The cycling world has been receiving a lot of attention as of late in regards to what is referred to as “mechanical doping”.  This term describes the use of a motor-assisted bicycle that allows the rider to pedal further and faster without expending nearly as much energy.  It has gotten to the point where podium spots have been rescinded from select cyclists; with the most recent being 19-year old Belgian rider Femke Van den Driessche.  The UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale), the group that regulates competitive cycling, found Femke guilty of committing “technological fraud” in the UCI Cyclocross World Championship held in January 2016.  She has now been banned from riding competitively for six years, had to return all of her medals from October 2015 to the present, and was also charged a fine of 20,000 Swiss francs (about $20,700 USD).

The UCI has had blood-related doping issues in the past.  You may remember Lance Armstrong admitting to it back in 2013; stating that he had been doing it for years; giving him an unfair advantage as well as allowing him to collect millions of dollars in prize money and sponsorship.  Blood doping is when a cyclist uses various methods of increasing his/her red blood cell count, allowing more oxygen flow to muscle groups, resulting in increased endurance.  This is not to be confused with mechanical doping, which uses technological innovations to increase a cyclist’s endurance.

Let’s be real here, though; what is being called “doping” is just plain cheating.

Mechanical doping is not a new concept; different methods have been used to achieve this in the past.  In fact; devices such as the Vivax Assist are available to the general population to assist bikers in their day-to-day activity.  For example, an uphill ride would be made much easier for a biker with some extra motor-assisted motion.  The difference now, and why it’s becoming more of a problem, is that technology allows for nearly undetectable motors and batteries to be hidden in a bike; or for electromagnetic wheels to be fitted.  Usually, the motor/battery combination is hidden inside of the seat tube and connects to the pedals by use of a shaft.  Certain groups caught onto this and started using Infrared cameras to look for heat signatures coming from cyclists’ bikes near the bottom bracket.  This was able to detect the motors, albeit difficult.  Then, new designs came out that utilize electromagnetic forces coming from within the carbon fiber rear wheels, which are much harder to detect during a race and in inspection.  There haven’t been any cases of these being detected in professional events yet; but sources say that they are, in fact, being used.  The UCI has beefed up on inspecting bicycles prior to a race, but bikes using doping methods are still extremely hard to detect.  The UCI has said that they now have a much more efficient magnetic resonance testing method that can detect doped bikes and that they’re putting it to good use to prevent any potential cheating that is occurring.

The motors in the bikes are usually Bluetooth activated; and some have suspected bikers of activating them with their phones or hidden switches in the handlebars.  There is actually suspected video evidence of this kind of thing occurring.  There are also videos of bikers falling off their bikes while the pedals/wheel continues to spin without slowing, such as this one from 2014:

The sports world has always faced problems with detecting cheating such as steroid use and oxygen enhancing methods.  Cheating with devices also isn’t a new concept; weighted bats and deflated balls have been used for decades in sports.  The problem now is that materials science and mechanical capabilities have grown to a point where athletes can use almost undetectable forms of getting ahead of the competition.  And it isn’t just to win medals or podium spots; a big win brings in sponsorships and prize money, often in large sums, depriving more deserving athletes that don’t resort to cheating from their chance in the spotlight.  Cheating also isn’t cheap, some of the electromagnetic devices used to mechanical dope have been claimed to be upwards of $200,000.  This means that the cyclists’ using these would likely be racing for teams with a lot of money to begin with, bringing to question, who is paying for this to be done?

Image from UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale)