Mechanical doping used in Strade Bianche and Coppi e Bartali
French TV programme Stade 2 and Italian paper Corriere della Sera have conducted a thorough investigation and they now claim that hidden motors have been used in Strade Bianche and Coppi e Bartali.
Thierry Vildary and Marco Bonarrigo used a very expensive heat detector to reveal hidden motors during these races. Their full investigation is set to be shown on French television during the Stade 2 programme on Sunday evening. During their research, Vildary and Bonarrigo talked to Hungarian engineer Istvan Varjas, the alleged creator of the hidden motors. Apparently the most advanced motors can produce between 60 and 250 Watts of power and they lay hidden in carbon fiber rims. What makes them special is that they can only be detected via a powerful magnetic field detector.
The heat detector used by Thierry Vildary and Marco Bonarrigo managed to spot no less than 7 motors used during Strade Bianche and Coppi e Bartali. Of these 7, two were hidden in the rear hub and cassette and the other five in the seat tube. Some were ordinary large motors, while others were more advanced and harder to spot. Their findings are thought to be accurate because the report states that experts agreed that only a motor could have created heat like that identified.”
The technology is expensive as the rims reportedly cost 50,000 Euro for each wheel and are only made available to a very limited number of athletes.
Stade 2 released a teaser video to promote their full investigation programme which will air at 5:25 CET: