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Ion Izagirre crash YouTube still.JPGVideo: New motor doping speculation after Izagirre time trial crash
Did Movistar rider Ion Izagirre have a motor illegally concealed in his bike during the 16 kilometre individual time trial at the Vuelta Valenciana yesterday?
That's the question posed by Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport after footage emerged showing the rear wheel of the Spanish rider's Canyon bike continuing to spin after he crashed.
The incident comes just days after a bike prepared for Belgian under-23 cyclo-cross rider Femke Van den Driessche was discovered to have a hidden motor at the World Championships in Zolder on Saturday.
> All our Femke Van den Driessche coverage here
It's also reminiscent of the rumours surrounding Garmin-Sharp's Ryder Hesjedal when his rear will continued to turn following a crash in the 2014 Vuelta.
> 'Motor doping' claims surround Ryder Hesjedal
His former team mate Alex Rasmussen subsequently produced his own video showing how the wheel could keep on spinning on its own.
> Rasmussen seeks to dispel mechanical doping rumours
Spanish sports website Mundo Deportivo's take on the issue is a little different, noting that the Italian dailies didn't miss an opportunity to ignite speculation against Izagirre - accusing La Gazzetta dello Sport and others of sour grapes, in other words.
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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35 comments
Well if they do have motors, they should at least install an accelerometer that disengages the whole contraption when the crash/fall is detected.
The wheels on my bike spin for ages after a crash and I'm still slow as f*ck so I'm sure it'll all be OK! Lots of sensationalist crap being written about mechanical doping. How anyone can call themselves a sports journalist and yet write a story about bicycle wheels spinning escapes me!!!
In Defence of Road.cc
Are Road.cc right to cover this story? On balance, yes.
La Gazzetta dello Sport are acting like conspiracy nuts seeing mechanical doping everywhere in an attempt to boost their circulation figures. They are basically appealing to the tin-foil hat wearing brigade.
If Road.cc ignore it these people will see it as proof that they are right. Road.cc has given you the story, shown you the so-called evidence and said "Make your own mind up".
And the balance of opinion of Road.cc members is ...[Drum roll please] ... La Gazzetta dello Sport are just a bunch of sensationalist, conspiracy nuts (hat optional) who are just being ridiculous.
The 'Evidence' does not support the accusation.
Initially he gets back on the old bike before having to swap again.
It's like some old spy film where they do a swap with identical briefcases
What a load of shit...
As someone above pointed out if you look at it frame by frame the decals on the wheel don't move much, so the spinning looks like an optical effect only.
I got beaten to it!
At first glance it looks like the wheel is spinning, but at second glance the decals don't. What I think is happening is the light is reflecting off the disc in a way that it makes it look like it's spinning.
Gazzetta (and road.cc for that matter) need to get themselves a decent physics / engineering consultant.
Anyone with an O level in physics (yes I'm that old) would be able to tell you about the principle of conservation of angular momentum - the angular momentum (speed of rotation) of a system (wheel) remains constant unless acted on by an external torque (friction of bearings, air resistance, contact with crash barrier post).
We're talking about a pro TT bike so resistance from bearings and wind are minimal.
As others have pointed out, it cannot be a seat tube motor - which would increase momentum by applying "positive" torque via the chainset.
As for the alleged wheel motors featured in GdS's previous expose' so far all we have is hearsay and a very unconvincing schematic.
A mate fell of his bike the other week and his wheel kept spinning as it was not in contact with the ground. We all felt cheated. Luckily I had brought my hacksaw with me so we cut his bike to bits. Imagine our embarassment when we found no concealed motor.
Actually the technology DOES exist to mechanically cheat, eg vivax-assist.com, but it is not in the wheel
here's an image...not meaning to link to my site hopefully the image will miraculously appear in this comment (or not) rather than as a link
<img>https://the5krunner.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/kurbel_mit_motor_gradien...
I'm sorry Road.cc but if you are going to keep publishing gutter, conspiracy stories about motors then please cancel my subscription and membership.
There was a much better story in this in that he nearly dropped 30' off a bridge but hey, why report the facts when you can get clickbait with lies and gutter speculation.
No wonder he didn't want to swap bikes !
Off topic, but why do so many pros just drop their bikes? [Yes, I realise why ... but why, when it would take little effort to lay it down more carefully, or prop it against car/wall/fence/policeman etc?]
When stressed by a fall or failure, bike care goes out of the window, also they don't have to pay for their kit.
I'd bet they would be more caring if they had to pay for their own
The difference between a pro and us amateurs - when they crash they check their bodies for injury. We check our bikes first
Firstly the cranks were not moving... secondly, if there was a motor driving the rear wheel, I woud expect the bike to twitch when the wheel made contact with the ground, but no the wheel just stopped.
Except that one story published in the last seven days was about using electricity to induce motion in a wheel using magnets; no motor-driven crank in such a system. I've no idea if it's possible, but someone was claiming that such systems could be had for a six-figure sum.
I doubt you'd want to use it for Izagirre at the Vuelta Valenciana then at that price.
I have to agree. The majority of content these days is horror stories, "deals" and random stuff. The only race reports that ever pop up tend to either be the absolutely biggest races or where something naughty has happened.
Put it this way, if I don't want to see race results until I've watched a reply or highlights, road.cc is the place to come. Even the MTB forum I follow has more race coverage.
I appreciate the Daily Mail leads the world in click-bait ad revenue but I'm not sure a cycling website needs it.
Atlaz. I find Inrng to be much better.
Does no one realise that these so called "hidden motors" drive the cranks not the back wheel? If he was using the hardware everyone says these guys are it would be his cranks spinning after the crash not the back wheel. When footage emerges of a riders cranks spinning while the bike is on the ground then we have a story. A back wheel spinning is normal.
You could include a clutch to stop forcing the cranks and risking rider injury.
But drive is still via the chain, so add a clutch before the cranks would mean no drive to the wheel either. Motor or not, that wheel is spinning from its own momentum.
That's very true.
If the motor drives the crank arms, which drives the wheel the cranks would be revolving with the wheel and the bike wouldn't be stationary on the ground. The cranks would be sendig it all over the place.
I would say that there isn't one of the seattube style. And i'm not aware of any system that could be hidden elsewhere.
Where is the motor supposed to be located? In the wheel or the cranks?
Given the cranks aren't turning is the implication there is a motor in the rear hub?
Shame the "cameraman" was using the wrong side of his phone or this could have been interesting.
Take another look. Rider seems very keen to stop wheel spinning by tilting the bike as it lies under the crash barrier. So far so circumstantial. Gets on bike, rides a few yards and stops. Lays bike down and lo and behold, wheel is spinning again. Very fast. At least that is what I saw.
Reflections.
I agree. Look at it frame by frame, particularly the graphic furthest from the stays, which is clearest - they don't change position from frame to frame so the wheel must be stationary. The shiny surface of the disc, crap quality footage and flickering electronic shutter of the camera tricks your brain into thinking that it is moving.
Also agree.
Probably to do with the carbon weave of the disc wheel - it's catching the light in a particular way - you can see these gliniting reflections all the way through the clip - not just while the bike is on the ground.
Yeah, but the time trial bike will probably be geared reasonably high and have fairly low-friction freehubs etc. So when he lays the bike down the second time, if the crank is turned by virtue of hitting the road, it could be enough to spin the wheel quickly.
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