Igualmente

This has the rider's explanation, whatever one thinks of it:

Cookson confirms 'technological fraud' at cyclocross worlds - VeloNews.com

andr0id

That's the lamest ass excuse ever.
Her "friend" had the EXACT same fit as her?
Because any pro would notice the fit of a bike is not right the instant she sat on it.

seymour1910

Quoted from the article;
“It wasn’t my bike, it was that of a friend and was identical to mine,” a tearful Van den Driessche told Belgian TV channel Sporza. “This friend went around the course Saturday before dropping off the bike in the truck. A mechanic, thinking it was my bike, cleaned it and prepared it for my race,” she added, insisting that she was “totally unaware” it was fitted with a hidden motor.

“I feel really terrible. I’m aware I have a big problem. [But] I have no fears of an inquiry into this. I have done nothing wrong,” she said.


The section in bold is exactly what a well known, disgraced American cyclist once said.

79pmooney

My take? The mechanic should be included in the punishment with both fine and suspension. He knows or has the easy means to find out.

Ben

bakes1

Cheating has little to do with gender.
It is quite simply a lack of character and in this case also a lack of ability.
Blame it on the dad or the brother or gender equality or whatever floats your boat but in a case like this there are always options and choices.
This pos rider made bad ones.

seymour1910

Plain and simple.

Doge

I would agree with that, but we don't give the same benefits to those found with dope.

rm -rf

Ha, her "friend" with the custom, stealth motor. And the same saddle and same fit.

Well, she says the friend bought her previous year bike. So it might match. But didn't the friend go "Hey, where's my bike? I left it leaning against the support van!"

I can see why someone that wants to ride with faster riders would use a motor assist. That would be fun. But it wouldn't be a stealth install.

I can even sortof understand how a racer would rationalize a motor assist. "I'll only use it until I get over this nagging injury." "I keep getting dropped, but this will help until I get faster." But I don't get "This will get me the world championship. Nobody will ever know." And they can't use the doping excuse "I just know that everybody else is doing it."

Doge

Why wouldn't be a stealth install? People don't even accurately report their training, eating or equipment - or how they got that Strava number.
It is the job of the competition authority to catch these things and looks like they did their job. Trusting that pro athletes will not try winning by doing something unethical has not proven effective. But again, I put the burden on the authorities, not the competitors. Competitors break rules to win.

CliffordK

Good coments on technology

From the first article: 'Technological fraud' discovered at Zolder cyclocross worlds - VeloNews.com
So, what they don't mention finding is a BATTERY. So, without the battery, the motor, wires, & etc would be extra weight, and extra friction, and should be a HANDICAP. Was this bike designed for a saddlebag battery? Water bottle battery?

One could probably shove quite a few batteries into the downtube, but so far there has been no mention of finding any batteries on the bike.

As far as activation, one might be able to activate a motor based on incline or based on wattage. So, say one is putting out 400+ watts, then give an additional 50 watt boost until the power drops below 200 watts. Or, hit a 15% climb, and add a bit of extra climbing boost (or some programmed combination of conditions).

I could see big benefits in road racing. For riding in a pack, one could actually recharge the batteries, then give a boost for hills and sprinting. Then recharge again when riding on the level in the pack, or returning downhill. The ultimate "hybrid".

Anyway, for this case, if they can't prove the assist was functional, or that it actually had the battery pack used in any race, then my guess is that it will all eventually blow over. But, perhaps the entire team will fall under additional scrutiny.

I could imagine the benefits of power assist for mixed gender training, or possibly even levelling out the field between top tier and second tier athletes on a team (although one does need to stress for the lower tier athletes to get better, but it might also aid the top tier athletes to have a challenge competing against second tier athletes using power).

mapeiboy

She got caught and now is blaming her friend and the mechanic . Life lesson - take the responsibility / punishment and move on .

exmechanic89

I wasnt implying the cheating had anything to do with gender, not sure if it came across that way. What I was saying is that it's a shame there's such a devide between men's and women's pay, that it's unfortunate women riders have to do their sport for little to no pay while men's teams are compensated. And I agree, cheating is a bad idea no matter what.

Boy it makes you wonder if this type of cheating is gonna become prevelant in the sport, the UCI seemed to impy in the article that they've been expecting just such a thing.

CliffordK

They can probably snag it pretty easily with some kind of induction loop, similar to a red light sensor. But, it may just be another check added to the pre-race, post-race, and podium checks. Even some kind of charge/discharge hybrid could be of a benefit to some riders.

I really wonder if Femke van den Driessche was carrying a battery, in which case, this would just be a lot of smoke. She also apparently didn't finish the race due to mechanical problems, so it would be hard to go against her for cheating on this one race.

I've wondered a bit about ultra-racing. There might be reason to approach generator charging systems with suspicion. It wouldn't take much to reverse the power. It probably wouldn't make a big difference if one is riding 365 days in a row on a single charge, but it could make a difference if one had both grid power charging plus supposedly pedal power charging.

CliffordK

Stealth power technology is a bit odd. I can see benefits of compact equipment using standard components, but there still would be little need for stealth. As mentioned, there may be a few reasons to use power in training, to either help the weaker riders keep up, or perhaps make the weaker riders more challenging to the stronger riders to help the stronger riders.

But, if this was truly an accident, and the bike had no batteries and the boost wasn't used, then it may be a sign that the teams need to simply mark the powered bikes. Use special colors, or mark POWER in big letters on the frame.

