First Case Of Pro Level ‘Mechanical Fraud’ Confirmed By UCI – UPDATED
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First Case Of Pro Level ‘Mechanical Fraud’ Confirmed By UCI – UPDATED

January 31, 2016

UPDATE 11am 1st FEB

Our man on the ground in Belgium for Grit.cx, Jeff Lockwood has posted a very detailed story on Grit.cx laying out all the details of what we currently know about this breaking story 24 hours after the historical press conference in Zolder.

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As reported by our sister site Grit.cx earlier today, Belgian pro Under 23 Cyclocross rider Femke Van den Driessche has had one of her bikes confiscated by the UCI after a motor was found inside the seat tube at the Zolder CX World Championships.

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Rumours have been floating around for several years about the likelihood of pro road riders using the hidden technology to cheat when it’s getting harder to cheat chemically, but up until now there has been no confirmed cases of so called ‘mechanical fraud’ confirmed.

That all changed today when UCI boss Brian Cookson confirmed that Van den Driessche was now under investigation for cheating.

Femke Van den Driessche herself claims the bike is not hers but belongs to a friend who pre-rode the UCI World Championship course at Zolder on Saturday. After that ride she claims her mechanic mistook that bike for one of hers and cleaned and prepared it for the race. She withdrew from the race midway through with technical difficulties.

See the full story at grit.cx

We saw a demo bike at Eurobike 2014 that featured a seat tube motor powered by a seatpack battery. In fact we video’d it.

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/Gritcx/videos/1687604208160478/” width=”650″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”0″]

Can’t see the video? Click here

 

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Mark Alker

Singletrack Owner/Publisher

Mark has been riding mountain bikes for over 30 years and co-owns Singletrack, where he's been publisher for 25 years. While his official title might be Managing Director, his actual job description is "whatever needs doing" – from wrangling finances and keeping the lights on to occasionally remembering to ride bikes for fun rather than just work. He's seen the sport evolve from rigid forks to whatever madness the industry dreams up next, and he's still not entirely sure what "gravel" is. When he's not buried in spreadsheets or chasing late invoices, he's probably thinking about his next ride.

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9 thoughts on “First Case Of Pro Level ‘Mechanical Fraud’ Confirmed By UCI – UPDATED”

  4. I am sorry but any hint of cheating should result in a ban until proven innocent. And if proven guilty a lifetime ban should follow. The UCI will never eradicate cheating, the cheats will always find a way, but they should be taking a harder stance on the matter.

  5. “That all changed to day when UCI boss Brian Cookson confirmed that Van den Driessche was no under investigation for cheating.”

    Do you mean she IS under investigation?

  6. If it’s hew regular mechanic then he would’ve know that it wasn’t her bike. Surely though the difference in weight caused by the motor would have been a bit of a give away…

  7. it’s a sad fact of life that dementia affects even the youngest cyclists these days. Must be all that not been quite as good as the others virus??

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