Mechanical doping: Suspicions raised over Giro TT stage winner’s bike change

LottoNL-Jumbo have been explaining things, and asking for an apology from Strade2 (can't blame them really)...

http://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/179306/lottonl-jumbo-eist-rectificatie-...

The wheel in question was apparently from Neutral Service..

Mabe this has already been posted but the bike in front, side of the car, also has a hot (red) cassette?  Coincidence? 

I'm not at all convinced about these accusations, but neither would I be surprised if they turned out to be true.

The rear hub does appear to be slightly hotter than the tyres and the saddle, which is odd. The tyres produce heat from rolling resistance. The saddle receives body heat. The only sources of heat in the rear hub would be solar radiation and bearing friction. Now unless the bearings are pretty poorly adjusted/lubed (highly unlikely on a pro bike) the only other explanation is the sun, but I'd expect the front hub frame to be just as warm in that case. About the car, well, there are several potential reasons but nothing too watertight. Depending on air temperature at the time (I forget) it's possible the vehicle had the heatijg on and this would be spread through the metal body by conduction. There would be some dispersal of exhaust system heat through conduction but I don't know if it would be that much. I should try touching the rear of a car that's been driving to see how warm they get.

It would be a lot more convincing if it was much clearer picture with more bikes for comparison to other bikes to see what their rear hubs looked like. The other bike in shot's rear hub looks significantly cooler but it's hard to tell from the poor quality and obscured view.

One thing that makes me less convinced is that the crank also looks relatovely warm. I've no idea why.

I also thought he looked dodgy when being questionned, but that's hardly grounds to establish motor doping guilt, not least because his bike was apparently illegally set up initially and he may have been embarrassed.

I think my position is wait and see how this pans out.

Having seen what a modern (circa £10k) Fluke Thermal image camera can produce in terms of data per sensor pixel the so called evidence is 'merde'. Someone needs to hire a proper thermographer and his expertise not just playing with the tools.

So the cunning plan to win the stage relied upon his race bike being ruled illegal and there being a downpour to slow everyone else?

They do think of everything don't they?

Or maybe. Just maybe. The story is rubbish?

The overwhelming conclusion that I reached, looking at the photo in this article, is that the two things riding bicycles are either Robots or - worse still - Institute Synths - its the only logical conclusion based on the amount of heat they are producing, which is a lot more than the motors it ought to be pointed out.

I'm all for scrutiny of cycling, but Stade 2's record is pretty pathetic. They gather extremely weak evidence, put inordinate weight on the testimony of dodgy experts, and throw accusations at whichever riders they dislike that particular week - always non-French.

One of Froome's rides in the TDF - up St-Martin-whatever-it-is - has been used as evidence of doping; then it featured again as evidence of him having an electric motor. Make your minds up, guys. If one day it turns out that Froome has been cheating, fine, say so when you have some evidence.

If I remember correctly, the Stage 9 TT was nothing short of treacherous in the final hour with riders going off all over the place and the final corner claiming a number of victims as riders on TT bikes struggled to stay upright on a large area of paint (demarking disabled parking).  Hence, anyone who was good at a TT (and had demonstrated this on Stage 1) and was going off early (before the rain came) would be expected to do well, relatively.

 In the event, the Stage 9 winner had placed second on the Stage 1 TT and was one of the early riders in Stage 9.  QED.  Or, as the French say, "un coureur français n'a pas gagné"

I haven't really been following this but has any French rider been named yet by this French newspaper.

To me the picture merely shows that the area around the cassette is warmer than the surrounding area, much in the same way as the tyres and saddle do. In fact the riders legs are a lot brighter so, to me, that implies they are a lot hotter than the tyres and saddle, given my limited understanding of thermal imaging. Given that the motor has to be hidden, and therefore by definition enclosed, surely it would run a lot hotter than it is shown in the picture, plus, as has already pointed out the hub would have to be a lot bigger, otherwise the benefit is going to totally minute for the increase in weight.

Good on them for maintaining scrutiny on the sport. Easy for us to snipe at journos, but they're usually the ones that catch on to what's happening and feed it back to us. If you're an investigator, at anything, you have to follow any trail of evidence you get, no matter how weak. 

As long as they're simply putting evidence out there, casting suspicions and what have you then it's fine. There's a line to be crossed of course, and we don't need to worry about that, as it's a legal one with consquences of its own.

Then again, we've seen journos legally silenced, even when they turned out later to be right.

That said, I'm not convinced yet that motorised doping is prolific, or even common. I'm sure it's been experimented with, you'd have to be daft as a duck not to believe mechanics haven't been toying with and trialing hidden motors, but it's too hard to get away with in competition.

Which is the main point really when it comes to crime or rule breaking. People will do whatever they can get away with. Fact of life. Ethics is a sort of island where people with no opportunity hang out and rub each other's backs. 

French TV are just testing public reaction to this sort of accusation before they use it on Froome in a couple of weeks time.

Everyone convinced by the 'bike too long' explanation then?

Thermal imaging is a pretty poor way to spot motors.

Its well known that only motors can make things warm.

What I find amazing is that both tyres (front and rear) are made of motors too. And the saddle.

The boot of the team car also is made of motors. Amazing thing these thermal cameras!

FYI- If you are going to fit a motor and battreies within a wheel hub - it's going to be flipping obvious.