Motorhead
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.
@ChrisO
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.
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.
@MangoDave
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!
@KogaLover
Did you just post shit from Facebook here?
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.
@sengelov
But Ryder’s pedals aren’t turning, and he wasn’t pedalling when he went down.
@RobSandy
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.
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?
@Ron
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.
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
@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.
@ChrisO
This is a sound that no bicycle should ever make. I’m tempted to get the SRAM stuff because it actually seems to be an improved way of shifting, but now I’m backing off that idea again.
I remember the first time I rode Di2 and hearing that noise, it sounded so unnatural on a bike. And if you’re ever at a Pro CX race, you’ll hear them all shifting enmasse, zzt,zzt,zzt,zzt,zzt,zzt! It’s horrible!
@Oli
I would think Ryder would have been travelling at 60-65 kph there. When he slides out the rear tire instantly loses contact with the pavement and continues to spin at the same rate of speed. It makes sense to me that when it again touches the pavement that it could overcome the weight of the bike in that situation to be able to move the bike like we see here.
Now that Cancellara video…fishy as fuck. What the hell?
@TheVid
The thing is they don’t just reapply it. They spin it down and extract some of the plasma to raise the haematocrit count. So it is externally tampered with.
@hudson
In this context, and watching how Femke and Fabs accelerate without any noticeable change in effort, it is hugely disappointing. Especially the Kapelmuur effort where he just went steady up with more speed. So he did indeed!
Call me old fashioned, but I think even electronic shifting should be banned (from competition). It kind of defeats the purpose of the bicycle as a mechanical extension of the human body.
@wiscot
CLASSIC!!!
@Sparty
Training is a performance aide, too. We have to draw a line somewhere and really the only line we can draw is what is legalized by the governing committees. Which is a little bit bullshit, but it’s all we can do.
I just wish they were more competent and less motivated to make their sport money and more motivated to promote fair play.
@Oli
This seems shockingly reasonable now that you mention it, even without pedals spinning. How easy it is to get sucked up in all this excitement.
But still, there is something fishy going on in Denmark.
@frank
Extract courtesy of Flanders and Swann, Anthem for the English
And all the world over each nation’s the same
They’ve simply no notion of playing the game
They argue with umpires, they cheer when they’ve won
And they practice before hand which spoils all the fun
The English the English the English are best
I wouldn’t give tuppence for all of the rest
It’s not that they’re wicked or naturally bad
It’s just that they’re foreign that makes them so mad
The English are all that a nation should be
And the pride of the English are Chipper and me
The English the English the English are best
I wouldn’t give tuppence for all of the rest
@frank
Don’t you mean “rotten” in the state of Denmark, my Dutch friend?
@frank
Wait, don’t you need to touch both paddles to make any shift on the new SRAM-e shifters? I thought I read that and when I did, I thought that I don’t want to use both hands for every shift.
Maybe I’m just wrong though.
Good god though. With winter, work, and this…I’m reading more about cycling than I’m cycling. And for that, Femke is indeed a bad word.
@frank
That’ll disappear soon when most are running 1x’s. No diff than XC it makes much sense for CX. That’s the FD motor whirr making a perfect shift every time. It doesn’t suck. Even the auto trim provides a little zzt that reminds that this is some pretty cool stuff.
The thing about the eTap is the button push on both levers to trigger the FD. That seems a little strange to me. I’m sure ya could get used to it fast. But, not sure how one goes about marrying up the RD shift at same time. You’d wanna pop a couple shifts in back just before the front or shift front and then adjust back. With the Di2 it’s easy peasy to get a perfect FD shift and corresponding RD adjust at same time.
Anyways, I love great shifting mech’s and certainly the aesthetics are best and I also love the motorized shifters too. Thinking about it a little… I used to be a watch snob for automatics. They were all PITA. Now I’m pretty much wearing my Timex Ironman and thinking I want quality Seiko or ecodrive Citizen. Hmmm.
@kixsand
From the scant evidence of that inconclusive video I totally refuse to believe Cancellara is using a motor. Having seen how he wins races throughout his long and storied career I’m confident that what he does in that clip he’s quite capable of doing without resorting to an engine in his frame.
Although admittedly I have been wrong before…
@Oli
if only it was someone other than Boonen, maybe someone who had been away all day but seriously it looks bad really bad.
@frank
No, you will not find that one on FB or anywhere else for that matter.
@frank
Hesjedal is Canadian (why Denmark? @ErikdR defend yourself!) and having read the various posts and videos on his spinning wheel, I am convinced he did not have a motor. His pedals did not spin anymore when he crashed. The motor works on the cranks so the pedals should have continued to spin.
