am I up to speed?

There’s only one way to do that 😉

just watched a vid of her going up the koppenberg – as we say in Belgium, wow … just, wow

(from about 3 min)

[video]http://youtu.be/_AlvQJqkfpk[/video]

At a press conference today UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) president, Brian Cookson, confirmed the bike the 19-year-old Belgian was riding, when she pulled out of the race with mechanical problems, was later found to contain a concealed motor. – See more at: http://road.cc/content/news/177183-mechanical-doping-cyclocross-worlds-confirmed#sthash.phCkYSST.dpuf
N.B. according to that report, she was riding the bike with the motor, it’s not a bike that was sitting in the pits.

So we’re trying to prove that the spinning bike with no credible evidence of cheating had a motor in it, and the bike that has been found with a motor in it didn’t really have a motor in it; am I up to speed?

According to most reports it was a bike in the pits. If you read many of the original dutch tekst and then the english or French translation there are quite some mis translations either from incompetence(google translate) or to spice things up.

Its seems quite sure the bike was found in the pits early on and so not(yet) ridden on. Can obviously have been used earlier on her koppenberg climb looks very dodgy. I would love to see her and the alleged friend take a polygraph. Her dad has a dodgy head but then that’s not punishable by law 😉

check the sequence on that koppenberg vid around 12′ what do you think?

Somebody’s actually been caught red handed and still the tinfoil hat brigade aren’t happy.

🙄

It’ll be interesting to see if she can make any kind of comeback (if she even tries) from this, or if she’ll be shunned to a greater degree than dopers.

Seems like the UCI have a simple, quick way to check for motors now, so hopefully this isn’t widespread like many are trying to make out to be. Just a one off I hope.

hofnar, thanks for the info, I’m currently on a work computer with all sorts of google and content limitations.

According to most reports it was a bike in the pits

agree, but which according to the always-reliable INRNG is irrelevant, from

http://inrng.com/2016/01/the-electric-shock/ the UCI rules are quoted as saying

“the presence, within or on the margins of a cycling competition”

so would include a bike in race pits or on top of team car even if not raced in anger.

and another 😀 for

So we’re trying to prove that the spinning bike with no credible evidence of cheating had a motor in it, and the bike that has been found with a motor in it didn’t really have a motor in it; am I up to speed?

Edit:

It’ll be interesting to see if she can make any kind of comeback (if she even tries) from this, or if she’ll be shunned to a greater degree than dopers.

and surely even less chance she did this without the complicity or involvement of her team* than pharma doping – even if you jet off to Spain on your own to have a motor fitted by a gynacologist-turned-electrical engineer the mechanics are going to find it the next time they work on the bike.

*whether team is her sponsored organised race team, or her close family/entourage.

And thanks for not spoiling the Elite Mens CX result in this thread, I’m avoiding 99% of social media so I can catch the highlights.

Well TF1 HD announced it was the bike she was racing on that had the motor in it. In an interview the girl gave me the impression she was rattling out pre-agreed excuses which were frankly laughable with a few tears – the body language said “liar”.

As for Cancellara and the “spinning back wheel that wasn’t” they were both presented as “suspicious”. The videos of Cancellara’s hand movements were highlighted in a vid. A full-size vid (big HD TV on a fibre connection) of the “spinning wheel incident” confirmed to my satisfaction that the rear wheel had stopped before the bike moved off again – it was firmly in contact with the ground as the bike slid to a halt.

i can get the lure of 250 watts on tap for 30 mins and being very useful in a cyclocross race where you can swap bikes, but the noise of it all !! 😯 Wouldn’t you notice someones bike sounding like a power drill 😕

check the sequence on that koppenberg vid around 12′ what do you think?

Lost a gear, but lost almost no momentum, and regained speed very easily…..

I’m not so sure it would sound like a drill as its not spinning at such RPM figures to create that Vvvvrrrrmm Vvvvrmmm sound that drils make,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Ahem…..

My chainline has a kind of sound to it especially when covered in mud, The womens race yesterday was quite muddy.
But who knows? maybe some riders have flagged up a noise?

