Cycling's War on Hidden Motors Goes Undercover

The International Cycling Union (UCI) has intensified its fight against mechanical doping, employing intelligence-driven methods to combat increasingly sophisticated alleged cheating in professional cycling.

- 

BOLLENE - The International Cycling Union (UCI) has intensified its fight against mechanical doping, employing intelligence-driven methods to combat increasingly sophisticated alleged cheating in professional cycling.

Once, inspectors relied on random X-rays and magnetic scans to catch offenders.

Now, the UCI is borrowing tactics from law enforcement — cultivating confidential sources, mapping risk profiles and monitoring bike changes in real time — to stay ahead in what officials call a technological arms race.

Mechanical doping — riders using concealed motors — first gained attention in 2016 and led to the six-year ban on Belgium's Femke van den Driessche after a Bluetooth-controlled motor was discovered in her seat tube at a cyclo-cross event.