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Mechanical doping: Suspicions raised over Giro TT stage winner’s bike change

French TV voices concerns over shock winner Primoz Roglic’s bike switch

The French TV programme Stade 2, which has claimed that hidden motors are being used in the professional peloton, has raised suspicions about a bike change made by LottoNL-Jumbo’s Primoz Roglic shortly before he started – and won – the Stage 9 individual time trial at last month’s Giro d’Italia.

The Slovenian rider, 26, is a former junior world ski jumping champion and switched to cycling in 2012, joining LottoNL-Jumbo at the start of this season, finishing fifth overall at the Volta ao Algarve in February.

He was a surprise second to Giant-Alpecin’s Tom Dumoulin at the 9.8km Stage 1 time trial in Apeldoorn that opened the Giro d'Italia, and a week later won the longer, 40.5km Stage 9 in Tuscany’s Chianti Classico wine-growing area.

Hidden motors have been one of the hottest topics in professional cycling since one was found concealed in the bike of Belgian under-23 rider Femke Van Den Driessche at the cyclo-cross world championships in January.

That motor, on a spare bike that had been prepared for her, was found by UCI officials scanning for magnetic waves, although in April a Stade 2 report insisted that thermal imaging was better to discover concealed motors, and raised suspicions that several were in use in races in Italy in March including Strade Bianche.

> Hidden motors used at Strade Bianche, claims French TV

According to the France Televisions sports magazine show’s latest report, among the suspicious images was one of those was of a bike ridden by Roglic in the one-day race in Tuscany, as shown in this tweet,

The initial Stade 2 investigation was carried out in partnership with Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera and one of the Milan-based daily’s journalists, Marco Bonarrigo, appeared in last night’s report.

He said he had been present at the start of the Stage 9 time trial at the Giro d’Italia when a UCI official ruled just two minutes before he set off that the bike Roglic intended to use did not comply with regulations.

According to a post on Roglic’s website on the evening of the stage, the commissaire had told him his bike was “too long” – although as Bonarrigo notes in his own report, it seems “incredible” that such as situation would arise with one of the sport’s top teams.

He managed to find a replacement with just 20 seconds to spare before his start time, although as he wrote on his website, the saddle was too low, he had no water bottles and 10 kilometres into the stage, his Pioneer power meter flew off his handlebars.

Despite those setbacks, the LottoNL-Jumbo rider won by 10 seconds from IAM Cycling’s Matthias Brandle.

While it was a surprise victory – the longest individual time trial the 26-year-old had previously ridden was just 10km – he was helped by a start time that meant he rode mainly in the dry, while those who set out on the course later were hampered by heavy rain.

Among the other riders to race in the dry, however, was the favourite for the stage – former world champion Fabian Cancellara of Trek-Segafredo, who was fourth, 28 seconds down on Roglic.

It’s unclear whether bikes were scanned for concealed motors on that particular day, although as Stade 2 notes, with no such control at the end, a bike switch immediately prior to setting off could be one way of evading the commissaires.

Stade 2, which last week claimed UCI technical manager Mark Barfield had tipped off electric assist road bike manfacturer Typhoon to a police operation on last year's Tour de France against mechanical doping,  said it had contacted LottoNL-Jumbo for a comment but had received no reply.

> UCI tech chief tipped off bike firm on police op

> Mechanical doping - all you need to know

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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19 comments

Avatar
fukawitribe | 7 years ago
0 likes

LottoNL-Jumbo have been explaining things, and asking for an apology from Strade2 (can't blame them really)...

 

http://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/179306/lottonl-jumbo-eist-rectificatie-...

 

The wheel in question was apparently from Neutral Service..

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eneije | 7 years ago
0 likes

Mabe this has already been posted but the bike in front, side of the car, also has a hot (red) cassette?  Coincidence? 

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DaveE128 | 7 years ago
0 likes

I'm not at all convinced about these accusations, but neither would I be surprised if they turned out to be true.

The rear hub does appear to be slightly hotter than the tyres and the saddle, which is odd. The tyres produce heat from rolling resistance. The saddle receives body heat. The only sources of heat in the rear hub would be solar radiation and bearing friction. Now unless the bearings are pretty poorly adjusted/lubed (highly unlikely on a pro bike) the only other explanation is the sun, but I'd expect the front hub frame to be just as warm in that case. About the car, well, there are several potential reasons but nothing too watertight. Depending on air temperature at the time (I forget) it's possible the vehicle had the heatijg on and this would be spread through the metal body by conduction. There would be some dispersal of exhaust system heat through conduction but I don't know if it would be that much. I should try touching the rear of a car that's been driving to see how warm they get.

