The Beacon Message Board

All are probably familiar with cheating in pro ranks by way of doping. Indeed there have recently been several disclosures of amateur riders competing in domestic Time Trial competitions testing positive for banned substances including :-

1. 2016 winner of National 12 hour Time Trial title Rob Townsend. Having tested positive for a banned substance at an open time trial event pleaded not guilty by way of having had his drink bottle "spiked" by a rival following a long running feud (more details at http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk/ind ... 418&page=1 ). As a result banned for 4 years from competitive cycling.
2. A junior time trial champion, Gabriel Evans 18, who was caught on hidden camera injecting EPO at a training camp, subsequently admitting to the offence (claimed caught 1st time he tried to dope, refused to disclose where drugs came from). Facing a ban from competitive cycling.
3. British Masters Champion Andy Hastings who tested positive for steroids at National Team TT championship. Claimed a borrowed syringe was contaminated, banned from competitive cycling for 4 years.

Well if you thought the sport of cycling couldn't stoop any lower the UCI have now found the first instance of mechanical fraud in competition (that's cheating by way of a motor to assist cycling effort). At the under 23 world cyclo cross championship 19 year old event favorite Femke Van den Driessche had a bike in her pits with a motor to assist cranks, more details at http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/lat ... dal-209635 . Motorised assistance has been hinted at for a number of years in the pro ranks & checks have recently been introduced at pro events The system employed would appear to be an enhanced & better hidden version of this
http://www.vivax-assist.com/global/pdf/ ... t_2015.pdf
The rider claims that it was a bike she had previously owned but sold to a friend that had since been modified & mistakenly been taken to her pits. Frankly I believe that about as much as I believe the excuses trotted out in above 3 examples of drugs cheating. Depressingly this rider was a member of the Belgian national team.

In some ways, cheating with a motor in a bike seems even more contemptible than taking drugs.

CakeStop wrote:In some ways, cheating with a motor in a bike seems even more contemptible than taking drugs.

In some ways yes but safer at least. People are taking unbelievable risks with their health when doping. I suspect anyone cheating with performance enhancing drugs wouldn't be adverse to using a motor as well though.

Watch this video of a previous race,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=y ... pp=desktop
watch climb at approx 11mins45 secs into clip. The rider caught with motorised bike in her pits is the one sat down spinning up climb effortlessly while Helen Wyman & the other top class cx riders are all stood up giving it everything to climb at same speed - oh dear!

The constant seeking of technological solutions to performance and techniques reaches it's conclusion in motors. Having seen youth and juniors at grass roots events using wheels that cost more than all my bikes I am not surprised that a young rider "managed" by her father has been the first to be caught.
Fortunately, unlike doping, infringing equipment regulations is strict liability on the rider, so she's facing a minimum six month ban. Hopefully she may also be sued by her sponsors.
I also hope the UCI can take action against her mechanics and coach who must have known what was going on yet took no action.

Hopefully it's also easier to catch people who cheat this way, given that the motor needs to be in place for a race, whereas riders can benefit from doping even after the drugs have left their system and are no longer detectable.

It would appear that rather than go to all the trouble to retrofit a motor to existing bike you can just buy a new bike (like this one very similar to the one caught out at world cx u23 race) with hidden motor already fitted
https://www.salden.nl/en/wilier-triesti ... uning.html
Available as a whole range of bikes, they call it "pedal assistance".

Interesting post, and it's amazing the level of denial...your video showing van Driessche spinning up the Kopperburg is almost enough to prosecute in itself, and I have also just read her brother is currently banned for EPO.

As you say, Martin - good grief.

Just wait till you get dropped by some fat git in the next sportive you ride. There out there and anybody can get one !!!!!

There's undoubtedly a place for such bikes, just not in competition. I guess we'll all just have to train harder Chris so that when said fat git tries to drop us on a sportive or similar we have an answer.
Heard anything from CTT about checking for such motors at Club or Open TT's yet Chris? I've read there are apps for ipad & mobile phones such as
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/teslame ... 54714?mt=8 that use built in magnetometer which can detect powerful electric motors unless magnetically shielded.

I haven't heard anything so I've got a 19 min 10 planned 😊