And so it begins…? "mechanical doping" first?

They would be ideal for motor pacing in a team.
Motor pacing with a moped/m-bike is illegal in most of Europe. Getting an e-bike with enough grunt then modifying it to exceed the speed/power limits is expensive, then puts you back into the illegality of motor pacing with a moped.

Stick a couple of these in last year’s team bikes and take it in turns to be the pacer. Couple of lads doing big turns at ~300W plus the 200/250 of the vivax/gruber thing gives you a 500W pacer bike that the police will ignore, you don’t need a licence to ride it either.

Just have to be careful not to get it in the back of the team bus by mistake.

aracer, calling me out as irrational and convicted (by you) conspiracy theorist is irrational.

But you carry on filling the Internet up with your theories, conspiracy or not.

🙄

Chris Boardman from as far back as 03 Jun 2010

“I sat at a meeting with the UCI last year and drew on the blackboard exactly how this might work. I showed them how some the sophisticated boosting technology now available, mainly from F1 teams, that can get a kilowatt out of a single AAA battery.

“And don’t forget electrically operated gears are legal these days so there is already a power source on many bikes. I think it would be fair to say there was a stunned silence after I said my piece.”

“It would be very little trouble adapting a power source to give you maybe a couple of hundred watts for 20 minutes or so, which would basically gives you 40 per cent more power through the pedals in a time trial say.

“You could reduce that power and spread it over a longer period of time or go for one “hit”.

“Its potential is obvious. You could use it when you are trying to establish a break or on the crux of the last climb of the day or maybe in the latter stages of a long time-trial. “

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/7801538/Chris-Boardman-I-warned-UCI-officials-about-possibility-of-bike-doping-a-year-ago.html

I have seen opinions elsewhere that say cheating could be integrated with electronic gear changes or via radio from the team car etc so no direct rider involvement would occur.

It would be very little trouble adapting a power source to give you maybe a couple of hundred watts for 20 minutes or so

be an interest development if the UCI said no batteries at all on competition bikes.

via radio from the team car etc so no direct rider involvement would occur.

Although setting the bluetooth id of the devices to “Chris Froome’s Motor” or “Cav’s Sprint Booster” would be a bit of a give away 🙂

Just to be clear, does anyone know if its 30.9mm or 31.6mm compatible?

I think this is a very important point to remember, even if it turns out she was deliberately cheating, we need to remember that she won;t have done so in isolation,

Yep, I have a bit of sympathy for her not realising how big a thing this is. In some ways if it had been a bit of EPO it would have gone unnoticed by nearly everyone but now she is really in the world’s spotlight.

that can get a kilowatt out of a single AAA battery

Only for 5 seconds. The point is well made though, we already have power sources on a bike that could give us, for example, 10W for 500seconds

kilowatt out of a single AAA battery

Well, yeah. For like, a split-second.

EDIT – bah.

be an interest development if the UCI said no batteries at all on competition bikes

Well they’ve already said no motors on bikes, but…

wwaswas – Member
via radio from the team car etc so no direct rider involvement would occur.

Although setting the bluetooth id of the devices to “Chris Froome’s Motor” or “Cav’s Sprint Booster” would be a bit of a give away

That’s me off to get a rucksack full of cheap mobile phones to wander around the pits at the next race with! 😆

Kilowatt out of one AAA, is this another one of those “6 bar in a tubular” statements? Possibly true but almost certainly not happening in the real world.

(I reckon an AAA would either melt or explode if you tried dragging 1 kW out of it)

from F1 teams, that can get a kilowatt out of a single AAA battery.

? a primary li-ion AAA has a nominal capacity of 350 mAh @ 3.6V. That’s 1.26 Wh for an hour. IF they could extract that energy at a rate of kW’s, it would be for seconds…

Wouldn’t it just be easier to have a standard battery.
You can either have 500W for one minute or 100W for 5. Thats the total energy available in this standard free issue battery we’ve decided to use.

I think there has been rumours regarding this for some time, Thats why i think when Hesjedal went down Some folk “ME Included” wanted to believe or at least try and fathom why the bike responded the way it did.

If we or “Me” are thinking this try and imagine giving it your all, at the top of your game and coming up short, you would start to ask yourself serious questions, its only natural that you would include others in your calculations, maybe’s become what if’s become why? then you start looking for things in others and who knows what you begin to see.

There are a whole host of reason to do it, reasons not to. Methods to determine how and when the power comes on tap. I think that any one who has used it or are contemplating it might just think twice now.

New Scrutineering added for 2016

The theory that when the UCI say there’s a motor in the bike that means there’s a motor in the bike, or some other theory? Or is that just a wild ad hom?

Theories are fine, just expect to get called out on them if they involve disbelieving the accepted authority on something until they provide you with evidence.

Keep going…

More on grit.cx: here

It’s LA-denying deja vu all over again. When the WADA report came out people demanded to see the evidence ie. the test results, of which there were none, it was all sworn depositions from other riders, soigneurs etc. Criminal courts work to a higher burden of proof than any other and people can be convicted on witness testimony without any physical evidence.

