Mechanical Doping update

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Comments

  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,244
    Judging by some comments in Belgium she is quite young; lots of finger pointing at parents.
  • Judging by some comments in Belgium she is quite young; lots of finger pointing at parents.



    Katie Compton's husband has tweeted that Van Den Driessche's brother is currently serving an EPO ban. So...yeah
  • redvision
    redvision Posts: 2,958
    I get the feeling that if this does in fact turn out to be the first proven case of mechanical doping it may open the floodgates.

    “After one lap of the world championships, UCI took Femke’s bike in the pit area and tested it with some sort of tablet,” said Sporza journalist Maarten Vangramberen. “The bike was immediately sealed and taken. The UCI then called in the Belgian federation. When the saddle was removed, there were electrical cables in the seat tube. When they wanted to remove the bottom bracket, which is normally not difficult, they could not because the crank was stuck. Inside there was a motor.”
    http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/01/ ... 233_394233

    I just cannot get my head around how athletes still think they can get away with (any type of) doping :?

    Just out of interest, with the new laws in Germany regarding possible prison sentences for doping, would that include mechanical doping??
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,348
    One of the few good things about this is (apparently) how easy it was to detect and find. Far from being some motor invisible to the human eye bullcrap which we had to deal with uptrend, it seems like a monkey could have found this...

    Still left nurturing a suspicion that we re total mugs for following cycling though...
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • mm1
    mm1 Posts: 1,063
    Depressingly Digger and his mates have started to spin this into insinuations about a "Brit" winning the race. Need a drink before venturing over to the Asylum.
  • sherer
    sherer Posts: 2,460
    Does this mean it was so obvious they pulled the rider after one lap of the race ?
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,348
    edited January 2016
    No, for whatever reason she had a terrible race. I think her pedal broke off the start and hen she broke another bike. She ended up walking over the line before the last lap (I think)

    Karma's a bitch...

    Edit, from what I ve seen it was a commi walking around the pits with a "tablet" who detected something up with the bike and immediately flagged it. To give credit to the UCI it looks like this "tablet" has been something they ve been quietly working on and have used for the first time this weekend.
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • Pokerface
    Pokerface Posts: 7,960
    ddraver wrote:
    No, for whatever reason she had a terrible race. I think her pedal broke off the start and hen she broke another bike. She ended up walking over the line before the last lap (I think)

    Karma's a *****...


    Oddly, she walked across the line, put her bike over the barriers... and then rode away.
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,348
    Putting the bike off course is an immediate DNF? Theres something in XCO like that
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • joelsim
    joelsim Posts: 7,552
    Mechanical doping by putting a motor in a bike is not possible. It's absurd. Someone would have patented it. This is just silly. Never gonna happen.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    It's possible, yes (as shown previously in the posts)
    It's absurd, yes
    I don't imagine you can patent it as the tech is so old

    It's currently impossible to develop an invisible system as technology doesn't yet have batteries small enough and motors small enough to be invisible to detection. As noted, a monkey could have found the motor in this instance.

    If the above tech was developed then it's unlikely someone would see pro cycling as the best source of income for near invisible mechanics
  • smithy21
    smithy21 Posts: 2,204
    Joelsim wrote:
    Mechanical doping by putting a motor in a bike is not possible. It's absurd. Someone would have patented it. This is just silly. Never gonna happen.

    :lol::lol:

    Now you just need to find some magical invisible Hungarian ones.
  • Such a shame that this a bigger story than Evie Richards actually winning the event. Barely w mention of this on the BBC website within the doping story
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,719
    smithy21 wrote:
    Joelsim wrote:
    Mechanical doping by putting a motor in a bike is not possible. It's absurd. Someone would have patented it. This is just silly. Never gonna happen.

    :lol::lol:

    Now you just need to find some magical invisible Hungarian ones.


    Search function turns up plenty of regulars on here who thought the possibility of a motor in a pro race was laughable.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    What a damn fool.

    Anyone looked on the Asylum?
  • smithy21 wrote:
    Joelsim wrote:
    Mechanical doping by putting a motor in a bike is not possible. It's absurd. Someone would have patented it. This is just silly. Never gonna happen.

    :lol::lol:

    Now you just need to find some magical invisible Hungarian ones.


    Search function turns up plenty of regulars on here who thought the possibility of a motor in a pro race was laughable.

    The consensus was that an 'undetectable' motor was laughable. One that obviously makes the BB different as soon as you try to remove it and that has wires down the seatpost is hardly 'undetectable'. Though it is pretty laughable...
  • joelsim
    joelsim Posts: 7,552
    Well FWIW there were plenty on here who said it was impossible to build a motor powerful enough to put in a frame with a mahoosive battery.

    I don't think anyone's been talking about one being undetectable if people are looking for it. When people weren't looking for it it's a different matter.
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,719
    smithy21 wrote:
    Joelsim wrote:
    Mechanical doping by putting a motor in a bike is not possible. It's absurd. Someone would have patented it. This is just silly. Never gonna happen.

    :lol::lol:

    Now you just need to find some magical invisible Hungarian ones.


    Search function turns up plenty of regulars on here who thought the possibility of a motor in a pro race was laughable.

