the teams for having dopers ; fining them more for not detecting the dopers and banning them for a few years for covering up dopers, nothing will change. Mechanical doping might finally give them the incentive to do so.

[P!N20]

There has never been a rider caught and proven to have a motor in their bike in a UCI event with a motor in their bike for the purposes of mechanical doping.

Well I'm not 100% sure it was a UCI sanctioned event, but here's another one: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/french- ... y-service/