UCI confident of motor detection methods

PARIS: The International Cycling Union (UCI) insisted they have been using the best method available to detect motors hidden in bikes after a media report suggested mechanical doping was evident at World Tour level.

Television station France  2 claimed that hidden motors were used in the Strade Bianche one-day race and the Coppi e Bartali race in Italy this season.

The UCI did not respond specifically on the accusation but said they were happy with their methods, which have found one hidden motor earlier this year in the bike of Belgian Femke Van den Driessche at the Under-23 cyclocross world championships.

“We have been trialling new methods of detection over the last year,” the UCI told Reuters in an email statement.

“By far the most cost effective, reliable and accurate method has proved to be magnetic resonance testing”

“We are confident that we now have a method of detection that is extremely efficient and easy to deploy,” the governing body said.