Another suspected ebike cheater

LockH

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Motors scandal: Indications that Belgian Under 23 rider becomes the first to be caught for "mechanical doping"
http://cyclingtips.com/2016/01/moto...the-first-to-be-caught-for-mechanical-doping/

Disconcerting reports from the world cyclocross championships suggest that the Belgian under 23 rider Femke Van den Driessche has become the first rider officially detected as using a motor in her bike, exposing her to severe penalties.

(Article fails to mention perhaps that the Union Cycliste Internationale and other cycling organizations have banned other "radical or innovative" bicycles from competing in their sanctioned events.

These prohibitions included derailleur gears, wheel rims made of anything except wood and frames of a configuration other than the standard diamond.)
 
Every sport has its rules and regulations that you accept when you sign up.
If you deliberately break those rules, be it a small motor, or chemicals (Armstrong) then you are a cheat trying to get an unfair advantage over fellow competitors.
Cycling and cyclocross etc are human powered sports. No place for any Ebike of any sort.
There are other competitions for Ebikes if you really want to use one..
 
fechter said:
I'd like to see how they hid the motor.

Gruber-style maybe. :)
http://singletrackworld.com/2016/01/first-case-of-pro-level-mechanical-fraud-confirmed-by-uci/
gruber_assist.jpg
 
Curious they had changed detection method. Makes me wonder if that wasn't the first time... Surely a skilled person would notice the difference in weight....
 
Yeah, they almost certainly used the vivax/ gruber.

I'm also curious what battery/ how they stashed it. I imagine in the seat post. Wonder whether 18650s or lipo?
 
Lurkin said:
Curious they had changed detection method. Makes me wonder if that wasn't the first time... Surely a skilled person would notice the difference in weight....
There have been suspicions and allegations of hidden motors etc for many years (2010?) but none confirmed until this.
At one stage they were using X ray checks on the major tours, but I believe they are now trying with IR heat detectors during/after key stages,.....looking for hot motors !
Weight is not a factor, they can build an EAssist bike practically to the minimum allowed race weight. :shock:
The biggest deterrent, is likely to be the career ending consequences of being caught...as Armstrong discovered.
 
Bike made it to her pit but not clear if it was setup for her to use nor whether it was a functioning ebike. Huge mistake either way. There is more to this story for certain. Was there a battery even on the bike? If there is a hidden battery in the tubes, it makes it look a bit more suspect than if it was setup as a friends trainer with a seat back or handle bar battery pack and may have actually been a mix up as claimed. Suspicious that it was pulled out of the pit lineup and hunted down in a team car. Sounds more like a UCI puff pc. to call attention to something they did right for once. Interested in what the facts show.
 
Even if she didn't use it or know about it, the fact that it was in her pit available to her means it's a rule break.
You don't let "friends" leave their kit in your official pit area during an official event....especially at that level of competition.
If it was a "training/non competition". bike, why was it so carefully disguised to look standard ?
Either way, there had to be team involvement,
She will need some good connections to slip out of this.
 
speedmd said:
Had not noticed it before posting. Away for a few days. How does one best merge the posts?
Fiksed. ;)
 
Hillhater said:
Even if she didn't use it or know about it, the fact that it was in her pit available to her means it's a rule break.
You don't let "friends" leave their kit in your official pit area during an official event....especially at that level of competition.
If it was a "training/non competition". bike, why was it so carefully disguised to look standard ?
Either way, there had to be team involvement,
She will need some good connections to slip out of this.

No argument if it was in fact in the pits and setup for her to ride. Very bad! Not clear that is the case just yet. Team may have discovered the mistake and immediately removed it. Still bad that it was in the same country and made to look like a standard race bike. That alone should be cause for concern. No word yet if in fact it was this and not a seat pack or bottle battery setup not installed. If it is a internal battery / totally stealth setup and was known to her, it looks very bad and it will be dealt with firmly. She had a decisive pro victory that folks said was unbelievable just recently. It looks even more suspect now. Something tells me that we have much more to this story. Not going away for certain.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/fem...ing-motor-at-cyclo-cross-world-championships/
 
I can tell the difference between tubes and tubeless...
I can feel the difference between steel and aluminum frames...
I can feel the difference in 3psi of tire pressure...
...and I am a intermediate racer and rider.....far from the pro level.

No freakin way she didn't know the difference.
No freakin way she would ALLLOW that bike NEAR her pit if she was racing at a pro level.
I'd imagine at least 5lbs for the motor and battery...that would affect a 15b race bike's handling ALOT!
UCI tests everyone relentlessly...so many regulations...and whole teams are VERY aware of the rules.
 
Understood. They set tire pressures to 0.10 psi tolerances. Did not stop someone grabbing her friends (her old race bike that she sold him and he built up as a training bike for himself) and throwing it in the team truck. I could see this happening. Pit folks just want to hurry to get things in place for their star. Been there.

Big-expensive mistake having it ( a fraudulent race bike ) anywhere near the race.
 
Of course, one can't be helped by a motor and not noticing the extra magic thrust. :wink:
Time has come for motorized MTB racing, and getting rid of those low power hidden motors. :D
 
Maybe one of the motivations a side from the most obvious ones for this hidden motor was bets placed that she would win on online gambling websites... just like the tennis match fixing scandal..
Maybe they felt they couldn't dope her with steroids etc so they cheated via motor.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-01/40-professional-tennis-matches-flagged-for-match-fixing/7127240
 
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