Mechanical doping

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winjim

Smash the cistern
The Belgian team sent her away pretty sharpish and have wasted no time in accepting that it was an illegal bike. Either it's 100% her (and the mate what gave it to her in the pub the night before ) or she'll have dirt to dish out later on.
So the teams pretty lax about what equipment they allow their riders to bring to the race? If it's a team sport then it simply cannot be 100% her. I think in all team sports the team should be sanctioned for individual transgressions. It might make people consider their actions a bit more carefully if they know they'll incur the wrath of their team mates / country.

ETA: copy/paste from Marmion's link on the other thread. Rider and team both liable, bike just needs to be present, not even ridden.
ucirule121013.jpg
 
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andrew_s

Legendary Member
Location
Gloucester
Wasn't she the favourite to win? I wonder if she had used it before then...............
Shaun
The clinic has pointed to her time up the hill at the Koppenbergcross in November as being 5% faster than any of the pros (Cant, Wyman etc), and are wondering if it was a targeted check.

Edit:
Koppenberg clip (reminscent of Cancellara riding away on the Muur in 2010)


View: https://youtu.be/kv3CiyrRTMg
 
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Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
Surprised but still scoffing at the earlier speculation. If people speculate, I guess we shouldn't be surprised when someone tries to execute the idea.

Come on, are you seriously trying to blame the earlier speculation for riders (or teams) trying mechanical doping? On this logic, if we all just shut up about cheating, no-one would do it. That is ridiculous.

The earlier 'speculation' was based in the knowledge of the technical possibility of mechanical doping. And you can bet that within the sport, that knowledge was circulating a long time before it was public knowledge, in the same way that new drugs and procedures will be whispered about amongst riders and teams (which in turn are supplied by shadow networks of dubious laboratories). In this case, there will undoubtedly already be sources of assistance in mechanical doping, the only question is how many riders have used this. I suspect the numbers are small, but there will have almost certainly been races won because of it. Unlike drugs, however, there will be no trace that can be re-analysed later, unless someone happens to have a 'smoking gun' of a video / audio record of sufficient quality somewhere, and as we know from the Cancellara videos, video records are far from convincing, let alone 'proof', even when they are suggestive.
 
Come on, are you seriously trying to blame the earlier speculation for riders (or teams) trying mechanical doping? On this logic, if we all just shut up about cheating, no-one would do it. That is ridiculous.
The last leap is yours not mine. All I was saying is that the realization of what's possible into some kind of reality is borne out of knowing you might be able to do it and like you say, the general public are probably the last to know of the possible so there's no real point in us keeping schtum.

I still don't find the Cancellera links etc.. convincing but the UCI have clearly taken the view, in light of cycling's history, that they should prepare for the possibility that someone might try it.

I still find myself surprised that someone has, though there's still no proof that it was actually used.
 

jarlrmai

Veteran
Reading around the various places, the scuttlebutt is that the UCI commissioned an app that worked with thermal cameras and IOS devices (iPads)to detect motors and this was the 1st event they have been used at...
 

steveindenmark

Legendary Member
Surely the other riders would hear the motor, when I ride in a group I'm very aware of the noise of the bikes around me an electric motor would be very noticeable.

But if they were not in a group when they used it.

I cannot imagine the battery life being long.

With regards to Femke Dreissche. She is saying the bike wasn't hers. You could put my bikes along with a lot of identical bikes and I would quickly know it wasn't mine. By the feel, by little things on the bike.
 
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Citius

Guest
She is saying the bike wasn't hers. You could put my bikes along with a lot of identical bikes and I would quickly know it wasn't mine. By the feel, by little things on the bike.

She is saying the bike belonged to a training partner and was in her pit area at the time.
 

palinurus

Velo, boulot, dodo
Location
Watford
The fact that they chose cyclocross is puzzling as you think there'd be more scope for things to go quite badly wrong.

Bike changes are a normal feature, riders get strung out quickly and ride alone or in small groups much of the time, there are some short, but very tough, uphill sections where a little extra power can make a big difference.
 
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