It would be a lot more convincing if it was much clearer picture with more bikes for comparison to other bikes to see what their rear hubs looked like. The other bike in shot's rear hub looks significantly cooler but it's hard to tell from the poor quality and obscured view.

One thing that makes me less convinced is that the crank also looks relatovely warm. I've no idea why.

I also thought he looked dodgy when being questionned, but that's hardly grounds to establish motor doping guilt, not least because his bike was apparently illegally set up initially and he may have been embarrassed.

I think my position is wait and see how this pans out.

Avatar
Agent Cooper | 7 years ago
1 like

Having seen what a modern (circa £10k) Fluke Thermal image camera can produce in terms of data per sensor pixel the so called evidence is 'merde'. Someone needs to hire a proper thermographer and his expertise not just playing with the tools.

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fenix replied to Agent Cooper | 6 years ago
0 likes
Agent Cooper wrote:

Having seen what a modern (circa £10k) Fluke Thermal image camera can produce in terms of data per sensor pixel the so called evidence is 'merde'. Someone needs to hire a proper thermographer and his expertise not just playing with the tools.

 

You can get thermal imaging for your iphone now for a couple of hundred quid.

http://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/179306/lottonl-jumbo-eist-rectificatie-...

 

If anyone had electric motors in their hubs that were undetectable - they'd have made a lot more money from the bike industry rather than selling them to the odd dodgy cyclist.  There isnt a story here. 

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fenix | 7 years ago
0 likes

So the cunning plan to win the stage relied upon his race bike being ruled illegal and there being a downpour to slow everyone else?

They do think of everything don't they?

Or maybe. Just maybe. The story is rubbish?

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leqin | 7 years ago
1 like

The overwhelming conclusion that I reached, looking at the photo in this article, is that the two things riding bicycles are either Robots or - worse still - Institute Synths - its the only logical conclusion based on the amount of heat they are producing, which is a lot more than the motors it ought to be pointed out.

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HarrogateSpa | 7 years ago
3 likes

I'm all for scrutiny of cycling, but Stade 2's record is pretty pathetic. They gather extremely weak evidence, put inordinate weight on the testimony of dodgy experts, and throw accusations at whichever riders they dislike that particular week - always non-French.

One of Froome's rides in the TDF - up St-Martin-whatever-it-is - has been used as evidence of doping; then it featured again as evidence of him having an electric motor. Make your minds up, guys. If one day it turns out that Froome has been cheating, fine, say so when you have some evidence.

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bobbinogs | 7 years ago
0 likes

If I remember correctly, the Stage 9 TT was nothing short of treacherous in the final hour with riders going off all over the place and the final corner claiming a number of victims as riders on TT bikes struggled to stay upright on a large area of paint (demarking disabled parking).  Hence, anyone who was good at a TT (and had demonstrated this on Stage 1) and was going off early (before the rain came) would be expected to do well, relatively.

 In the event, the Stage 9 winner had placed second on the Stage 1 TT and was one of the early riders in Stage 9.  QED.  Or, as the French say, "un coureur français n'a pas gagné"

 

Avatar
davidgray968 | 7 years ago
3 likes

I haven't really been following this but has any French rider been named yet by this French newspaper.

To me the picture merely shows that the area around the cassette is warmer than the surrounding area, much in the same way as the tyres and saddle do. In fact the riders legs are a lot brighter so, to me, that implies they are a lot hotter than the tyres and saddle, given my limited understanding of thermal imaging. Given that the motor has to be hidden, and therefore by definition enclosed, surely it would run a lot hotter than it is shown in the picture, plus, as has already pointed out the hub would have to be a lot bigger, otherwise the benefit is going to totally minute for the increase in weight.

 

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tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
1 like

Good on them for maintaining scrutiny on the sport. Easy for us to snipe at journos, but they're usually the ones that catch on to what's happening and feed it back to us. If you're an investigator, at anything, you have to follow any trail of evidence you get, no matter how weak. 

 

As long as they're simply putting evidence out there, casting suspicions and what have you then it's fine. There's a line to be crossed of course, and we don't need to worry about that, as it's a legal one with consquences of its own.

 

Then again, we've seen journos legally silenced, even when they turned out later to be right.

 

That said, I'm not convinced yet that motorised doping is prolific, or even common. I'm sure it's been experimented with, you'd have to be daft as a duck not to believe mechanics haven't been toying with and trialing hidden motors, but it's too hard to get away with in competition.

 

Which is the main point really when it comes to crime or rule breaking. People will do whatever they can get away with. Fact of life. Ethics is a sort of island where people with no opportunity hang out and rub each other's backs. 

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Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
16 likes

French TV are just testing public reaction to this sort of accusation before they use it on Froome in a couple of weeks time.

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drosco | 7 years ago
2 likes

Everyone convinced by the 'bike too long' explanation then?

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kevinmorice replied to drosco | 7 years ago
3 likes
drosco wrote:

Everyone convinced by the 'bike too long' explanation then?

 

Actually, Yes. Those rules are specifically in place to prevent riders from adopting wither of the Obree positions. As those positions are easily shown to be aerodynamically beneficial most riders should be pushing them to the extreme if their core strength can handle them. The team mechanic should know better but could easily have tried to push the limits on the likelihood of not getting spotted at scrutineering. In the specific example of a custom  TT bike it can then be difficult to shorten the bar extensions even with a decent notice so a late bike switch is a perfectly plausible solution.

 

If you want to rock up to any lower level TT (or better still a triathlon race) and start measuring TT bikes for UCI compliance I would be fairly confident you would be throwing out 1 in 10 racers for illegal bike set-ups. I would give you a fair bet that my triathlon set-up is probably over the UCI limits since my last adjustment.

Avatar
nowave7 replied to kevinmorice | 7 years ago
1 like
kevinmorice wrote:
drosco wrote:

Everyone convinced by the 'bike too long' explanation then?

 

Actually, Yes. Those rules are specifically in place to prevent riders from adopting wither of the Obree positions. As those positions are easily shown to be aerodynamically beneficial most riders should be pushing them to the extreme if their core strength can handle them. The team mechanic should know better but could easily have tried to push the limits on the likelihood of not getting spotted at scrutineering. In the specific example of a custom  TT bike it can then be difficult to shorten the bar extensions even with a decent notice so a late bike switch is a perfectly plausible solution.

 

If you want to rock up to any lower level TT (or better still a triathlon race) and start measuring TT bikes for UCI compliance I would be fairly confident you would be throwing out 1 in 10 racers for illegal bike set-ups. I would give you a fair bet that my triathlon set-up is probably over the UCI limits since my last adjustment.

But then again, triathlons are not governed by UCI rules?

Avatar
kevinmorice replied to nowave7 | 7 years ago
0 likes
nowave7 wrote:
kevinmorice wrote:
drosco wrote:

Everyone convinced by the 'bike too long' explanation then?

 

Actually, Yes. Those rules are specifically in place to prevent riders from adopting wither of the Obree positions. As those positions are easily shown to be aerodynamically beneficial most riders should be pushing them to the extreme if their core strength can handle them. The team mechanic should know better but could easily have tried to push the limits on the likelihood of not getting spotted at scrutineering. In the specific example of a custom  TT bike it can then be difficult to shorten the bar extensions even with a decent notice so a late bike switch is a perfectly plausible solution.

 

If you want to rock up to any lower level TT (or better still a triathlon race) and start measuring TT bikes for UCI compliance I would be fairly confident you would be throwing out 1 in 10 racers for illegal bike set-ups. I would give you a fair bet that my triathlon set-up is probably over the UCI limits since my last adjustment.

But then again, triathlons are not governed by UCI rules?

 

Actually, the ITF has come up with a lazy way of writing their bike rules where they do just defer to the UCI version, and then scribbled a couple of extra ones about stubby tri-bars not going past the hoods and banning rear-disc wheels in draft-legal races. 

 

But those are the only two that ever get enforced. I have lost count of the number of dodgy chinese carbon wheels and illegal bike setups. 

 

Avatar
Danger Dicko | 7 years ago
6 likes

Thermal imaging is a pretty poor way to spot motors.

 

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Must be Mad | 7 years ago
13 likes

Its well known that only motors can make things warm.

What I find amazing is that both tyres (front and rear) are made of motors too. And the saddle.

The boot of the team car also is made of motors. Amazing thing these thermal cameras!

FYI- If you are going to fit a motor and battreies within a wheel hub - it's going to be flipping obvious.

Avatar
Simmo72 replied to Must be Mad | 7 years ago
6 likes
Must be Mad wrote:

Its well known that only motors can make things warm.

What I find amazing is that both tyres (front and rear) are made of motors too. And the saddle.

The boot of the team car also is made of motors. Amazing thing these thermal cameras!

FYI- If you are going to fit a motor and battreies within a wheel hub - it's going to be flipping obvious.

 

French pundit Jean Claude Beaujolais De Pap has also concluded that some riders also have a motor concealed up their rectum passage, how else can you explain such a heat spot from a man wearing tight shorts, exerting himsefl on a saddle.

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