Long-standing FDJ team manager Marc Madiot believes hidden motors have been used in the professional peloton in the past, citing bike changes as possible evidence. Even if he doubts they are currently in use, he joined the French Cycling Federation (FFC) president this week in calling on the UCI to do more to catch potential cheats.
Mechanical doping has hit the headlines once again this week after a 43-year-old amateur French rider was caught with a motor hidden in his seat tube at a race in the Dordogne region of France. He is the second veteran rider to be caught this year. The discovery of a motor in the bike of Femke van den Driessche at the 2016 cyclo-cross World Championships first triggered increased urgency in the fight against what the UCI terms 'technological fraud'.
FDJ manager Madiot, a former pro and current head of the Ligue Nationale de Cyclisme, spoke about the case in an interview with French newspaper, Le Parisien.
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"It's pathetic. In my opinion, what he's doing is not profitable. All that to win two sausages and three packets of crisps…I don't see the point," he argued.
In the pro ranks, however, there is significantly more to gain, even if there is more to lose.
"In those [amateur] categories, there have surely been other cases. In the pros, too – though I don't think anymore," he said. "There was a blurry period where no one believed in the existence of it – and it was therefore easier to use it. From the moment there were doubts, as if by coincidence we saw fewer and fewer bike changes."
'What's at stake is the credibility and future of the sport'
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