Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 354 posts

Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

#141

Post by IncreasePosts »

raverbashing wrote: post #102
gwelson wrote: post #16

I 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.

Honestly there's an (unhealthy) dose of self-loathing to want to bike long distances uphill for several days during the European summer But I'm not surprised they want "extra help" with that

It doesn't start out that way. And in any case, a lot of people have horribly physically demanding jobs that just barely let them survive, not earn millions of dollars and have fawning fans wherever you go.

Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

#142

Post by stockresearcher »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #136
tokai wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Greg LeMond has been on a whole motodoping tour online recently to stay relevant. He clearly does not understand modern cycling and he has a ton of people he wants to put down for the sake of his own reputation. There is not reason to believe him more than a crazy uncle.

Yes, that's what people said about him when he was speaking against doping in the late 90s/early 2000s too. Remember when he was forced to issue an apology to Lance Armstrong for calling out his relationship with Dr. Ferrari(doping connoisseur)?

It’s too bad LeMond sold his bike company to Trek. I have a small collection of American-made bikes. Every single one of the brands was acquired by Trek and then shut down a few years later…

The LeMond is probably my favorite. Great geometry, great road feel, and a fantastic paint job. I put some new wheels on it this spring and it gives it such a rad look. Totally modern and retro at the same time. Such a bike would sell really well right now.

Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

#143

Post by eCa »

SamPatt wrote: post #11
aeternum wrote: post #8

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?

Since many years.

Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

#144

Post by jajko »

tokai wrote: post #122
jamesblonde wrote: post #79

Fabian Cancellera was widely suspected of mechanical doping in Paris Roubaix in 2010 (possibly also the tour of Flanders that year). Since then, however, they x-ray bikes for motors. More importantly, riders aren't switching bikes they way they used to. Greg LeMond claimed Chris Froome used on in the TDF. References: https://www.bennionkearny.com/the-hidden-motor-mechanical-do... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgbvu…

Greg LeMond has been on a whole motodoping tour online recently to stay relevant. He clearly does not understand modern cycling and he has a ton of people he wants to put down for the sake of his own reputation. There is not reason to believe him more than a crazy uncle.

Sometimes those folks just tell the truth. Now if you are OK with cheating and this just annoys you that's another story but lets be honest here - professional cycling became pathetic deplorable 'sport' full of jokes of sportsmen that should not be respected or admired in any way, in contrary. Half of Olympics is heading that way but for some reason cycling was and still is ahead of the curve for quite some time.

I'll never pour a single cent worth of money into that activity, nor a nanosecond of my attention to avoid anyhow supporting it even by accident, voting with my wallet and all that. It almost seems like if there is enough money in the sport it becomes cut throat business and stops being what it was intended to be, in fact exactly the opposite.

That's how I raise my kids, there are tons of sports on the bike and off it to enjoy and even watch and admire if one is in passive mode. But as always doing sports > watching them and I really don't have enough time to do both.

Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

#145

Post by stefs »

ekianjo wrote: post #90
discreteevent wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's such a tough sport. The Tour de France was originally intended to be so tough that only one person might finish it. In other words it was set up to be extremely hard for most normal athletes to compete without some kind of artificial assistance. So there was a history of drug taking from the start. But after the scandals of 20 years ago it became one of the most tested sports in the world. So now, in my…

> drugs are not used much they just switched to drugs you cant easily detect.

ah, the magic undetectable drug that's just the right kind of effective without the pesky side effects, which you'd need other undetectable drugs for.

this drug would be worth a lot of money, but we'll keep secret except just for the one top performer, because wide distribution would increase the risk of a leak substantially.

and remember: the top performers getting busted would probably mean the end of pro cycling as we know it for decades. cycling isn't a huge money maker for financial investors like football, rather it's a money pit for sponsors. do sponsors love a podium placement more than being forever associated with dirty cheaters? they'd risk it all for modest gains. a young superstar would trade a life of a good salaried position with some more money but also a high risk of being banned from the sport forever, thus no source of income at all and also the questionable title of being the killer of a whole sport.

so imo: it's possible, but unlikely.

Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

#146

Post by mjklin »

create-username wrote: post #105
jl6 wrote: post #103

The lengths people will go to to cheat in sports is super interesting - sometimes more interesting than the sport itself! There should be a global all-sport annual prize for red-teaming (against the cheaters).

And the black maillot for the most powerful doping chemicals goes to…

SNL had that idea: the “all drug Olympics”

https://youtu.be/jAdG-iTilWU?si=25YzT63fNu_dCIq4

Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

#147

Post by Luc »

jamesblonde wrote: post #79

Fabian Cancellera was widely suspected of mechanical doping in Paris Roubaix in 2010 (possibly also the tour of Flanders that year). Since then, however, they x-ray bikes for motors. More importantly, riders aren't switching bikes they way they used to. Greg LeMond claimed Chris Froome used on in the TDF. References: https://www.bennionkearny.com/the-hidden-motor-mechanical-do... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgbvu…

> Fabian Cancellera was widely suspected of mechanical doping

I don't think the opinions of these fringe conspiracy theorists were ever widely held. Not in the cycling world, not among people with an understanding of physics, and not among the general public.

Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

#148

Post by jackmottatx »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #136
tokai wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Greg LeMond has been on a whole motodoping tour online recently to stay relevant. He clearly does not understand modern cycling and he has a ton of people he wants to put down for the sake of his own reputation. There is not reason to believe him more than a crazy uncle.

Yes, that's what people said about him when he was speaking against doping in the late 90s/early 2000s too. Remember when he was forced to issue an apology to Lance Armstrong for calling out his relationship with Dr. Ferrari(doping connoisseur)?

He had first hand direct information about that stuff. Not true about motors. I believed him 100% about EPO but the motor stuff is silly. they check for motors for over a decade now.

Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

#149

Post by IncreasePosts »

jeffbee wrote: post #14
aaronrobinson wrote: post #6

Motor 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.

It could be a capacitor charged when going down hill

Re: Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

#150

Post by le-mark »

stockresearcher wrote: post #142
IncreasePosts wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's what people said about him when he was speaking against doping in the late 90s/early 2000s too. Remember when he was forced to issue an apology to Lance Armstrong for calling out his relationship with Dr. Ferrari(doping connoisseur)?

It’s too bad LeMond sold his bike company to Trek. I have a small collection of American-made bikes. Every single one of the brands was acquired by Trek and then shut down a few years later… The LeMond is probably my favorite. Great geometry, great road feel, and a fantastic paint job. I put some new wheels on it this spring and it gives it such a rad look. Totally modern and retro at the same time. Such a bike would…

I worked in a shop that sold LeMond bikes back in the 90s. Iirc they were generally a chromolly lugged frame. At the time a lot of the high end bikes were the same. Are these not common nowadays?
Post reply on HN