151–160 of 307 posts
cycling seems to always be mired in scandal. why is this the case?
Look at FIFA in soccer - it's completely rotten - and yet we're back to 'those cyclists...'.
Also: if you consider the money in cycling, which is pretty modest, compared with soccer or US sports... you're delusional if you think that cycling is dirtier.
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I think they should allow it, but only with capacitors that are shorted prior to start. This way, it can only be used to improve efficiency.
If the people making the regulations were interested in efficiency, everyone would be racing in a fully covered recumbent bike. (They don't, because the regulations don't allow it.)
* They didn't actually name anyone.
* They didn't catch anyone with a motor, red handed.
* They did, however, manage to produce another 'cycling is dirty' narrative.
Pretty useless, IMO.
Duuuudes, chill out! I just rebuilt my bottom bracket the other day and forgot to grease it.
What makes cycling so particularly attractive to cheating? Or is cheating in cycling just getting more publicity than in other sports?
Seems to me that cycling has gotten so competitive that virtually all of the top performers are on some sort of drugs, like it's a culture there. If everyone is mostly clean and one guy is using special drugs, than it's easy to say that the one guy is a cheating asshole. But if everybody is using drugs and you basically have to to be competitive, then it's harder to judge.
Most sports are 'very competitive'. That's the point.
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To clarify, my cheater bike" is a $50 eBay 2nd hand mountain bike that I use to commute to work - not something I ride dressed in lycra pretending to be faster than other people... I call it my "cheater bike", 'cause that what it _feels_ like riding it up hills... It makes me laugh everytime I ride it. (I do _occasionally_ enjoy passing mamils on bikes that weigh less then their brekfast going uphill on my way to wor…
Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose? Why not ride a scooter? Not aimed at you personally, but in my commute I'm not happy with all these motorized bicycles on the bike lane nowadays. They're usually ridden by people who don't race seriously, and are now riding 30+ km/h, but doing it as though they're still going 15 km/h: not looking behind them before passing or turning, immediately ringing their bell if you're i…
I;m with you on the dangers of people who don't have good situational awareness zooming around on electric bikes - but I think I'm pretty good there, you don't survive 25 years as a motorcyclist doing 15-20k miles a year without being pretty good at knowing what's going on around you and riding accordingly...
Another point, I know a lot of commuter bicycle riders, and some of _them_ think the skinny-wheeled-carbon-frame crowd doing 30+kmh in bike lanes should GTFO as well... (And I've got motorcycle friends who reckon the lycra-crowd should stay off the country backroads doing 50kmh when they want to zoom past at twice the speed limit... People, huh?)
(Also, my cheater bike is _way_ cheaper than a scooter, it's a $50 eBay mountain bike with ~$130 worth of Chinese hubmotor/controller/stuff, and a $70 battery. And crucially, I can ride the cheater bike home from the pub after a few beers... )
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Seems trivial to detect now though. It's no problem to just tear down the bikes of the first X finishers to look for mechanical aids. Detecting doping reliably is much trickier. edit: I think most high level bikes use carbon fibre frames? You could probably just use x-ray or ultrasound imaging to look for anything suspicious in the frame.
Bikes are regularly inspected to check for mechanical doping and to ensure compliance with the regulations. The rules governing racing bicycles are remarkably complex and strict. Riders have been disqualified from races just for having their saddle at the wrong angle. Testers now have access to video endoscope equipment to inspect the inside of frame tubes and some kind of magnetometer device. Commissaires have the r…
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The same question applies to all of those. If we allow technological enhancements, why is one enhancement too far? You couldn't run the course as fast as you can cycle it, after all. The same argument applies to all those other things - if we allow them then the playing field needs to stay absolutely level otherwise the person who can afford the strongest drugs, the newest gene-splicing, and the most efficient exoske…
Then it'll be like, "why can I only have two wheels?" Bicycle racing, whose equipment is required to have only one source of power, a certain minimum weight, and no disc brakes (and maybe a couple others) is probably one of the less-constrained pro sports.
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Seems trivial to detect now though. It's no problem to just tear down the bikes of the first X finishers to look for mechanical aids. Detecting doping reliably is much trickier. edit: I think most high level bikes use carbon fibre frames? You could probably just use x-ray or ultrasound imaging to look for anything suspicious in the frame.
Perhaps implement something similar to the parc ferme rules in F1? Where the winning cars and impounded after the race for detailed inspection and measurements by the stewards to ensure that they comply with the thousands of regulations? Drivers have been disqualified in the past for a spoiler or brake caliper measurement that are millimetres out, and I remember Daniel Ricciardo was stripped of his podium here in Aus…