    The consensus was that an 'undetectable' motor was laughable. One that obviously makes the BB different as soon as you try to remove it and that has wires down the seatpost is hardly 'undetectable'. Though it is pretty laughable...

    There were plenty who thought the notion that a motor may have been used in a pro race was laughable.
    [Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]
  • Joelsim wrote:
    Well FWIW there were plenty on here who said it was impossible to build a motor powerful enough to put in a frame with a mahoosive battery.

    I don't think anyone's been talking about one being undetectable if people are looking for it. When people weren't looking for it it's a different matter.

    Good point, actually - it'll be interesting to see quite what sort of power this thing produced and how obvious it is (or isn't) in use, plus whether it had any real range or was a one-shot deal. Might shed some light on where the tech really is and the challenge of using it for cheating.
  • joelsim
    joelsim Posts: 7,552
    Yes if you bear in mind the difference between someone with a lot of money and a youngster
  • Joelsim wrote:
    Yes if you bear in mind the difference between someone with a lot of money and a youngster

    It at least puts some sort of bounds on the point at which someone thinks they might start getting away with the tech. Mind you, we've known enough chemical dopers race with ludicrous levels of drugs to expect much common sense from riders...
  • mm1 wrote:
    Depressingly Digger and his mates have started to spin this into insinuations about a "Brit" winning the race. Need a drink before venturing over to the Asylum.

    No doubt when they find out that all bar those still in school were on an extended Mallorca training camp before the champs, it will be seen as confirmation.

    The other logic line that lot over there are spinning ( in my case, head) is that the UCI threw her under the bus as a warning to the men before this afternoon's race.
    Basically, this translates to the mechanical doping is widespread and the UCI know all about it. So, in order to keep it all quiet, they exposed it to the media.
    Er yes...............that works.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • itboffin
    itboffin Posts: 20,052
    why is it taking the UCI so long to release an official statement rather than letting the press and social media go wild with speculations, surely silence is more damaging to the image of the sport.
    Rule #5 // Harden The Feck Up.
    Rule #9 // If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.
    Rule #12 // The correct number of bikes to own is n+1.
    Rule #42 // A bike race shall never be preceded with a swim and/or followed by a run.
  • slim_boy_fat
    slim_boy_fat Posts: 1,810
    itboffin wrote:
    why is it taking the UCI so long to release an official statement rather than letting the press and social media go wild with speculations, surely silence is more damaging to the image of the sport.
    They already have, Cookson gave a press conference this morning https://twitter.com/briancooksonuci/sta ... 3452651520
  • kleinstroker
    kleinstroker Posts: 2,133
    Joelsim wrote:
    Mechanical doping by putting a motor in a bike is not possible. It's absurd. Someone would have patented it. This is just silly. Never gonna happen.
    Agreed, its bullshite. Plus I cannot see how "testing with some sort of tablet" is anything but BS. Bikes don't have CPUs you can do a diagnostic on, how does a tablet test for electronic activity? Smells like one of those bomb detector fake stories that were making the rounds a few years ago
  • slim_boy_fat
    slim_boy_fat Posts: 1,810
    Joelsim wrote:
    Mechanical doping by putting a motor in a bike is not possible. It's absurd. Someone would have patented it. This is just silly. Never gonna happen.
    Agreed, its bullshite. Plus I cannot see how "testing with some sort of tablet" is anything but BS. Bikes don't have CPUs you can do a diagnostic on, how does a tablet test for electronic activity? Smells like one of those bomb detector fake stories that were making the rounds a few years ago
    I think you'll find Joel was being slightly tongue in cheek ;)

    As for the tablet, it would depend on what sort of sensor it has attached to it.
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,348
    Ah the rewriting of history part...I ve been expecting you..
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • sherer
    sherer Posts: 2,460
    Any pics of the bike out there yet ?
  • itboffin
    itboffin Posts: 20,052
    They are still only calling it a technological fraud not actually mentioning what, all the mentions of motors are from peoples twitter replies as far as I can see.
    Rule #5 // Harden The Feck Up.
    Rule #9 // If you are out riding in bad weather, it means you are a badass. Period.
    Rule #12 // The correct number of bikes to own is n+1.
    Rule #42 // A bike race shall never be preceded with a swim and/or followed by a run.
  • awavey
    awavey Posts: 2,368
    Joelsim wrote:
    Well FWIW there were plenty on here who said it was impossible to build a motor powerful enough to put in a frame with a mahoosive battery.

    I don't think anyone's been talking about one being undetectable if people are looking for it. When people weren't looking for it it's a different matter.

    no, weve always said it wasnt possible to build a motor small enough to fit in a bike frame that passed a simple visual look, and it has to pass a visual look as else everyone would just be pointing and staring at it, thats not the same as undetectable unless you have this whatever the UCI "pad" is doing or you try to dismantle the bike, the bike with the motor has to still look like a bike without a motor to pass. And the motors output had to at least compensate for the weight penalty of carrying it as else theres no point to it, though pro cyclists will happily buy snake oil if they thought it would help give them an extra watt .

    and if you had invented that kind of technology, small enough to be not blindingly obvious & visible, power output in excess of weight penalty, then youd be making way more money selling it round the world, than you could trying to sell it to pro bike racers.