People behind motor doping website reveal it was a honeypot operation

Anyone who uses the word butthurt should be hanged.

To me, this sort of thing looks to have a quite legitimate market among some riders, especially as it would appear to be fairly easy to install such a thing in pretty much any bike and, possibly, a lot cheaper than buying a new e-bike. I've yet to even see an e-road bike, although there are plenty of e-mountain and leisure bikes popping up in my local bike shops. For example:

- Quite probably a lot of enquiries from older/injured riders that are struggling to keep up with their mates on rides or are struggling to do distances they used to do but don't want to ride an obvious e-bike or see this as a cheap/easy thing to retro fit to their current favourite bike.

- I'd also imagine there's a market for it among touring riders, especially where it gets rather hilly. Putting a motor inside the frame means it wouldn't interfere with luggage.

In fact, I don't have a problem with anyone using one of these, as long as it's not in any sort of official race. The devil is in how you catch the ones that are doing this.

Oh well, maybe they can just pass the evidence on to British Cycling and let them take it forward.  Oh, wait . . .

Its not hugely suspicious... I'd question the authenticity of the claim.

If they really were fishing, and manageed to get a reasonable sized fish on the hook, why not real it in a bit? 

The example given is very much a case of getting a bite and then immediately cutting the cord. 

So many reasons why a manager would want to know more... nothing to see here. 

Let's assume that it was the actual boss of an actual team writing the email and not spoofed.  It would still be "approximately" plausible to claim that what they were doing was researching how easy it would be for their competitors to get hold of such devices.  

Worth saying also that the UCI rules only state that bikes "within or on the margins of a cycling competition" must be compliant, so it would not be prohibited to have one at a training camp in Tenerife for example.  It could, quite reasonably, be there so that coaches could accompany riders.

Now, it's hugely suspicious, but in the absence of any evidence otherwise I think that defence would stand... you could certainly imagine a certain brass necked bald chap giving it a good go.

I would imagine there's one or two people who are a little bit nervous at this news, assuming they were who they said they were.

Fair enough that these guys thought it was a good idea to try to catch people out, although it seems more that it was done as something to raise awareness of the issue, if they were really trying to catch people out something more subtle might have been needed.

I highly doubt this would happen in a world tour team, it's not really clever enough for them, it'd be too easy to get caught, too many chances to go wrong and there's too much at stake. Privateer racers or much lower level teams at smaller races where they know checks are virtually non existant might be more of a possibility, but even so, if you suspected someone of doping you might be able to get the organisers to single them out for testing if you're lucky, and even then it'd need to be something that was still in their system, whereas if you really thought someone had a hidden motor, it's pretty quick for a race organiser to ask to inspect the bike and find something in a matter of seconds.

Its a pretty stupid team boss that emails like that and puts their position/team name at the bottom if it is a serious enquiry, mind you if you are stupid enough to want to cheat...  

I don't see why hidden motors should present such a problem to be honest, its not as if it isn't possible to inspect all the bikes on the start line.  We don't need 2 samples and zero punto zero zero zero zero grammos nonsense.  UCI just need to buy a cheap boroscope camera off ebay and pull out a few saddles on every start-line.  

Without sounding like I just went to school to eat my lunch, the team manager (and others) may well have been enquiring to find out how the things could be used and how to spot the cheats. 

For the same reason when I stumbled across numerous dazzle covered Audis on the Sierra Nevada, doing a testing, there was a C class Merc in amongst them....

If these people named the team and/or team manager who showed an interest in the motors they would probably be committing libel, and they know it.

Just because someone might have enquired about this technology does not mean to say they had any intention of doping. Some of the people enquiring might have been wanting to expose the people involved in the business of mechanical doping.

And also, it could have been someone posing as a well known team manager in order to create a bit of mischief. Or it could have been someone's (almost funny) attempt at humour. You do not have to be Sherlock Holmes to realize this.

Why has road.cc even touched this story originating from a bunch of twerps who thought up a silly project? Stick to your reviews of bikelights and helmets.

This isn't a honneypot.  They are 6' blonde endurance tests called Svetlana.  You lose all credability, future sponsorship and quite a lot of skin*, but oddly, no regrets.  This is nothing like that.

* hotel flooring dependant. 

This isn't a honneypot.  They are 6' blonde endurance tests called Svetlana.  You lose all credability, future sponsorship and quite a lot of skin*, but oddly, no regrets.  This is nothing like that.

* hotel flooring dependant. 

Ok so Ian Munro definitely put in for one.

"I reckon publish a full list of everyone who enquired."

They won't because it would put them in the middle of a data protection shit storm.  
There's perfectly legitimate reasons people may have enquired. The technically curious,  teams wanting to examine how other teams may cheat, converning organisations wanting to surreptitiously check on current state of the art, and no doubt many people wanting to know if they can get away with cheating.  It's a foolhardy person who post anyone's name with the inference of cheating, if they can't back it up with evidence of actual cheating.

Let's not jump to conclusions, I'm sure they're... umm... for team staff. Like Sky's 70 doses of triamcinolone. 

I reckon publish a full list of everyone who enquired.

Next week on Brass Eye....

What's the point of a honeypot which names no names?

That's all well and good, but where can I get one?