Istvan Varjas, the Hungarian engineer believed to have invented the technology used for mechanical doping in cycling, has suggested that the UCI obstructed French police from carrying out checks on riders he had indicated as possible users of hidden motors during this year's Tour de France.
He also claimed that he sold one of the first prototypes of a motor at the end of 1998, and as part of an agreement he could not talk about the technology or continue to develop it for 10 years. He did not say who may have benefitted from using a hidden motor during that 10-year period but revealed that he has been paid for information for a television investigation made in the US that could soon reveal more.
Varjas made the accusations during an interview with Ger Gilroy of the Irish Off the Ball radio show. Gilroy previously interviewed Lance Armstrong for the show, asking the disgraced cyclist if he ever used a motor or if anyone approached him about using one. An incredulous Armstrong told Gilroy he hadn't, adding further that that nobody even knew about motorised doping in 1999.
During the Wednesday evening interview, Varjas went as far as suggesting the UCI could be complicit in the use of motorized doping. In June an investigation by French television show Stade 2 revealed that Mark Barfield – the UCI's technical manager – had informed an intermediary that French police were trying to question Varjas at the 2015 Tour de France about the sale of hidden motors to professional riders and their use in the peloton. It seems Varjas avoided police questioning in 2015, but he reveals he returned to the Tour de France this year.
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"This summer we had a very strange experience in the Tour de France, with LeMond, Kathy and Greg," Varjas told Gilroy during the radio interview.
"They came the gendarmerie to interrogate me. I asked if they really wanted to grab who was using the motors. They said, 'Yes, we are ready to fight against it, and we want to grab the people who use it.' So I told them what they have to do, and they said, 'OK, we will do it.'”
"They went to make this kind of check, and the UCI refused to allow them to check the bikes. So after that there were no more questions. You can say everything bad about me but I had noting to do with these cheaters.”
- Lance Armstrong denies ever using mechanical doping
- Mechanical doping: A brief history
- Cookson to mechanical dopers: We will find you
- Wiggins sure motor doping has been going on for some time
- Kathy LeMond: UCI needs to do more to fight mechanical doping
An exclusive 10-year deal
The Ferrari connection
A major investigation coming soon
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