Doping in sports is unfortunate but inevitable. After all with such high stakes, everyone wants an edge, even if that edge is illegal and considered cheating. Probably one of the more high profile cases of doping in cycling would be Lance Armstrong, although reports have suggested that it was a pretty common occurrence.
However it looks like a new method of doping has been discovered, and it is called technological/mechanical doping. This was recently discovered during the cyclocross World Championships over the weekend, in which 19-year old Belgian cyclist Femke Van den Driessche was discovered to have engaged in technological doping, where a hidden motor was found inside her bike.
How it was discovered was when the cyclist was forced to pull out of the race due to a mechanical problem. Subsequent checks by the Union Cycliste International (UCI) with a radio-frequency-detecting tablet discovered a motor hidden in the bottom bracket of the bicycle. According to UCI President Brian , “It is no secret that a motor was found…we believe that it was indeed technological doping.”
Van den Driessche claims that the bike belonged to a friend and had mistakenly found its way to her lineup of bikes on race day. The UCI will be conducting an investigation to see whether or not her claims are true. Speaking to Belgian TV channel Sporza, she was quoted as saying, “I feel really terrible. I’m aware I have a big problem. (But) I have no fears of an inquiry into this. I have done nothing wrong.”
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