Categories: Breaking The RulesCyclocrossDefining MomentsRantings from the V-Bunker

Motorhead

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.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Sparty says:

Feb 2 2016 at 9:41 am

@ChrisO

Of course mechanical doping already exists… it’s called Di2 and EPS.

Seriously, I don’t see any philosophical difference. OK the Di2/EPS is not directly powering the bike but it is being used to help the functioning of the drive train which has a direct role in the bike’s drive. They are both external power sources being used to replace or enhance human energy.

If anything a power reserve which stored the riders’ energy and then re-applied it should be more acceptable than external battery power.

I said it when that stuff first arrived. A bicycle is a human powered vehicle and once you introduce external power sources it has become something else.

For everyone calling for her head, yes she has to be punished because she broke rules, but at a higher level I think the rules are hypocritical.

That argument can open a can of worms mate. If the UCI has approved the use of product X, it is legal to use in competition X. It only becomes "doping" if product X is unapproved or banned from competition. Di2, EPS, E-tap do make shifting much easier and reliable to an extent. However, they offer no power/wattage assist to the rider. One can argue that carbon wheels are a bigger advantage because they do save a rider watts, thus becoming a performance aide.
MangoDave says:

Feb 2 2016 at 10:02 am

If I was an electrical engineering genius, I'd invent a little device to send an EM pulse that would reverse the direction of any hidden motors. A blast at a critical moment in a race would call out the cheaters in a hurry.
Buck Rogers says:

Feb 2 2016 at 10:10 am

@MangoDave

If I was an electrical engineering genius, I’d invent a little device to send an EM pulse that would reverse the direction of any hidden motors. A blast at a critical moment in a race would call out the cheaters in a hurry.

This is genius! And they could not bitch about it, either!

Unfortunately, I had a tutor for my college Physics class and will not be working on this product anytime soon!
frank says:

Feb 2 2016 at 10:39 am

@KogaLover

Did you just post shit from Facebook here?
Ron says:

Feb 2 2016 at 10:54 am

Good lord, I'm going to need to take a day off from work to keep up with this mess. What a big fucking storm we've got going on here.
frank says:

Feb 2 2016 at 11:04 am

@sengelov

@Gopha

Other articles keep mentioning Froome and Cancellara(I won’t accept that) but I couldn’t stop watching this video then and I can’t stop watching it now;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ideiS-6gBAc

Me too, but take a look at this simple demonstration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN7HjwZI-k0 (@0:34)

But Ryder's pedals aren't turning, and he wasn't pedalling when he went down.

@RobSandy

@sthilzy

But also, from what I’ve read about the tiny road bike motors is that you have to turn them off and on – in the Hesjedal clip they are descending, so why would he have his motor on? It’s also in slow mo, makes everything look a bit weird.

I don’t buy it.

I think he's got the electromagnetic wheels in there.

@ChrisO

The external power source, even for shifting, is a clean and practical boundary, I'll give you that.
wiscot says:

Feb 2 2016 at 12:18 pm

I'll throw this out there: what if Ryder's freehub was sticky or jamming? Wouldn't that help turn the wheel and cranks a bit? Or would the chain just end up taking up the momentum?
Ccos says:

Feb 2 2016 at 2:19 pm

@Ron

Good lord, I’m going to need to take a day off from work to keep up with this mess. What a big fucking storm we’ve got going on here.

Agreed. When this story broke I checked the calendar but it wasn't April. As long as there is competition, there's going to be cheating. This kind of crap will keep happening unfortunately. Some of the motor "sports" take pride in it.
Dean C says:

Feb 2 2016 at 2:45 pm

I'm working with my mechanic, Doctor and family spiritual adviser for a TUE on my new bike; my coach says if my TUE goes through I should do well this Spring
Oli says:

Feb 2 2016 at 3:36 pm

@wiscot

The momentum of sliding out while whizzing down a hill will spin a wheel like that, I've seen it myself and there weren't no goddam motors involved either. It looks completely normal at normal speed.