Mechanical doping
cheating in cycling using a hidden motor
Motor doping, or mechanical doping, in competitive cycling terminology, is a method of cheating by using a hidden motor to help propel a racing bicycle. The term is an analogy to chemical doping in sport, cheating by using performance-enhancing drugs. As a form of "technological fraud" it is banned by the Union Cycliste Internationale, the international governing body of cycling.
History
One of the first allegations of mechanical doping goes back to the 2010 Tour of Flanders when Fabian Cancellara attacked Tom Boonen on a steep part of Kapelmuur whilst unusually seated, leading to allegations that there was an electric motor hidden in Cancellara's bike. Four years later the issue was raised again when Ryder Hesjedal was the subject of allegations of mechanical doping during the 2014 Vuelta a España: Hesjedal crashed on stage seven of the race, and video footage of the crash showed his bicycle's rear wheel continuing to spin after it had fallen onto the road, leading to a number of media outlets including the website of French sports newspaper L'Equipe questioning whether the bike contained a motor, although it was suggested by Cycling Weekly that the bicycle's movement could have simply been due to it sliding on a downward gradient. Public pressure on the UCI led to the race commissaires examining the bikes of Hesjedal's Garmin–Sharp team the following morning: no motors were found. The following spring, checks for bike motors were carried out at Paris–Nice, Milan–San Remo, and the Giro d'Italia.
In January 2016 – almost six years after initial allegations of a pro cyclist doping mechanically – the first confirmed use of "mechanical doping" in the sport was discovered at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships when one of the bikes of Belgian cyclist Femke Van den Driessche was found to have a secret motor inside. One blogger described it as the worst scandal in cycling since the doping scandal that engulfed Lance Armstrong in 2012.
Van den Driessche and her accomplice broke an eight year silence to speak with the podcast series Ghost in the Machine in 2024, revealing that they had experienced death threats, closed down their business and were forced to flee Belgium for their safety.
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