"Motor or just skidding?" Mechanical doping suspicions raised against World Cyclo-cross Champ Wout Van Aert

They don't call him Wout "Full Throttle" Van Aert for nothing.

I don't think that's any kind of motor, more likely an extremely loose bit of mud and the weight shifted off the back wheel.  I think the bump in the track that throws him from the saddle makes it look worse.

If Wout had a motor he would have just used it to win the sprint at the end. He's lost every head to head this season against MvdP when they've been together on the last lap. If he's got a motor he's not using it right.

Keep calm,  AS's guys have never seen a bike. This paper is just a (bad) football focused one.

Definitely not a motor. Looks to me like the wheel is in the air - that's why its spinning that fast. And the motors that we know of are linked to the crank. Not just the wheel.

Is everybody looking at the same thing? 1:43 in. Deffo a motor.

I think the contention that WvA had a motor in his bike that caused his wheel to spin as shown in this clip is complete and utter bullshit. (But I don't know whether he has cheated in some other way, I hope not but I've been wrong about people before and I have no way of knowing.)

Its Krawatencross, not Karawarencross.

It's good that Spanish press is at least covering cross. What with good showing at the worlds, its obviously a growing part of cyclosport in the Iberian peninsula.

I am not sure the DVV is a lower level event, especially as it was last round and WvA was leading overall series from KP (fourth wheel in Marlux colours above), albeit by a few minutes.

Finally - its a shame this bullshit overshadows what was a fantastic piece of skill (and even some good sportsmanship - check out WvA's little "sorry, f*%cked that up" hand gesture as they exit the turn) from MvdP and WvA, which happened in one of the more exciting races of the season.

Also, hasn't the idea of a hub mounted motor (which would be required to recreate the effect in the video) been pretty well debunked*?

The traditional seat-tube/crank motor combo wouldn't have your wheel spinning like crazy when the cranks are static like that (see also, famous Ryder Hesjedal clip)

* i.e. yes it would be physically possible, but to make it small enough, light enough and discreet enough, whilst also meaningfully powerful, would be beyond the ability/budget of a pro cycling team...

So let me get this right -  the World Champion - whose bikes were comprehensively checked by the UCI at the Worlds needs to have a motor in order to perform at lower level events ?

Does that make sense to anyone ?

Rubbish. 

Well, the guy at 24sec - 30sec  is obviously using nitrous injection...

There's a gif of the moment on the clynic that looks suspicious, but watching it full size it looks normal to me. I'd have thought if he had a motor he would be better using it on the sections he was losing time (small hills where he had to run or use his leg to help him up).
Also the rider on the inside is slowing down considerably (looks like one leg unclipped), this appears to make it look like the skid is increasing speed against the other riders.

Motor or not,  well held that man!!!!

There's a certain irony in a Spanish paper accusing any sportsmen of cheating.  #Cough# Fuentes

The wheel is skidding sideways but the bike is moving forward. Surprisingly forward motion of bike causes even an unpedalled wheel to go round. Shock horror, both my front and rear wheels go round if I roll forwards without pedalling. Jeebus! Investigative journalism?

He's probably putting out between 500-800w. If the wheel looses traction, of course it's going to spin faster as he doesn't instantly stop pedalling when the wheel slides. 

As a side note, I can make a wheel do that in mud. Not hard.

Looks perfectly normal, also remember he was just attacking before that moment. Also Wout didn't even win the race, so was Vanderpoel using a better motor?  It's just bullshit really, there bikes get checked alot now, not worth it, get caught=end of carreer! Btw Herbie, have u even watched the video, he used his leg to get up the hill (pushing himself with it)!

It is 1:27 in to the video for anyone who doesn't want to watch 2 minutes of nothing much.

It looks like a perfectly normal slide as far as the video goes. If that is all the evidence of a motor then there must be a V8 hidden somewhere on my road bike. 

Certainly Van Aert's back wheel seemed to catch him up several times,twice as obviously as the main slip, plus just before that he appeared to continue riding uphill with only one leg in the cleats, the other leg trailing! Was his bike examined?

Let's ask Van den Driessche! she is first hand experiences user