It's too obvious to put the motor in the bike. What they should do is embed electromagnets under the road surface to help accelerate certain bikes and decelerate others.
Aren't the frames mostly carbon fiber now?
Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
11–20 of 354 posts
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#12At that level of competition, just keep xraying bikes so it can't become an issue? Drug testing is privacy invasive, having your bike xrayed isn't if you're not cheating.
At the top levels, there isn't much privacy already. In 2007, the GC leader of the Tour was removed from the race because they had lied about their location a month prior. Racers are required to tell UCI, the cycling governing body, their locations in order for doping controls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rasmussen_(cyclist)#Un...
Not just at the elite level either. The whereabouts system has expanded to apply to tens of millions of people, completely outside of any serious national or international legal frameworl.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#13There's a famously old accusation against Lance Armstrong
https://telegrafi.com/en/keshtu-funksionon-motori-vogel-per-...
The video of him reaching behind his seat is interesting I guess.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#14Motor doping has been around for ages. Nothing new.
Yeah, it's so common that literally nobody in high-level road cycling has ever been found doing it. "Motor doping" is the chupacabra: universally feared, never seen.
The math doesn't even begin to pass the smell test, with regards to how much energy you'd get out of some tiny battery vs. the amount you'd spend dragging the dead battery around France all day.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the top levels, there isn't much privacy already. In 2007, the GC leader of the Tour was removed from the race because they had lied about their location a month prior. Racers are required to tell UCI, the cycling governing body, their locations in order for doping controls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rasmussen_(cyclist)#Un...
Not just at the elite level either. The whereabouts system has expanded to apply to tens of millions of people, completely outside of any serious national or international legal frameworl.
> The whereabouts system has expanded to apply to tens of millions of people, completely outside of any serious national or international legal framewor[k].
What? Why? Who cares whether the 500,000th-fastest bicycle racer in the world is cheating?
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#16I am definitely a layperson when it comes to organized sports, but from my POV it seems like competitive cycling attracts WAY more fraud/cheating/doping/etc. than many other kinds of sports. At least I have heard about it a lot more. I wonder why that is.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not just at the elite level either. The whereabouts system has expanded to apply to tens of millions of people, completely outside of any serious national or international legal frameworl.
> The whereabouts system has expanded to apply to tens of millions of people, completely outside of any serious national or international legal framewor[k]. What? Why? Who cares whether the 500,000th-fastest bicycle racer in the world is cheating?
1. Scholarships
2. The top 10 were once top 10 000
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#18Don Ho is all:
"Tiny motors
In my wheels
Giving Gauls
Goofy feels"
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#19I am definitely a layperson when it comes to organized sports, but from my POV it seems like competitive cycling attracts WAY more fraud/cheating/doping/etc. than many other kinds of sports. At least I have heard about it a lot more. I wonder why that is.
It's not unique. Different sports police themselves more & less, punish more & less, coverup wrong doing more & less. As you said, you've just heard about it more.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#20At that level of competition, just keep xraying bikes so it can't become an issue? Drug testing is privacy invasive, having your bike xrayed isn't if you're not cheating.
You can swap bikes in the middle of the race if you have a mechanical issue. There was one famous time where someone climbed impossibly fast, had a mechanical at the top of the mountain, then finished the race on a different bike, leading us to forever wonder.