UCI to scan Tour bikes for motors

The International Cycling Union are to use scanners at next month’s Tour de France to combat rumoured ’mechanical doping’.

It was reported earlier this month that motors were being placed in bike frames to aid riders by powering their pedals at specific points of a race, speculation which was greeted with a mixture of amazement and wonder.

Electronic gears are already permitted in bikes, which under regulations must be commercially available, and Chris Boardman, a former Tour de France yellow jersey wearer and now at the forefront of technological innovations, said he had informed the UCI in a meeting of the plausibility of placing a motor in the bike frame.

Fabian Cancellara was implemented in speculative reports in the European media, but the Swiss Olympic and world time-trial champion categorically denied the allegations.

His Saxo Bank team issued a strongly-worded statement earlier this month which concluded: “There will be no further Team comment on this situation as we feel the insinuations do not warrant further time or energy”.

However, the UCI have felt it necessary to tighten bike checks, beginning at the most prestigious race in the cycling calendar, which starts in Rotterdam on July 3 and finishes in Paris on July 25.

A UCI statement released today read: “The members of the management committee discussed issues concerning equipment used in road competitions and decided that it was necessary to bolster measures that have already been put in place (in particular the visual inspection of bicycles, a procedure that was recently reinforced).

“As a result, a scanner will be used from the time of the Tour de France.

“This instrument, recently tested with a successful outcome, will allow an official to detect any illegal devices that may be concealed, for example, in the bicycle frame.

“Furthermore, a close collaboration with Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), a Swiss technical institute of international renown, is being studied.

“The objective of this cooperation would be to examine ways to control, in an optimal manner, the influence of technology over the equipment used in cycling, such that this could offer a beneficial contribution to the sport and avoid any future deviations.

“Finally, from now on race service will be subject to stricter regulation in order to ensure that only equipment that has been checked at the start or finish can be used during competitions.”