Also hire competent mechanics that can recognise which bike is which. I can imagine one mechanic that may be looking for a job (and the rider didn't know???)

Leinster

More a factor of the difference between the audience for women's events and men's. It would equalise things a lot if they'd copy the tennis calendar and have women's events run concurrently with the men's, but then you have laughable situations like the Eurosport commentators, sitting at the finish of the Tour of Flanders, telling their audience that Longo-Borghini was winning, meanwhile only showing live pictures of Sky riding tempo on the front of the men's peloton with 80km to go.

CliffordK

I'm not much of a sport spectator person, but I must admit that I'd rather watch young beautiful women in a sport than watching a bunch of men riding their bikes in circles wearing just their undies.

But, so much of sports is about being the strongest and fastest. And, while quite a few women could ride me into the ground, not too many are on the par of the top tier Professional men.

Perhaps the exceptions would be sports where small and light prevail such as jockeys, or sports like figure skating were the men still are strong, but the women are very showy.

And, of course, sports may be about sales as much as anything else. And, there may be a problem as long as men and women frequently choose different bikes and riding styles. The women racers aren't showing off step-through town bikes (not that it isn't bad to market race bikes to the other half of the population).

Doge

It is somewhat market driven although the women's prize money is much higher per cycling participant in amateurs women's than men in the USA and Internationally well women's racing hardly exists. Male cyclists are not paid as much as female tennis players or many women pro basketball players. For women cycling hardly anyone watches, and hardly any race - compared to males. Male cyclists who work as hard as the int soccer players (even USA soccer players), NFL players or NBA players are not paid as much.

exmechanic89

Yeah 'market driven' is probably exactly right, without a large audience the money just isnt there. I have huge respect for any pro level athlete - or amateur on their way there. The amount of work and sacrifice is enormous, and I think it's cool to see someone follow a true passion like that. Thus all the more reason I cant wrap my head around cheating. Glory is pretty hollow if you didnt achieve it fair and square..

CliffordK

Perhaps Glory is hollow, but it sure would be nice to declare oneself a 7 time (consecutive) TDF winner. And the money and fame is HUGE... until it all comes crashing down.

EventServices

It's entirely rubbish for her to claim that someone else put that bike in the pit area without her knowing.
This wasn't a small amateur team at a local race. This was a very experienced national team at the World Championship where every little detail is worked out beforehand.

There's a motor in your bike? There's no need to test your B sample. You and your mechanic are guilty. And cycling doesn't need you around.

My friend races collegiate 'cross, and she's anal about everything. She won't let anyone touch her bikes without first giving them specific instructions about how to handle it. For example: she'll specify which gear she wants it left in.


I would like to have been there to see the very hasty exit of many other bikes when they confiscated her bike. You could simply watch the people running with bikes in the direction of the parking lot and figure out which ones had motors.
There's no way this is an isolated incident.

seymour1910

I agree with this. I lol'd as I read it, but I do agree. I doubt it's isolated, and I doubt it's this riders first time having "her friend leave the bike in her pit". I started this thread after I got the story as breaking news on my phone. As I watch the video posted earlier in this thread of her crushing competitiors on that climb, I can only imagine if that bike was "clean". Had I seen that video before this story broke I would have thought she was just a beast.

jyl

The UCI regs impose strict liability on the rider and the team if their illegal bike is found in the race area, whether or not it is ridden, whether or not the motor was used, whether or not the rider can be proved to have had knowledge. Same as drug doping, the regs don't care if you knew you were ingesting the clenbuterol laden beef or the steroid added nutritional supplement, you are strictly liable for what goes in your body.

In cyclocross the riders change bikes every lap or two. They only need a few minutes of 200 watt boost to gain a lead that they can win the race with. The battery thus does not need to last an hour, just minutes. Such a battery could fit in a seat tube or down tube.

The rider's story about the friend who bought her old team bike, fitted it with a concealed motor, and left it by her bikes where her mechanics took it for one of hers and cleaned it for the race . . . pretty far fetched. The motor plus even a small battery weigh >1 kg, on a 6.8 kg bike that would be very noticeable. All of her bikes would be set up exactly identical, does this male friend have exactly that same fit adjustments down to the millimeter, the exact same bar tape, saddle, pedals, etc?. Where is this friend, where is the mechanic?

Igualmente

I think that for there to be workable enforcement it has to be a strict liability situation. If it isn't, I can imagine some ridiculous situation with a racer telling the inspectors "well, yeah, it's got a motor, but the battery wasn't recharged" or "but there's no battery". Then the inspectors would have to not just find a motor but have the technology to confirm that there is no battery, etc. And it goes from there.

Frankly, I'm surprised anyone would be doing this, much less a number of competitors as is being hypothesized here. I guess maybe no one knew the UCI had the tools to inspect?

Doctor Morbius

Although I admit that I can't read minds, I think she's lying her arse off.

Campag4life

Her situation is not unlike what happened to Lance. If Lance had not tried to come back and beat Contador, he would still be donning his 7 TdF wins. Greed ultimately took him down and long overdue.
What she did was simply beyond the pale. She elected to ride her race bike home when someone caught a picture on their cell of her keeping up on the interstate at 70 mph. She in fact was seen riding next to a guy on Harley. A big no no and a sure give away. Not sure there are any do overs for her but my guess is she won't do that again.