Is 'technological fraud' a real threat at the Tour de France?
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How serious is the threat of “technological fraud” in the Tour de France? And what is the UCI doing to try to keep the genie in the bottle?
Velo queried several Tour riders and team officials across the peloton as well as spoke to the UCI officials in charge of the controls.
Also read: The UCI claims it controlled 700 bikes during the Tour de France
The UCI conducts dozens of daily X-rays and scans across the peloton every day.
“To be honest, I am in the bunch, and I don’t think it’s happening,” Caleb Ewan told Velo before he left the Tour. “It’s true, the guys are flying, but it’s down to bikes are faster, knowledge and training improves, and it’s normal that the sport evolves every year, everyone gets better and better. It’s human evolution.”
An official from the UCI scans a bike at the Tour de France. (Photo: MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images)
Following UCI protocols, bikes are X-rayed every day from the yellow jersey, along with the bikes of all the stage-winners, jersey-holders, and other random riders.
The UCI expressed confidence its controls are sending out the right message.
“I think it’s very difficult,” UCI’s Michael Rogers, who heads up the UCI’s efforts to combat technological fraud, told Velo. “We also need to think of the other side. It’s an extreme risk, and the risk/benefit ratio is out of whack, but we need to stay present.”
Staying present — that’s what the UCI insists it’s doing with its staff of three or four officials who ply the peloton every day.
They scan dozens of bikes each morning with a hand-held device that can detect magnets. Another mobile, hand-held X-ray device was introduced this year to complement the UCI’s finish-line X-ray system.
They’re looking for motors, batteries, cables, or any large, dense mass that otherwise is not part of a modern-day carbon-fiber bike build.
So far in the 2023 Tour, there’s been no evidence of technological fraud in the peloton. In fact, there’s never been since the UCI rolled out its high-profile X-ray program nearly five years ago.
There have been hints of hidden motors for years, however, with rumors of major one-day monuments and even grand tour performances clouded in suspicion. YouTube is full of videos describing how they can be used.
Oddly spinning wheels, random wheel changes, and sudden accelerations following strange hand movements on handlebars were tell tale signs, but nothing was ever rooted out.
In 2016, a Belgian rider was caught with a motor-assisted bike during a cyclocross race. There were rumors of a rider using a motor-assisted bike last year in one of Italy’s top gran fondos.
Sensing the sport’s credibility was in question, the UCI’s redoubled its efforts to stop would-be cheats. The cycling governing began using a thermal-heat sensor and then rolled out a mobile X-ray facility.
With the improved technology of electric bikes, however, many insist the technology already exists to hide and mask motors in today’s racing bikes that are already laden with batteries for electronic shifting.
But would someone dare use it in the Tour de France?
“In the pro ranks, I would be surprised. I don’t think it’s a real issue,” Ag2r-Citroën’s Oliver Naesen told Velo. “Every day in the race communiqué we see the bikes that are scanned, and they all come back negative. I have never read anything of anybody having any anything illegal on the bike.
“On this bike, there is a big battery in the seat post for the derailleurs. There is electricity in the shifters for the derailleurs, but motors and engines? Not as far as I know of.”
“Personally I don’t think it’s happening. I am an optimist. It’s the same with doping, I think the sport’s quite clean,” Israel-Premier Tech’s Michael Woods told Velo. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened in the past, but for it to be happening today, I don’t know.
“I won the other day [Puy de Dôme] and I didn’t have a motor in my bike,” Woods said. “The fans and the pundits are going to speculate, but that’s part of sport.”
Could someone use some sort of motorized assistance, not to necessarily go faster, but to ride easier across the stage to stay fresh for a key acceleration?
Or what about swapping out bikes during a stage, and riding a “clean” bike to the line where the X-ray crews are waiting?
Rogers insisted the UCI is keeping a sharp eye on the bikes raced on during each stage at the Tour.
Rogers told Velo that the team of UCI officials working the Tour this month are especially vigilant for any sort of suspicious performances, oddly timed bike changes, and frequent changes of wheels or other equipment.
“It’s quite a broad program. We have people tagging bikes after the race for X-rays,” Rogers told Velo. “We work closely with VAR [ed – instant replay], with watching video for suspicious kind of activity, bike changes, wheels changes, and we’ll keep track of those.”
Bikes can also be dismantled in what would be the ultimate control.
In the 2020 Tour, Jumbo-Visma’s top sport director was kicked out of the race after arguing with a UCI technician who insisted on taking apart Primož Roglič’s bike atop the Col de la Loze stage.
There was no motorized assistance found, but team officials were enraged after they said the UCI technician damaged the crankset.
The UCI started to X-ray bikes at the finish lines a half-decade ago, shown here scanning bikes in 2016. (Photo: Tim de Waele/Corbis via Getty Images)
Some pros believe that the UCI’s controls should be doing more.
Benoît Cosnefroy of Ag2r-Citroën told journalist James Startt that he doesn’t think the UCI controls are enough.
“I don’t know if there is any mechanical doping, but it’s possible in my opinion, and for me it’s a real problem because there is not a real fight against this,” Cosnefroy said. “It’s a question of credibility for our sport. It’s not like doping, where it is in your system and they can keep a flask and test it again some time in the future.
“With mechanical doping, there is no trace of it,” he said. “The bike is taken away and if something is wrong, there is no possible trace of it. For me the UCI is not doing enough.”
Rogers of the UCI insists the cycling federation is staying on top of the game.
“It’s important that we stay present and we keep up with technology,” Rogers told Velo. “We keep current, and we make sure we protect the integrity of the sport. The public are asking that, and there have been a lot of rumors in the past.
“We have to protect the riders by saying we check these things, and to send a message to the general public that the results are of full integrity.”
And what would happen if a stage winner at the Tour would be caught with a motor inside their bike?
“That would be really shocking, to be honest,” Naesen said. “They would go to prison.”
Source: Outside Magazine
