It’s one of cycling’s greatest mysteries – or conspiracies, depending on who or what you believe: have professional cycling races been won with concealed motors? 

You’ll be well-versed in the most high-profile accusations: Fabian Cancellara at the 2010 Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix; Chris Froome at the 2013 Tour de France; and Ryder Hesjedal’s spinning back wheel at the 2014 Vuelta a España. These are among many unproven and strenuously denied allegations, but they are rumours that have only had their fans flamed by the fact that the UCI, cycling’s world governing body, didn’t have any specific tests in place to detect motors until January 2016 (save for the odd roll out of an x-ray machine and occasional dismantling of bikes), meaning riders could have had motorised assistance without fear of such cheating being uncovered.

But no one, except the young Belgian cyclocross rider Femke van den Driessche in 2016 – coincidently or not, on the first day the UCI introduced a magnetic scanner that is still in use today – has ever been caught with a motor in their bike. 

For the past two years, I have been investigating technological fraud – or motor doping, as the topic is commonly referred to –  and in early 2024 I and Stak released Ghost in the Machine, a seven-part podcast documentary examining the issue. Among many things that I’ve learned, the most striking is that, though not everyone will admit it for fear of reproach, there is near-universal acceptance within the sport that motor doping was happening more widely pre-2016; Van den Driessche was not the only one – she was just the unlucky one to be caught. A scapegoat, some say.

Which begs the question: will we ever find out the ‘truth’ about past motor doping? And is the UCI, despite giving “carte blanche” to the American former criminal investigator Nick Raudenksi, the man responsible for dealing with the threat since May, really willing to dig up the past and potentially unresolved trauma?

This article was published on Cyclingnews in December 2024. You can read the full article here.