Mechanical Doping

I wonder if this "friends" bike just coincidentally happens to have been set up with her exact fit dimensions...

While I agree that 6.8 is a bit arbitrary, I don't think lighter bikes is necessarily a good thing as it will punish bigger riders. Also the most technologically advanced TT frames tend to be well over the weight limit anyway.

I think what Neal Rogers was really saying is that the UCI is WAAAAY too amateurish for the modern pro scene. If all the teams are in wind tunnels and the frames are built by Phd scientists, then clearly there needs to be a much more rigorous scrutineering protocol like exists in motorsport. for example, at the beginning of the season the bikes are all homologated (really closely checked) against the rules for that class (think road, cx etc), and at the end of every race they carefully check the technical for compliance. Of course there are the logistics of lots of bikes to deal with, but I'm sure they could work something out. Hoping that they get (presumably pissed of mechanics) anonymous tip offs is a stupid policy.

While I agree that 6.8 is a bit arbitrary, I don't think lighter bikes is necessarily a good thing as it will punish bigger riders.

Currently it already punish big and small riders with the 6.8 figures.

at the beginning of the season the bikes are all homologated (really closely checked) against the rules for that class (think road, cx etc), and at the end of every race they carefully check the technical for compliance. Of course there are the logistics of lots of bikes to deal with, but I'm sure they could work something out

Who's gonna pay for that tho

Festina

And Shimano

lance

ASO

And another... :)

Linkage, in case anyone can't find it

http://plaquesuperieure.cc/

And a pair of CX tubs.

Utter bullshit excuse from her and her cheating family.

No 'friend' has yet come forward and who has a friend who's exactly the same size/setup anyway? And friend who leaves their bike in the pits at a World Champs? And who in the meantime has installed a motor into it (a hidden motor at that) And it somehow gets handed up to the racer. And she accidentally turns it on and smashes everyone up the climb...

Utter horseshit. The whole family should be banned from cycling Femke and Niels von farkin EPO.

You're missing the point here and that is that her bike contained a motor.

If she didn't use it, it's irrelevant. It's there in her bike and that's illegal.

If indeed these motors have been used in competition

They have. Hence the UCI report they found one in her bike.

they must be pretty sophisticated to remain undetected

It didn't remain undetected.

And it somehow gets handed up to the racer. And she accidentally turns it on and smashes everyone up the climb

Motorised bike hadn't been used, apparently.

Nobody would have suggested she'd been 'helped' up that climb, three months ago, until Saturday when motorgate kicked off.

I'd love to see pictures of the bike - like @andyp and @hovis suggests if it's set up for racing, her team colours and her contact points, then it's going to be pretty damning.

If it doesn't tick the first two of those points then there's still room for doubt.

That was kind of my point. A lot of people have been doing the whole Armstrong thing of claiming they knew she was cheating all along because of some other fairly flimsy evidence.

if it's set up for racing, her team colours and her contact points, then it's going to be pretty damning.>

The real damnation is a lot more solid than that. Bit of DNA testing on the saddle. If it's only hers then case closed and no appeal.

Race-ready Shiv with Zipp disc, 808, powermeter, etc. is ~7.5kg.

DNA on the saddle? Was she bare back? :oP Maybe a finger print?

Again, the UCI wouldn’t elaborate too much on how it discovered the fraud. However, an unnamed source who was in the pits at the time of the discovery (who was working in the pits for a competing team/athlete) tells grit.cx that UCI officials were seen in the pits during the U23 women’s race with a tablet-like device in a blue enclosure. The officials appeared to be carefully passing the tablet around the tubes of the bicycle frame, before the bike was seized and taken away for further investigation. grit.cx talked with someone with direct knowledge of the investigation, who asked we not use his name because he is not authorized to discuss the investigation. While this source would not elaborate on the details of the discovery technology, he did say it was similar to a sort of electromagnetic-based technology. (We previously incorrectly reported that this testing was similar to x-ray or MRI, but readers pointed out that would be impossible for several reasons, and that it is much more likely to be EM-based technology. – Ed.)

From: http://grit.cx/news/2016/02/cyclcross-motor-doping-what-we-know

Sporza reported that it had been used. Is there any evidence that it was/wasn't used?

Bit of DNA testing on the saddle. If it's only hers then case closed and no appeal.

Yeahbut the mechanic must have fitted the saddle to it then...etc

Thing is, she can follow the rabbit warren of denial as far as it goes. The bike wasn't used. They can sting her for having it, and having it in the pits, but she wasn't caught knowingly riding it in competition. As far as I know. Maybe I'm reading the wrong reports?

Not that this helps her ultimately - it looks like game over in terms of career which is very sad regardless of guilt at that age.

Sporza reported that it had been used.

News to me. Gotta link?

Lots of conflicting reports out there. First thing I heard is she finished the bike on the race, and officials were alerted because of an unnatural mechanical fault, now she might not have raced on the bike at all. Surely unless they can prove they actually rode the bike in competition she can wriggle out of it?

Does anyone know where I can get my hands on the 2016 Shiv? I'm due an upgrade and I like the look of the new model...