In the wake of the motorised doping story that has rocked cycling over the past week, two-time Tour De France Chris Froome has said his bike has been checked a dozen times for motors.
In the World Championship race in the Cyclo-cross format at Zolder the European U23 champion and Belgian rider Femke Van Den Driessche’s bike was taken away by UCI officials to be inspected; and it was later discovered that she had a motor concealed in her bike.
Motorised doping is said to be more of a threat than doping, as the UCI is trying to crack down on riders trying to conceal motors to aid their performance in races.
Froome was speaking to reporters ahead of the Herald Sun Tour where the Team Sky rider will be kicking off his season.
Froome says the authorities ‘should implement more random controls’
Doping was and still is a big threat to the sport, but the new phenomenon of motorised doping is something the UCI needs to take very seriously.
In an article on the Cycling Weekly website, Froome said that: "there have been rumours about motors being concealed within the bikes," and that over the past couple of seasons, "my bike has been checked and dismantled at least a dozen times."
Being the current Tour de France champion, Froome’s opinions matter, and he hopes the UCI will increase the number of checks on bikes: “They [the UCI] are taking the threat seriously and, hopefully, this will mean they only increase the number of checks they do on the WorldTour level,” said Froome.
The 30-year-old finished by saying that he hopes "authorities take this matter really seriously" and that they "implement" further, random controls throughout cycling, before stating, "that's the only way forward, the same way that authorities have approached doping."
UCI’s chief Brian Cookson weighed in on the argument, saying: “Technological fraud is unacceptable. We want the minority who may consider cheating to know that, increasingly there is no place to hide, and sooner or later they will pay for the damage they’re causing to our sport.”
This is a developing story and there is no doubt more fallout is to come, but the sport has already gone through painful times because of doping; what it doesn’t need is another form of endemic doping sweeping across the sport.