And on Cancellara (and since I live in Switzerland): corruption does not exist in this fine country and all pay their taxes, and black money does not exist and Sepp Blatter is Swiss, so I give him the benefit of the doubt.
@piwakawaka
I disagree, and I watched the whole race and have watched the finale many, many times. If you want to believe that about Cancellara then good on you, but I’d need an Oprah episode to change my mind.
@Oli
Yeah, as much as I really, REALLY do not like, and have never liked, Sparty (he beat up on my Tommeke too much and became a massive whiney bitch as well over the last 5+ years) I also give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Also, like Oli implies, there really is no way to ever tell unless he actually did use a motor and he actually decides to admit it. Both highly unlikely in my opinion.
Now, this is a proper motorbike. Miss doing this. And have to remember I can’t do this on a bicycle.
Something is wrong/weird. My pic didn’t post.
@blackpooltower
Well since no one else had it, try this link. Might also contain Oprahs.
@frank
Whoa, what about Denmark??
We do not have a motor-gate as far as I know. Ok, we HAD “Mr. 60%-Riis”, but it was decent doping with a mega-dose EPO, completely old-school. No moped-ride here……
Before we allow this to strangle all the fun out of our favorite sport…here is a Finding from a recent Harper’s Magazine:
“Sleeping Germans given incorrect definitions of Dutch words are not hindered in their language acquisition.”
Hmm…
@DavyMuur
Yup, I am a firm luddite on this one. It is just like disc brakes for me. If it isn’t broken, why try to fix it (except to dupe the public into believing that they HAVE to HAVE this new unbelievable technology at any cost and that it was a miracle that we somehow survived without it).
Now I do love my clipless pedals and my brake lever shifters, but I do not ever see myself on electronic shifting or disc brakes on the road bike.
@Ron
Now THERE is grant money well spent, eh?
@Buck Rogers
Luddites of the world unite!
Not a fan of the disc either – mainly for aesthetic reasons – but at least they’re not electronic!
@Dean C
That’s taking “marginal gains” a bit far, non? (I think that’s an England rider and therefore likely to fall under Brailsford’s sphere of influence.)
@Oli
Thank you! I can’t believe we are having the discussion of Cancellara again. People, get a fucking grip here. Has Spartacus not earned his reputation? Are we not entertained? He is not some U23 dropping everyone on the Koppenberg. He crushed Boonen on the Kapelmuur, get over it, it’s a long as hell climb.
@Buck Rogers
never say never or not ever or whatever, cheers
@wilburrox
Right! I can handle being associated with Sean Connery, although I do not wear a toupee even though I could use one. We’ll have to revisit this issue in 20 years and see if I have caved yet on either the electronic or the toupee.
@Gianni
@Gianni
This. And 4 other amateur explanations.
– Fabs has set the pace. Tommeke is reacting.
– Fabs is on the inside setts. Tommeke is wider on the cobbles.
– In that moment, Fabs hits just the right gear, power, cadence to go more faster. Tommeke is behind the gear and never quite gets over it.
– Hookers and blow.
@Gianni
@DavyMuur
The slightly odd thing for me about marginal gains and disc brakes in the peloton is that aerodynamically they are terrible so balancing having better brakes on the descents vs the aero impact for the rest of the day seems out of kilter. OK accepting that missing one bend can kinda screw the rest of the day is a factor. I guess G would have an interesting slant on that from last year’s “incident”.
@Teocalli
It is industry driving this change, nothing else.
Call me a conspiracist but this is nothing but trying to pry more money out of the suckers in the world.
There is no need for this in the pro peloton on road bikes. None.
(and I’m an authority on this because I claim to be one on the internet)
@kixsand
Yes of course. Here’ya go!
@Buck Rogers
I don’t disagree. I can quite easily lock a wheel with conventional brakes and I’m more concerned over locking a wheel vs getting sufficient stopping power. I have the #9 bike for grinding paste conditions. I guess they do make sense for CX.
I suppose the other area though is with heat on the rim causing blowouts on alpine descents. Not many of those in Southern England though to be too much of a worry.
@Harminator
Are you saying hookers and blow are detrimental to riding a bike fast uphill?? Goddamit now I gotta revise my whole programme.
@chuckp
Loads of internet/web problems this morning. This is the pic I meant to post.
@paolo
Perhaps they had different hookers and blow and one was simply better than the others was. How many varieties have you experienced?
@Pete
Never judge a man by his Hooker and Blow until you have walked a mile in his shoes.