They knew which bike to go for, Klunk. I suspect someone did hear it and/or comment on her superhuman performance.

Helen Wyman has done a power output breakdown of the course: – http://www.helenwyman.com/2016/01/preview-of-2016-cyclocross-worlds-course/

Shows that a few watts extra here or there would come in handy. There’s even a lap with data overlay. Apart from feeling slightly sick at the thought of how hard they ride and the fact that one woman would be riding on the limit to get that profile and another would have a helping motor, the data from CX racing is pretty awesome.

Rumour has it, that it was the extension lead trailing across from the charging post that gave it away. Initially the UCI, thought it was a new Nissan Leaf

i can get the lure of 250 watts on tap for 30 mins and being very useful in a cyclocross race where you can swap bikes, but the noise of it all !! Wouldn’t you notice someones bike sounding like a power drill

From the gearing on that Vivax I’d assume the motors are being used at high torque, low rpm so wouldn’t get that high rev whirring, and at a Belgian CX race you can’t hear much over the crowds.

Wyman releasing her power data of that course (courtesy of new sponsor Stages) now seems somewhat prescient!

i guess so the czech rider didn’t hear the bell after all 🙂 but even so when under load electric motors can really “whine” even though they are not at high revs.

the data from CX racing is pretty awesome.

thanks for posting, always interesting to read that sort of stuff.

all i know looking at the data is cyclo cross racing is not for me, I like to ease into my riding 😀

That koppenburg vid is pretty damning in itself! Her body language doesn’t show much effort!

womens moto-e-cross it’s the future. vroom vroom.

Well it takes heat off doping with drugs for a while 😆

Trolling Lance Armstrong with a link to the grit.cx page on this incident. 😀

Are you looking at this vid?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynLMfzLTc8M

so pause it at 10s – how big is the rear hub?

now watch carefully from when he unclips to where the pedal goes out of shot, how much does the crank turn? If you can see whether the rear wheel is turning I’m sure you can manage that to the nearest 10 degrees.

Sorry, but you’re talking bollocks, no matter how big a TV screen you have there’s not enough definition in that video to tell that the wheel has stopped (or that it is still moving) at any point – though actually you can see where the front wheel stops turning as you see the spokes in a way you never see with the rear wheel…

Can we just go back to the case where they’ve found a motor in the bike (unlike Hesjedal’s where they checked it and there wasn’t)?

It’s a shame the motorbike ran over it,,,,,, that’s all I’m saying, anyhoo moving on in some respects there’s now loads of people who know about CX racing who knew nothing of it the other day.

And where might some one find one of these ere motors? Say frinstance I required one, for training purposes?

I’m kidding, I’m kidding I’ll stick to doping, that way I won’t be regarded as an out and out cheat,

Klunk – Member
womens moto-e-cross it’s the future. vroom vroom.

Well bless they do need all the help they can get 😉

Oh eck, Incommung…..

At the time that everyone was obsessing about the Hesjedal video, I did not believe motor-doping was likely to be a major thing, because of the total impossibility of talking your way out of it if caught. I wrote:

Imagine a commissaire weighing a normal looking racebike with the weight of a battery and an engine in it.

“your bike has an engine in it” he says

“It must have been some over the counter hay fever medication that I bought in a Spanish pharmacy” the rider replies “I didn’t realise the bike had an engine.”

You see how insane that would be..?

Now, we have the young Belgian woman explaining how a motor must have ended up in her bike on raceday:

“That bike belongs to a friend of mine,” she said. “He trains along with us. He joined my brothers and my father. That friend joined my brother at the reconnaissance and he placed the bike against the truck but it’s identical to mine. Last year he bought it from me. My mechanics have cleaned the bike and put it in the truck. They must’ve thought that it was my bike. I don’t know how it happened.”

This is “the dog ate my homework” level stuff. I continue to think that anyone with half a brain will work out that the complete absence of plausible deniability if you’re caught means that it is vastly riskier than blood-doping, and most will decide it just isn’t worth the risk.

🙂

The real issue I have with the excuse of a bike mixup is that surely she would have known the bike she was riding was not hers and had some form of assistance – she isnt an amateur and will have a good enough familiarity with her fitness levels and how the bike rides to tell straight away.

