Still isn’t doping. Why say “mechanical doping” when “cheating” is much more succinct?
the world may never know
Hey it looks like I live in the epicentre of high end motor cheating!
The guy says the most advanced system has magnets in the wheel and coils in the seatsays. He says hesjedal’s infamous spinning wheel after crashing was due to one of these, which is plausible to me.
Here’s another suspicious video a la hesjedal:
The wheel turns slower than I would expect from a motor but the way he hurriedly picks up the bike when he notices the wheel is spinning makes it look kinda suspicious. Probably just bumped the pedal against the ground as he laid it down.
It seems like that is just from him setting the bike down, though I guess a motor at the end of its battery life might be spinning a wheel like that. I was thinking he picked up the bike because he realized it was in the middle of the course. I hope so, at least.
I have no doubt people are cheating with motors but that looked like he just realized it was bad etiquette. you can even see the bike slide when the weight is put down on the pedal and the frame shifts moving the drivetrain.
I thought these cheater motors only worked by adding force when you are already pedaling. This is why I thought the bike spinning by itself videos were not very convincing. Clearly there are subtleties I’m not getting.
all cross racers are cheating because the wheels keep spinning when they shoulder their bikes.
you heard it here first.
Apparently Luca Roglic, former ski jumper and novice pro rider won a TT in the Giro after having a last-minute “mechanical” on his bike and swapping it for an unexamined bike before the start. Unfortunately his bike computer fell of his bars during the ride so there are no wattage stats of his surprisingly fast ride. Hmmm.
The article also has some thermal camera video showing a very suspicious glow at the bottom of a seat tube of some unnamed rider and roglic riding with a glow in the rear hub area.