GCN Tech talks motor doping ...first 10 minutes at -
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me5wFL-_Gq8
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Listen to https://lnk.to/GhostInTheMachine to get a clear understanding of why there's basically no good reason to believe that motors haven't been used to win the biggest races.
'Getting away with it is shockingly easy': Five reasons why motor doping suspicions won't go away
Having spent over a year investigating motor doping, Chris Marshall-Bell examines the rumours and unanswered questions that remainwww.cyclingweekly.com
Often teams went to races without their bikes being scanned, when they did it was perhaps just one of the teammembers, even in the best case only one bike per rider, and further more the scanners only detect magnetic radiation which is shielded by carbon... So there's basically no testing.
As a commenter says under the GCN video:
"I don’t know if anyone is doping (motor or otherwise), however, a version of every one of these arguments was used during the Armstrong years. If forced to take a bet, I would take the “there has never been a time in professional cycling that didn’t have some kind or another of doping in use” side of the bet."
imagine a big crash with broken frames, imagine a bike theft, imagine an anonymous person tip the French police, imagine a disgruntled former rider/soigneur as a whistleblower and so on.
nothing, no motors, nothing found. medical doping? yes, we've seen this. motors? nah. would be too big to risk it. would be telluric and crazy
nothing, no motors, nothing found. medical doping? yes, we've seen this. motors? nah. would be too big to risk it. would be telluric and crazy
Wow!..look at that bike go. I'd say mechanical/motor-doping is the new frontier.
And that bike is probably way more powerful than it would need to be to make the difference between 2nd and 1st. And way less sophisticated than the top ones they have today.
I tiny motor with the battery installed in the seat post? A single wire down to the crank throuh the seat tube? I'd say that's extremely unlikely to be exposed in a crash.
Easily avoidable.
Same goes for all the doping we've ever heard about... Omerta and such.
If a rider gets caught with PEDs the team can easily put the blame on the rider. If there is a motor, that blame will also include the team, mechanics and/or even the bike sponsor. And what bike brand would risk sponsor that team again?
They could easily get away with blaming the rider and a single mechanic - but it would probably break the reputation of cycling completely. Which is why the UCI would never go public with it if they found a motor...
Agreed, but they probably wouldn't just do nothing, either. I think there is a reason Foliforov didn't do anything of note after his ITT win in the Giro, which is the one instance where I'm pretty sure a motor was actually used.
After watching the demise of VLAB, I am going to push a conspiracy theory: The UCI caught them using motors last year (lets not forget a major sponsor pulling out, and rumors thare was a major sponsor who left because of motor doping), and the UCI is making them raw dog races this year.
And the UCI infected them with Covid and punctured their lungs!!!
I think they've also gained control of the bike motors and have turned them off, whenever they've wanted a Visma rider to crash.
Clearly not, but they haven't shown nearly the results outside of that. Kuss and Vingo today were pack fodder, and lets not pretend that everyone in front of them, hasn't been racing as well. Kuss' attack in last years Vuelta on the Tourmalet was really unbelievable...in a "I think I hear a strange sound coming from that bike" kind of way.
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Funny, I post two posts in another thread that are critical of a couple of posters, and they show up here.
stak.london
Ghost in the Machine | Stak
Eight years after the discovery of a motor in a bike at a cycling world championship race, Chris Marshall-Bell is on a mission to reveal the truth around motors in cycling...
stak.london
That‘s not outside of the punctured lungs and the Covid, considering those are the guys who had those issues. And Tour GC contenders don‘t have a great track record at San Sebastián. And if the UCI had caught them with motors, why would Visma now be allowed to ride even faster pure wattage-wise?
That is a good point. I guess we will see if aything is ever revealed regarding motor doping. I get my suspicions from listening to the Ghost in the Machine podcast, because the things he has revealed smell like there is a lot of smoke for there not to be a fire.
And the Kuss covid thing isn't very convincing to me. I had it twice in the past year (and did a week long Durango to Moab bikepacking trip with it, at elevation), and I've been sicker with colds, and it has been quite some time since Kuss had it. He also had a pretty good result last week, didn't he? Not the same rider as last year, at any point of this season, ishe?
It was mentioned in the Ghost in the Machine podcast, at some point. I don't remember when, but that entire podcast is fantastic.
i was starting to think the same thing but i was thinking it happened after Paris-Nice/Tirreno where they dominated both races (and had already dominated most of the season before that). a lot of their riders turned to crap right around Milano-Sanremo and Catalunya. then WVA and Vingegaard both had bad injuries in the span of a week, so it's hard to say without seeing how well they would've ridden. then again, a guy like Jorgenson has been at incredible level all season, Jonas did his best numbers ever after missing 2 months on the bike and Kuss just did 6.5 w/kg at Burgos the other day, so I dunno.
as far as the sponsor rumor, I dont think it was them either. Jumbo the company was embroiled in their own scandal and had to cut budget and after seeing how corrupt they were being run, I dont think they would've had any problem with motors.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if motors are being used but at the same time I can’t think of a scenario that would really make sense on a team wide scale. And Vingegaard performed too well at the Tour unless he got a hall pass for that. It would almost have to be a full blown infestation for the motor rumors to be true.
My feeling is this is the usual conspiracy theory nonsense. People just love to believe this stuff.
Motors are very easy to detect for any trained person and also very easy to get caught using for the same reason. Why would any team (or sponsor) risk this? Or are we suggesting low power motors which are smaller and easier to hide but the boost is still significant (<40 watts)? I suppose there is always the chance of extraterrestrial intervention 😀
As for Visma, listen to the audio on stage 15 of the Tour - talking to Vingegaard before he attacked. The team didn’t sound like it was suffering any self doubts about not having motors on the race radio on PdB? In fact they seemed rather overconfident on Pogacar’s true level. There would massive doubts at Visma if they had used motors last year and this year they were warned against it. In fact I think they would go to great lengths to downplay his chances this year rather than talk him up.
Motors are very easy to detect for any trained person and also very easy to get caught using for the same reason. Why would any team (or sponsor) risk this? Or are we suggesting low power motors which are smaller and easier to hide but the boost is still significant (<40 watts)? I suppose there is always the chance of extraterrestrial intervention 😀
As for Visma, listen to the audio on stage 15 of the Tour - talking to Vingegaard before he attacked. The team didn’t sound like it was suffering any self doubts about not having motors on the race radio on PdB? In fact they seemed rather overconfident on Pogacar’s true level. There would massive doubts at Visma if they had used motors last year and this year they were warned against it. In fact I think they would go to great lengths to downplay his chances this year rather than talk him up.
Small, easy to hide motors, which give a significant boost do exist... Have you looked into it at all, or are you just calling us wishful nonsense believers based on your gut feeling?
I don’t need to look into it. I’ve seen enough on this subject.
Implausible on priors, and even more so given that they are faster this year than last year. The simple explanation of injuries and illness is sufficient.
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