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Bit more on the Demare thing.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riders-accuse-demare-of-taking-a-tow-from-a-team-car-during-milan-san-remo/
His Strava file has been deleted, but not before a journalist got a screenshot. He got the KOM up Cipressa, impressive work for a sprinter...
[url= http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/demares-milan-san-remo-data-file-deleted-from-strava/ ]http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/demares-milan-san-remo-data-file-deleted-from-strava/[/url]
This could get interesting!
Wonder if they'll act on that?
No video or photo evidence, stewards say no. If Demare releases his data I wonder if a few others will follow suit from suspect rides in the past. Fabs "motor" bike for instance
I was working on a high-profile race a couple of years ago where something similar happened. Problem was, no-one could work out if it was towing or if the rider had taken a lap out then jumped in somewhere near the front group but out of sight of cameras/Commissaires.
Bottom line was that no-one had seen anything untoward - we knew [b]something[/b] was up just from the timings of the groups on the road but with no absolute proof the result had to stand.
Teams are always very quick to complain about other riders, other cars etc getting what they perceive to be an unfair advantage while at the same time trying any underhand tactic they can get away with too.
At the moment, Commissaires don't have the power to act on power/Strava data, especially post-event. A Commissaire's power ends once the race has been concluded except in cases of giving out fines collected during the actual race. They aren't permitted to go back to a race from yesterday, last week etc and re-jig the results just cos a rider was caught cheating.
The UCI might still have the power to act on it but it would require a lot more evidence than this (although you've got to admit, it's a weird coincidence that he's deleted his Strava file...)
With the march of technology, it would be possible (although very time-consuming) to interrogate everyone's data afterwards but it would turn the sport into nothing more than number crunching and you end up with armchair experts tearing everything to shreds (much the same way they did when Froome released all his power data).
If it's true then I'd pay next months salary to be in the room when he and the DS get a bollocking from Marc Madiot.
Don't think I'd need much French to understand it 😉
Curious to see what information comes to light. Phone camera photos and videos etc. Helicopter footage that wasn't shown on TV. I'd imagine there would need to be an overwhelming amount of "evidence" published in the media before any sort of official investigation.
It's still Strava - I just followed a link from Race Radio twitter. Demare set this year's KOM and equaled the overall, set by Kwiakowski (last year?). So not off-the-chart smoking gun but worth a chin-stroke for an underperforming sprinter.