Motors are acceptable for this.
Motherfucker.
I honestly don’t like swearing in an Article, much less using such a word to open an article, but seriously. Motherfucker. A motor discovered in an U23 rider’s bike at the Cyclocross World Championships has to be the lowest of the low that anyone can go. I’m so pissed off, I’m rhyming. Which itself makes me madder than a hatter.
I have a pretty lenient stance on doping, which I hold to fairly wide criticism. I believe that the path towards doping is full of shadows and gradual steps towards the darkness. It is easy for me to imagine a young, ambitious rider who has sacrificed education and other vocations for the chance to become a Pro Cyclist, who is taken under the wing of an older, more experienced rider and to whom is explained the ways of the sport. If I was 18 and following that path, I cannot say with certainty what choice I would make, given the limited perspective one would have under those circumstances. While I hate doping and wish for clean sport, I hold limited judgement over those who have strayed down that path.
But we ride bicycles for the pleasure of propelling ourselves along the road under our own power. We push the pedals and we go faster, it is as simple as that; the motor resides in our heads and in our hearts. Performance enhancing drugs will, to various degrees, fine-tune and modify that motor, but there remains alive a notion that even a doped rider is holding true to this basic notion.
Competition is about finding out who is the superior athlete, it is as simple as that. We train, we fine-tune our equipment, we learn the strategy and tactics required to rise to the top. Doping certainly obscures that concept, but that a rider would abandon this fundamental principle of our sport by utilizing a motor in their bike seems to me an order of magnitude removed. It is gratuitous to the extent that there is no possible justification apart from an unabashed desire to win over all else.
This is bike racing, not motorcycle racing. For fucks sake.
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@sthilzy: "Hmmmmmmm…….Hesjadal’s seems to spin longer without slowing……."
I do assume the allegation refers to Hesjedal using a motor in his seattube. If Hesjedal would have had a motor, the pedals also would have continued spinning, since the motor works on the cranks/pedals and not on the wheel/axle directly. Hesjedal came down so must have had more speed.
If it would have been an electromagnetic motor, embedded into the wheels, then this is the biggest laugh, since those wheels cost 200k EUR and the camera/motorist cracked his rim when driving past him after he'd crashed.
@frank
To "get dropped" surely implies that Chris WAS racing this "old fat broad", even if she wasn't aware of it!
@RobSandy
I don't buy it either, but when the bike hit the deck, a button in the control lever could have been accidentally pressed
@sengelov
Very nice, simple, compelling demonstration; agreed. I think he has a motor, too :).
@wilburrox
Technically no, morally yes.
And their little noise is horrible. That tiny electronic whine that says "I can't shift my own derailleur."
@sthilzy
The demo just spun the pedals gently, think how much faster Hesjadal would have been going.
@frank
It's different because in the case of capturing blood and re-applying it later, the rider didn't take his/her blood from his/herself in the middle of the ride and put it back at the feed station, or at the 20km to go banner, like getting one last bottle/gel. If they depleted their red blood cells after the start, then put them back just before the finish, you'd be getting closer to the mark of what Frank is talking about.
@frank
No sir. There's no confusion about how I descend versus a pro. I descend like a big jessie compared to the likes of Faboo, Yates, Kelly et al. In fact, no-one would ever confuse me and a pro. Actually, I take that back. I was asked for my autograph by a kid while I was in the pits at the 1988 Grand Prix des Nations. I was young, fit, tanned and looked pro enough. Ask Darryl Webster, he was standing next to me having actually ridden the event - but was in civvies.
@Teocalli
The guy who made that comparison video gets demerit points for carelessly scuffing up his saddle and tape job.
Whenever I see that video of her going up the Koppenberg I can't help hearing a Jetsons-esque sound effect in my head.