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

How tiny? At a certain scale, mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell...

I think there are different factors. One is that doping in cycling had big media coverage, especially in the 90ies to 2010s. Media uncovered that basically everyone in the race org knew that doping was involved. See for example Cofidis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofidis_(cycling_team) This adds to the perception that cycling is very prone to doping.

Whether it is so more than other sports... I don't know. As was mentioned before, in cycling as in other endurance sports, doping can push you very far. Then there is the way the whole sport is organized. In the tour de france, privately sponsored teams compete against each other. I think this is very different to, say, a world championship. A country or trainer may have the interest of pushing their athletes beyond what is legal. But in a privately sponsored team, the pressure could be much higher.

"What if the reason cyclists were able to glide up the Pyrenees mountains was because they weren’t pedaling unassisted?"

Ugh ... journalism. We know that's not why. At most some cyclists are "gliding" faster than others due to assistance.

"As electronic bikes — with motors that provide up to 1,000 watts of power — have become available for recreational cyclists, hobbyists began building lighter road bikes with more discrete motors."

Surely they mean "discreet".

If anyone is a fan of podcasts and this subject, there is a really good podcast series called 'Ghost in the Machine' which does a deep dive into motor doping, how it could be occurring, the current state of technology to enable it and also looking into Femke van den Driessche's case which is mentioned in the article.

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=sgbvuJCvfxg