Greetings, fellow miracle non-believers. I have been reading this forum for a few years while being content with my lurker status. The first time I felt a slight urge to register and share my view was right after that miraculous 2020 TDF time trial in which Toddles snatched a sure victory from his Slovenian “big brother”. In the ensuing heated discussion on these pages, as I recall, only one poster mentioned an explanation that I thought was the most likely one: a motorized bike on the flat part changed to a normal one at the base of the climb. As most can recall, the emir’s wonder boy blitzed the flat part beating even the top (at the time) specialist (and a big guy) Tom D., all while looking like a “coal miner” (in the latter’s words) on his bike. Then the future smiley red-nosed bidons-to-young-fans distributer proceeded to annihilate the climb but looked spent at the finish (unlike during his 2024 80km solo forays). So, it appeared that he did a nice warm-up on the flat while caring little about such trifling issues as air resistance at 50+ km/h, the tiny tireless helpers (aka electrons) doing half of the forward propulsion work for him, jumped on his climbing bike and did an honest climb while being fresh. As he is a good climber, the result was predictable, and the “hi-tech” TT bike was safely in a different place.
Stage 8 of 2021 TDF gave the same vibes. It was cold and rainy during that stage which clearly bodes well for cooling of the motor should anyone try some impromptu IR gun on your frame. The next clear “too good to be true” episode came in 2023 Flanders. If one looks at that Kwaremont climb in slow motion, one can see the poor Matt vdP clenching his teeth, his whole body shaking as he tries to put power through the pedals, while Poggo just glides along the cobbles, his propulsive force appearing to be smooth and uniformly circular. And then comes the glorious 2024 with – finally, according to mou – good training plan (not just zone 2 like before, but some intervals sprinkled in, not to forget the more varied carb intake that gives an easy extra 15% as everyone now knows) and – as we have all witnessed – a succession of long solo rides capped with perfectly fresh and rested arrivals (while being occasionally “thirsty”, granted). All this while being on top of a monstrous March to October peak. So, in my view, the real question here is, as many have noted already, not whether Toddly is clean, but whether that doping – and the resulting propulsion – is still of a biological (as opposed to electromagnetic) nature. And at the time I am leaning towards the negative answer to that question. As the saying goes, if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…
Then, clearly, there are many related questions. Who else is (was) using motors? Was Vingo’s TT in 2023 TDF motor assisted? How did Motopog lose two TDFs to Vingo? Why did Sky (Ineos) suddenly go into oblivion (as they should have enough money to pay for being allowed some li-ion help of their own)? If moto-doping is real, there is clearly the associated hidden politics with large sums of money exchanging hands. In 2024, apparently, emir’s boys were able to negotiate a more liberal partake of electron power. Hence endless reckless attacks with no concern for energy conservation – the battery will be replaced for the next stage anyway. I can only add that it also looks like that the first serious moto-doper was nobody else but the evil redneck Lancy. I recall that his transformation after that cancer, which nearly killed him, was downright miraculous. Specifically, before cancer, the healthy Lance was a typical puncheur in the Phil Gil mold: a relatively heavy guy with a great kick but with no time trial to speak of (especially a long one) and was never thought of as being remotely capable of challenging for a GT GC. There is still a video on the web of Big Mig passing a pre-cancer Lance in a TDF TT. The latter looks like a proverbial still standing figure. Then – after a near-terminal cancer, no less – a miracle happens and Lance begins to walk all over the TT prodigy Jan on a routine basis all while (sounds familiar, doesn’t it) sitting hunched and non-aero on his bike. Same story with high mountain climbing. Then all is well for a decade, America adoring its new hero, but suddenly hell breaks loose, and we learn that Lancy was mean, manipulating and plain sinister. He blatantly doped and forced his teammates – just short of a gun point – to do likewise. Poor souls (and their trembling wives) just had no choice. The whole story just sounded a lot like a typical (i.e. bad) Hollywood movie. Being nailed down, the repentant Lance went on TV shows and shed crocodile tears. Fans with some experience can easily recall the drama. One possible – and quite likely, in my view – explanation for all that is that Lance or someone else involved in the motor program somehow leaked sensitive info or got out of hand, and an urgent cover-up was deemed to be necessary as a motor-dope scandal could – at that time – potentially ruin the whole business. And that good old organic doping related drama was just the required cover-up.
Finally, why did motor doping make such a radical return in 2020, during the gloomy covid times? What was wrong with the good old relatively mild organic doping of a decade ago with its under 6 W/kg performances of the Sky era? Who knows. Maybe the business was struggling and was deemed to be needing some superheros to satisfy the tastes of the new fans of the instagram/tik-tok generation. Maybe the process of its monopolization went far enough so that any dangerous information leaks were no longer possible (as per Chomsky video posted earlier in this thread). We won’t know the correct answer for a while. Does motor doping make professional cycling a version of WWE? It pretty much does. But any professional sport is an entertainment business, the more so with every passing year, it seems. So, if its newer fan base is sufficiently “socially networked” and correspondingly simple minded, this is what it might become.
P.S. As one poster asked recently: if he knows he is a cheater, why is he so arrogant on the road with reckless attacks and inane celebrations. As Dr. Goebbels said a long time ago, a lie must be big and blatant to be believed. So, acting as if you are 100% clean and fully entitled to all those ridiculous nose breathing moped speed performances is the best way to make the (certain kind of) public believe them.
P.P.S. There have recently appeared some humorous “explanations” as to why Toddles is so much faster uphill than the EPO prodigy and born climber sub 60 kilo Pantani. It’s the “modern” bikes, folks, that give the rider so much aero advantage at 24 km/h. Well, if aero is so important at those speeds, and 80% of the aero resistance is due to the rider's body, then Toddly (or his hapless competitors, for that matter) would go faster still if he changed his “coal miner” 45 degrees body to horizontal posture on the bike to a flat back one. Yet he cares little about such angles, just merrily spinning 100+ rpm up any mountain, smiling, his hair nice and dry. Pantani, btw, was famous for climbing standing in the drops – and thus a nearly flat back. So, yeah, it is most likely the bikes, but with a little secret inside.
P.P.P.S. I was also waiting for someone to mention “AI” as one of those “explanations”: “AI is used for training plans, recovery etc..” I did not have high hopes for such a proposal coming, honestly, but recently it did come from one of apologists (and not just AI, but “cognetive AI” which must be really powerful and capable of effecting miracles we are witnessing here). Indeed, how can you live in 2024 without the ubiquitous “AI”. Thank you, sir, for educating us.