https://youtu.be/Wv5F5N6mFf0?si=uE9fqMC_LdViYJWu. Nice review of how they work and what they feel like.
Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
31–40 of 354 posts
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#32I 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 very hard to tell because the true rate of doping is not known. We just know about who we catch (or very questionable survey results) which are skewed by the resources available for testing and the resources available for hiding doping. Competitive cycling is more popular than many sports, so it gets a lot of attention and effort on both.
Cycling was also at the center of the explosion of EPO use between the 1990s and 2000s -- there was no known screening process originally and it was extremely effective at improving performance in endurance sports with low amounts. Cycling has spent a lot of time working to restore the reputational damage from that period.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#33I 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.
Doping happens in all sports. It's pretty safe to assume that most/all top athletes are on something.
I replied directly to OP, but applies here as well. Cycling is far more specialized than other sports so the pay off for doping is greater.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#34Motor 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.
how about 0.5% performance increase on climbs? downhill, the more weight you have the better i guess.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#35Bikers and their teams are known for removing as much weight as possible from their bikes. Would love to see the math for weight/power/time ratio for a motor like this. Would it be worth it considering you'd have to expend additional watts lugging it around all stage? My guess is probably not. Especially on a mountain stage which is where the tour is really won or lost.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
That seems like an issue with checking though. If you know people can switch bikes mid race, meaning it's allowed by rules then it is simply stupid to only "double check" the winning bikes that made it to the finish line. Obviously you would need to check every single bike someone used during the race. That's different from someone illegally changing bikes.
This is what they do, for what its worth. Every team bike is subject to random or suspicion based inspection both pre-stage and post-stage. There's also in-stage monitoring that flags riders or their equipment for additional investigation.
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#37At 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.
The first athlete to be sanctioned for mechanical doping did exactly that.
Inspectors found a bicycle in her pit with a hidden motor. Her excuse was "the bicycle was owned by a friend and was taken to the pit in error". The bike looked exactly the same as the bike she was riding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femke_Van_den_Driessche#Allega...
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#38Motor 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.
[deleted]
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#39Earlier 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?
The 500,001st cares quite a lot!
Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
#40I 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.
One way of thinking about it is how much a sport is skill-based versus fitness-based. Team sports and racquet sports tend to rely more on skill. Cycling and track and field rely more on fitness. A good soccer player isn't going to become a great just by getting a bit fitter, but the advantage given by doping is exactly what it means to be a better cyclist.
This doesn't explain why cycling seems to attract more doping than running. I don't even know if it's true that it does. But there might be something there given the institutional problems cycling has had with doping. Back in the day, it was entire teams doping, with the team staff and doctors in on it, and it's not like they all left when the sport tried to clean up. Either way, the reputation has stuck around.