Motor Doping is Possible

[smorgasbord]

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Excellent GCN project well worth a look for anyone who follows pro cycling. Motor doping will be a real challenge to fair cycling in a world that increasingly seems to think that what's right is what you can get away with.

Hope UCI detection methods can stay ahead of the cheaters.

 

[Chargeride]

I did watch that, magnetic drive is very detectable, plus the heat signature, I think cycling should stick to criminal chemistry for its cheating fix.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

As Conor says, the UCI has been X Raying bikes at races since 2018 with over 600 checks at races in 2025. With a 6 year or life ban for any cheaters, they'd have to really make an undetectable system, which involves a number of people and a lot of money. ( But then so did EPO and that didn't stop sociopath Armstrong et all from institutionalised blood doping.) Plus the power delivery with such a tiny system could only help at unique moments. It's not going to be sprints or breakaways on the flat, on this site we know about power delivery, weight of system, size of battery etc, TT is checked super closely already because of all the bike aero advances half of which fail UCI rules anyway, that leaves the final 10KM on the highest hardest climbs where 30 seconds to a minute of additional boost to drop somebody could make a big difference by the line; 30sec or a minute+ advantage could win the TdF. But that also means the regulators just need to check a few climbing bikes.

As with EPO never say never but I remain sceptical.

 

[stompandgo]

600 x-ray checks could be done in one stage race. They don't drag the machine around everywhere, and that's just for WT races. The UCI and the NGB's rely on the iPad magnetometer and the iPad FLIR camera, something that's cheap and portable. TT bikes are jigged, either mechanically or electronically, but only a small part of the regulations are checked. It would take way too long to check everything. I agree that the climbing bikes, especially the ones that a rider swaps during the race (a practice that I totally disagree with and should not be allowed) would be the primary target.

That video had a lot of drama and not a lot of substance, but hat's off to the students for developing a working prototype. You wouldn't need an x-ray, magnetometer, or FLIR to detect that wheel, though. The weight difference would be obvious.

 

[Gionnirocket]

And really you only need to check the bikes that finish in the top 20 or so. After the fact is still caught cheating.

 

[stompandgo]

There is no policy, procedure, or area set up at each finish to impound bikes after the race. That doesn't mean that there couldn't be.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Well, let's see them detect a big rubber band wound up in the down tube!
;^}

 

[Gionnirocket]

Seems easier and more secure than inspecting +100 beforehand that could be more easily swapped out after inspection.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

That video had a lot of drama and not a lot of substance, but hat's off to the students for developing a working prototype.

With the GCN budgets looking non existent these days I hope they at least paid the students for return train tickets Edinburgh to Bath, a couple of nights in a Premiere Inn and a Tesco meal deal...

 

[PedalUma]

Well, let's see them detect a big rubber band wound up in the down tube!
;^}

That is the kind of way I am thinking. Kinetic regen. Instead of heating brakes store that energy. I was thinking along the lines of pneumatically inside the frame. Just as long as your frame doesn't explode in a crash.

 

[stompandgo]

Seems easier and more secure than inspecting +100 beforehand that could be more easily swapped out after inspection.

Inspections are done in an impound area near rider staging. Once the bike goes in, it cannot come out.