The USA television show CBS 60 minutes has confirmed it will broadcast an investigation into mechanical doping in cycling on Sunday, exactly one year after a rudimentary hidden motor was found at the 2016 UCI cyclo-cross world championships.
CBS 60 Minutes is famous for its investigative reporting and has won over 100 Emmy awards. For the report into mechanical doping, CBS reporter Bill Whitaker travelled to Hungary last summer to speak to Istvan Varjas, who showed him how he makes his commercial mechanical doping motor systems. Greg LeMond and others were also interviewed about the issue.
Varjas spoke to the French newspaper Le Monde in mid-December and hinted about the US television investigation, with the French newspaper suggesting the revelations could have as big an impact as the Festina Affair, which exposed wide-spread doping in the peloton and almost brought the Tour de France to a halt in 1998.
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Varjas confirmed that he sold one of his first motor prototypes 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.
In its online presentation for Sunday’s programme, 60 minutes suggests that Varjas was paid $2 million. Asked whether he believes hidden motors like his have been used since then, he answered: “I think. Yes.”
Varjas dismissed any responsibility for mechanical doping in professional cycling, telling 60 Minutes “If a grandfather came and buys a bike and after it goes to... his grandson who is racing, it’s not my problem.”
- Mechanical doping: A brief history
- CBS 60 Minutes investigates mechanical doping in professional cycling
- Femke Van den Driessche denies using motor at cyclo-cross World Championships
- What is mechanical doping?
- UCI refutes mechanical doping allegations, Motors in use since 1999? A 'big story' coming soon
The history of mechanical doping
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