Plus I doubt the electrically assisted bike would have been a total secret to her and the team even if it was a supposed mixup – it isnt an off the shelf setup after all.

This is deliberate cheating and realistically either the whole team or portions of it are involved too.

Thankfully this hasnt been found in a race like the tdf and exposed, if that happens the big tours may as well cease to exist as competitive road cycling would be rightfully labelled as a complete sham.

. I want the friend do do a polygraph though

Polygraphs are about as scientific as rear wheel hub motors and chiropractors…bollocks but they have their defenders.

The idea a pro would hop on a bike and not be able to tell its a different bike just from the wear on the paint etc is bloody ridiculous!

just from the wear on the paint etc is bloody ridiculous!

Have you watched cyclocross?

Also it’s not clear that she actually rode it

Also Also it does look like a very elaborate set up: my friend bought my bike from me a year ago, rode the course this morning with my brother, left it muddy next to our team van and one of our mechanics used it by mistake

Depending on the team set up, the mechanics could have between 5 and possibly 40 or more bikes to deal with. It’s only the riders right at the top of the game who have their own personal mechanics.

And a lot of pros are bloody useless with bikes. They just ride them, instead of focusing on the details. And

Also it’s not clear that she actually rode it

This part is very strange and I’m surprised that the reports aren’t clearer.
Some reports say that it was used for the first lap, others that she was riding it when she had the mechanical and some say it was just in the pits unridden.
I’m thinking that many of the reports saw that she withdrew with a mechanical and put 2+2 together to equal 5

you must be a bloody liability when out and about then. Completely unaware of anything that’s going on around you.

And solar or dynamo charging? You are on crack. Definitely.

So the friend rode on Friday with her and then his/her bike dissapeared and they didn’t worry about it overnight ? if my team bike had gone walkies I would be asking around as to where it was !

I think Cookson said it was the bike she had been riding, so I think her career is fairly over – shame 😆

As to the team, personally think if someone is found cheating (chemical or mechanically) the whole team (rider included even if they change teams) should be banned from that event for the next x years (personally I would say 2, except for the olympics which would just be the next olympics) as this would make the teams and the riders start putting pressure on everyone to ensure they are straight.
I know this will be harsh on the clean riders, but it stops them from turning a blind eye.

I would do it in all sports – so looks like America and Jamaica would struggle to have sprint teams in the Olympics

So, has the ‘friend’ turned up to corroborate her story yet?

And this morning we all wake up to the outpour of News feeds on this topic, whilst She is probably in hiding somewhere outside of Belgium.
It’ll be a good many years before she’ll be able to walk the streets head held high, damn near impossible to return to CX or possibly Any form of cycle sport. For a young kid, CX racings all shes know and been brought up with, trained for and devoted her life too. It’s going to be one hell of a shock when she does pluck up the courage to sling a leg back over a bike.

Whilst we all know the gossip from “Corduroy Cooky” lets face it, no evidence at all yet, just his word, a few words in a press conference and a whole internet full of innuendo and derision with Youtube vids taken at odd angles on the Kopp’ and speculation abound, and pointy finger wags with Guilty slapped all over them.

Until the evidence is shown and proven, I remain on the fence.

I really wish her the best, I hope she stays stable and focused and has the support she needs around her.

C’mon UCI, Prove the allegation(s)

it would be nice to see a press conference with the evidence – shouldn’t be to difficult to do

Seems like the UCI have a simple, quick way to check for motors now, so hopefully this isn’t widespread like many are trying to make out to be. Just a one off I hope.

ISTR they were having a good look at the bikes in last year’s TdF – putting cameras down the seat tube of Chris Froome’s bike for instance. It’s difficult to see how mechanical doping could evade that sort of inspection.

Has she denied there was a motor in the tested frame? I thought that was already incontrovertible. It’s therefore reasonable that all the circumstances are investigated before any further statements are made.

Do you seriously think they don’t have any evidence and haven’t found a motor? Presumably you think the most important thing to do at this point is a press conference presenting the evidence to silence doubters like you?