In this case the UCI president has said there’s a motor in one of her bikes. The ACCUSED RIDER has offered a long winded explanation as to how it got into her pit. She hasn’t denied there is a motor, she hasn’t demanded that the UCI produce the evidence, she’s offered an explanation as a defence.

CPS barrister: “you’re accused of stabbing this man to death”.

defendant: “it was an accident, I only tried to scare him with it and he slipped and fell on it”.

Bikebouy on the Jury: “I DON’T BELIEVE IT HAPPENED I HAVEN’T SEEN THE KNIFE!”.

There is nothing rational about your stance, Bikebouy, it flies in the face of all the information we do so far have. There is sceptical and there is just being contrary.

I DO agree that it is extremely unlikely she did this alone, or was even responsible for orchestrating it, and shouldn’t be the only person receiving punishment, but whilst she maintains her current stance she’s not assisting the wider investigation.

When asked if this could spell the end of her young career Van den Driessche said, “yes, I think so.”

Van den Driessche offered up a potential reason for the bike’s presence, saying that it was owned by someone she’d been training with. “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.”

Quoted from Cycling News.

She was flanked by her Father who, it’s said, is someone not to cross. Theres a good piece on Road.cc about “pushy parents”

Linky

She’s 19, theres a lot more to this story than just a kid using/potentially using a bike with a motor in it.

I feel sorry for her.

I feel sorry for her.

me too

she cheated, though

And double entente of the week goes to Liam Kileen, who when asked about the story said:
“I’d question the whole team because I don’t think an under-23 lady would have the means to put a motor into her bottom bracket.”

If this was cluedo my money would be on the father, behind the team bus with a torque wrench. Have to agree it’s not something she could have done herself, but it sounds like she comes from a win at all costs family and the pressure might have been too much. Can’t see it being the national team, Prosbly not the trade team either if she has a specific mechanic

She’s old enough to vote, get married, have children, join the army. She’s old enough to know not to stick a motor in the BB and then lie about it afterwards.

I just watched a clip of her riding in some race, (i dont know anything about cyclocross) why do they change the bikes on a lap when the tires are only slightly muddy seems a bit unnecessary?

Also even before her alleged “motor assisted” cheating, i’d ban her for her terrible cornering first!

She’s 19, theres a lot more to this story than just a kid using/potentially using a bike with a motor in it.

Yep. The speed with which her coach dropped her wasn’t very seemly either. I’m guessing there is a bigger story going on somewhere

Did he have a bigger motor?

Oooooooo….I wonder if one of those would fit in the bottom of my lefty fork, custom axle made up….front wheel drive, that’ll confuse the scrutineers!

Getting power out of any battery is fundamentally limited by the internal resistance of the battery. Its then down to Ohm’s law if you short the battery ie P=V squared/R. To get maximum power transfer into a load, the resistance of the load (ie the motor) needs to be the same as the internal resistance of the battery. Typically dry cells like alkaline AAAs have a much higher internal resistance than a lead acid car battery which can deliver a lot of power in a short burst. In practice you would struggle to get 10W from a 1.5V alkaline cell and it would get very hot.

She’s in the clear.

The motor-bike owner has come forward

Belgian man says he owns bike with motor seized at World Champs

He was probably just delivering lunch 😆

Ah, glad that’s all sorted out then. Makes perfect sense.

Can you say “fall guy”?

Presumable him and her aren’t exactly the same size and shape, so they would have totally different bike setups (if it’s not her bike)

Should be a fairly easy thing to compare.

But if her mechanics grabbed it to “prep” then they might have set it up the same as hers?

you’d think he would have noticed his bike was missing before tonight 😕

But if her mechanics grabbed it to “prep” then they might have set it up the same as hers?

And he’d not changed any parts for his preferred items since he’s owned it. Saddle preference is fairly unique in serious cyclists, especially between male and female riders.

It’s a bit of a stretch to think that the only thing he did to the bike while he owned it is fit a few thousand quids worth of electric motor, and left everything else exactly the same.

Well that’s cleared that up then.

Although why a retired cyclist/chip shop owner should design and build himself a hidden motor in a cyclocross bike and then leave it in the pits, God only knows. What a strange world professional cycling is at times. 😕

And he’d not changed any parts for his preferred items since he’s owned it. Saddle preference is fairly unique in serious cyclists, especially between male and female riders.
It’s a bit of a stretch to think that the only thing he did to the bike while he owned it is fit a few thousand quids worth of electric motor, and left everything else exactly the same.[/quote]Look – we’re already in the realms of the implausible. We might as well keep stretching 🙂

Plausible deniability innit? Maybe not by most definitions of ‘plausible’. It’s up to the UCI to define how they’re going to act.

As a cyclist and a fan of the pro sport, I hope they set an example*.

*Unless we hear of a more plausible reason for her to have a bike with a motor in her pits.

EDIT: I’m about 4 posts too late. Never mind.

Can you say “fall guy”?

Now Lee Majors is implicated?!?!

This whole thing is getting more complicated every day… By Friday I fully expect to discover that there wasn’t even actually a Race at all, and the UCI falsified the whole event as part of some elaborate scheme to blackmail their way into free chips for life…

Well, this is awkward…..

(Yes, I know it’s an aftermarket fit, but still! 🙂 )

That has to be a spoof surely….