First Case Of Pro Level 'Mechanical Fraud' Confirmed By UCI - UPDATED

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.

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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Comments (9)

coolhandlukecoolhandluke January 31, 2016 at 8:48 pm

My respect for sports persons diminishes daily.

adrian hutchinsonadrian hutchinson January 31, 2016 at 9:02 pm

Do you think that her “technical difficulty” was that her idiot mechanic hadn’t charged the battery that wasn’t there?

LekuLeku February 1, 2016 at 9:39 am

There is no way on earth that the mechanic wouldn’t know all the bikes on sight.

jossrennocksjossrennocks February 1, 2016 at 11:00 am

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.

eddiebabyeddiebaby February 1, 2016 at 1:32 pm

“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?

CoyoteCoyote February 1, 2016 at 4:09 pm

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…

duncanicookduncanicook February 1, 2016 at 7:05 pm

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??

muddypetemuddypete February 2, 2016 at 9:44 pm

Ace!
Will it be in the shops for Christmas? Dropper posts are sooooo 2015!

muddypetemuddypete February 2, 2016 at 9:47 pm

In fact: if you put one in a fork you could have a 2-wheel drive bike…..