Originally Posted by
andr0id
For it to be cheating? Absolutely not.
This is not a "did she use it or not?" thing.
It is completely against UCI rules to even be in possession of a motorized bike at a race.
Adding: This is no different than having a corked up baseball bat. It doesn't matter if you hit a home run with it or not. You're cheating if you bring it to the game with you.
If it was functional, then I would consider it the same as being used.
If it was not functional, then I would not consider it cheating, just dead weight she was carrying around with her in a did-not-finish race.
One should, of course, try to figure out if that bike was used in other races that she did actually finish in.
As far as the corked bat analogy. If the batter leaves the bat in the rack and never swings it at a ball, then it is hard to call it cheating. And, I could care less which bat he warms up with, or practices with.