Video: UCI carry out more mechanical doping checks

UCI commissaries were out checking bikes for hidden motors this weekend at Omloop Het NIeuwsblad in Belgium, reportedly scrutinising dozens of bikes from competitors in both the men’s and women’s editions of the Belgian race that kicks off the cobbled Classics season.

This video from Dutch UCI WorldTour team LottoNL-Jumbo shows how a commissaire, using a tablet computer linked to a bespoke app developed or the governing body, scans a bike.

As we reported last week, the Belgian cycling federation had been planning to invest up to €50,000 in its own scanning technology, but it seems the UCI will be carrying out random checks at races throughout 2016.

Philippe Marien of the UCI told the newspaper Het Nieuwsblad: ”With an iPad we can measure the cycling of magnetic waves. We use it on a scale of 1 to 10.

“At the lowest end of the scale, there is nothing to worry about.

“As soon as a 10 is registered, there is something wrong, so a further check is carried out and the bike taken apart,” he added.

He said the UCI is keen to push the technology further and is in discussions with companies developing more advanced ways of combating technological fraud.

Rumours of riders cheating by using concealed motors in their frames had been around for several years, but the discovery of one hidden inside a bike prepped for Belgian under-23 rider Femke Van den Driessche at the recent UCI World Cyclo-Cross Championships is the first time one has been found in competition.