War on hidden motors goes undercover

BOLLENE, France :The International Cycling Union (UCI) has intensified its fight against mechanical doping, employing intelligence-driven methods to combat increasingly sophisticated alleged cheating in professional cycling.

Once, inspectors relied on random X-rays and magnetic scans to catch offenders.

Now, the UCI is borrowing tactics from law enforcement – building confidential sources, mapping risk profiles and monitoring bike changes in real time – to stay ahead in what officials call a technological arms race.

Mechanical doping – riders using concealed motors – first gained attention in 2010 and led to the six-year ban of Belgium’s Femke Van Den Driessche after a bluetooth-controlled motor was discovered in her seat tube at a cyclo-cross event.

Since then, the UCI has expanded its detection arsenal, now employing daily checks of up to 60 bikes during the Tour de France.

All bikes have passed the checks since the Tour started in Lille on July 5.

"We have the ability... to go further with our examinations, whether that's a partial dismantlement of the bike to look into certain components, act upon suspicions, act upon information that we have," Nick Raudenski, the UCI Head of the Fight Against Technological Fraud, told Reuters on Wednesday.

Raudenski, a former criminal investigator with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, took over in May last year and immediately pushed for a new approach.

"Bike controls, it's something that I've always equated anytime that I've done speeches or done training, it's like throwing your hook out in the middle of a lake trying to catch fish," he said.

"If you don't have a strategy, if you're not informed about how to catch fish, what time of day, what kind of fish, where you can catch