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The specter of mechanical doping has resurfaced again on the Tour de France following a report citing several anonymous riders claiming to have heard “strange noises” in the rear wheels of a number of the team’s bikes during the race.
An article published by the Swiss newspaper Time Thursday alleged that three separate Tour riders heard noises they had never heard before from motorcycles involving four teams during the race.
According to the report, a rider told the newspaper during the first week of the race that he heard new strange noises coming from the backs of several bikes. During the race, the UCI announced that no form of mechanical doping had been detected.
“There’s a strange noise. I can hear it while riding. It’s coming from the rear wheels. A strange metallic noise, like an improperly adjusted chain. I’ve never heard that anywhere,” said the rider.
Two days later, the same rider reported pointing out that all four teams had the noises coming from their rear wheels. “Four teams have that little sizzle in the back wheel,” he said.
Another rider said the discussions in the peloton were not about a motor in the bottom bracket or seat tube – the most popular rumor that has circulated of possible mechanical doping over the past decade. Instead, he talked about an energy harvesting system similar to the technology used in Formula 1 cars.
“We are no longer talking of a motor in the crankset or an electromagnet system in the rims, but of a device hidden in the hub,” he said. “We are also talking about an energy recovery via the brakes. The inertia is stored as in Formula 1.”
A third runner, not mentioned in the article, is also said to have expressed concerns about the situation. One of the riders noted the relative strength of the four teams in question, with 13 of the 19 stages so far split between them.
“Who will dare to speak out? We are doing nothing and the situation is serious,” said one of the runners. “Usually, we have a team that dominates. Or a team that is weaker than the others. It’s sport … This year, four teams are well above the others. The smallest rider who signs with them becomes very strong. If he changes teams, he becomes average again. How do you explain that? “
After Friday’s Stage 18, race leader Tadej Pogacar, who rides for UAE Team Emirates, denied his motorcycle was somehow illegal.
“I don’t know. We don’t hear any noise,” Pogacar said at the post-stage press conference. “We’re not using anything illegal. These are all Campagnolo, Bora materials. I don’t know what to say.”
On Monday’s rest day, the UCI announced technology test figures for the first 15 stages of the Tour, with nothing suspicious found after 720 tests were carried out, including tests with magnetic scanning tablets and the X-ray technology.
“A total of 720 tests were carried out before and after each stage. All the tests came back negative,” read the UCI press release.
“Of the tests carried out, 606 were done on bikes before the start of each stage using magnetic scanning tablets. Meanwhile, X-ray technology was used to test 114 other bikes at the end of each stage.
“The UCI emphasizes that the test bench after the stage still includes the bike ridden by the winner of the day’s stage as well as the leader of the general classification. The rest of the post-stage test bed is decided on a two-pronged approach. : bicycles selected by the UCI on the basis of its information and intelligence, and bicycles ridden by athletes selected for doping controls targeted by the International Control Agency (ITA), the independent body in charge of the anti-doping activities of the ‘UCI.
The statement continued with the announcement that a new form of testing will debut at the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, with mobile technology capable of scanning bikes in motion, rather than just before or after races.
“After the introduction of magnetic tablets in 2016 and mobile X-ray technology in 2018, new backscattering technology will be used to test bikes at the Tokyo Olympics. This relatively compact and lightweight handheld device provides instant images of inside the bike which can be shared in real time anywhere in the world via a secure platform and will be used in Tokyo for road cycling, mountain biking and track cycling events.
So far, only one runner has been arrested and banned for mechanical doping. Femke cyclo-cross rider Van den Driessche was suspended for six years in 2016 after an engine was discovered in a bike with her pit crew at the Cyclo-cross World Championships that year.
In 2020, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) ended a multi-year investigation into mechanical doping at the highest level of sport at the start of the year without finding other evidence of this practice.
The analysis of a technical writer
Cycling news Tech writer Josh Croxton gives his take on the claims:
Not having heard the noise that these anonymous runners claim to have heard, it is impossible to say what it is likely to be.
That said, the chains interacting with cassettes and derailleurs all make noise, some are louder than others, and each setup will likely have a different height to the noise.
The four use groups mentioned have been around for years. Three of the teams use Shimano Dura-Ace R9170, while the fourth team uses Campagnolo SuperRecord EPS 12-speed, and they all use stock components – there are no aftermarket pulley systems attached to the derailleurs.
Both likely replaced the original bearings with oiled ceramic bearings, but even so, the sound of the chain interacting with the pulleys and cassette shouldn’t be something racers have never heard before.
One thing that has changed in recent times is the use of waxed chains. This is by no means new technology – certainly not new for the 2021 Tour de France – and it’s impossible to know for sure which teams are using waxed chains instead of a typical oil-based lubricant, but with the promise of more efficient transmission, it is possible that more teams have made the switch.
One of the named teams, for example, is sponsored by CeramicSpeed and uses the brand’s pre-processed UFO racing channels. However, for any team dealing with the chains themselves, those chains need time to “sink in” as the wax dries and hardens. During those first 10 km or so, the chains are considerably louder than average.
Other than that, unfortunately, there is no common thread between the components used by the four teams mentioned. One team used Vision wheels, another team used both Vision and Shimano, while one is on Roval and the fourth team uses Campagnolo wheels.
Ultimately, while these claims are very intriguing, there is very little to back them up at this point.
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