UCI president Brian Cookson visited the Tour of Qatar on Tuesday to run the rule over the finishing circuit of October’s World Road Race Championships in Doha in the company of Eddy Merckx. However the fall-out from the discovery of mechanical doping at the recent Cyclo-cross World Championships was one of the points of discussion when he met with reporters before the start of stage 2 –along with the possible suspension of the Katusha team, and the on-going impasse with ASO over the planned WorldTour reforms.
Belgian rider Femke Van Den Driessche faces charges of technological fraud after a motor was found in one of her bikes in the pits during the under-23 women’s race at the Zolder Worlds, but Cookson was unable to discuss the specifics of the case, or a possible timeline for its resolution.
“We’re referring this matter to the disciplinary commission and the case is being prepared at the moment. Obviously I don’t want to say anything that might prejudice the case which is in fact sub-judice. But this is a very serious development and we are handling it with the utmost care,” Cookson told Cyclingnews and a small group of reporters at the Tour of Qatar.
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While the motor in Van Den Driessche’s bike was reportedly discovered in the bottom bracket, media reports emanating from Italy and France over the past year have suggested that the technology of mechanical doping has already advanced, and that illegal aids were now to be found in wheels. Yet when Corriere della Sera succeeded in filming bike checks during last year’s Giro d’Italia, their footage showed that the UCI testers were searching for motors in the bottom bracket and seat tube, but not examining wheels. Speaking in Qatar on Tuesday, however, Cookson dismissed the notion that the testers have been looking in the wrong place.
“They’ve been looking everywhere. Please don’t delude yourself that we haven’t been taking this seriously,” Cookson said. “A number of bikes were taken to pieces at the finish of Milan-San Remo last year, for instance.”
“What we’ve been trying to do is to trial and develop equipment that will be easier to use and will allow us to scan more bikes, more quickly and at more races. The World Cyclo-cross Championships was a good example of that: we did 50 or 60 bikes on the first day and we found one that was suspicious when they took it apart. As you know, they found a motor, hence the case that is continuing now.”
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