Heat shooting exposed bicycle riders with hidden electric motors

For several years now there have been rumors that elite cyclists are hiding small illegal electric motors in bicycles. In 2010, such a motor in the bicycle carriage was first shown on video , there were other suspicious cases when the wheel continued to rotate even after the racer fell. But this evidence remained indirect: it seemed that hiding the electric motor in the frame was too outrageous and impudent fraud, so that someone would decide on it. So it was thought, while in the bike of the famous Belgian racer Femke Van Den Driesch at the World Cycling Championship for athletes under 23 years old in January 2016 really did not find such a device .

Since then, the International Cycling Union has begun regular testing of bikes for "technodoping" before the big races. They found none, but journalists from the Italian Corriere della Serra, together with the French television channel Télévisions Stade 2, conducted their own investigation - and provided evidence of the hidden electric motors in racing bikes on the track.

It was possible to expose fraudsters using thermal imaging (heat shooting) at two Italian cycling races in March of this year.
')
Below is a full 20-minute report on this topic.



On some frames, it is clearly visible that the bicycle is anomalously heated in the wrong places. This clearly indicates the presence of hidden items.

Heat survey showed that five athletes used an electric motor in a bicycle carriage with batteries in a frame - the same as Femke Van Den Drisch.

Two of them had an electromagnetic system installed on the rear wheel.







The journalists paid a visit to the Italian mechanic Alessandro Bartoli, who disguises electric motors in the frames of sports bikes: such a motor worth € 10,000 develops a power of 250 watts. After examining the footage of the heat survey, the specialist said that someone had managed to develop a more secretive design of heat motors with a more uniform heat release in order to hide from the thermal imagers. Orange spots in the bicycle carriage appear on the climbs and disappear on the slopes when the motor is not in use.

Hungarian engineer Ishtvan Varyas told how the electromagnetic wheels on the bikes of elite racers are arranged. Such a techno-doping is even more subtle and difficult to detect than the electric motor in the carriage. Several neodymium magnets are hidden in the rear wheel, and the coil under the seat generates an induction emf, adding 60 watts of power to the athlete. The field is controlled via an activator via Bluetooth. For € 50,000, engineer Ishtvan Varyas makes wheels with magnets that are not detectable for electromagnetic detectors. He sells them to professional cyclists.

Alberto Contador presumably won the prestigious Giro d'Italia cycling race in 2015 on electromagnetic wheels. This is indicated by the behavior of one of the mechanics of the team, filmed with a hidden camera in a tent for technical inspection after one of the stages.

Having collected evidence, the journalists appealed to the president of the International Cycling Union, Brian Cookson. With a worried look, the official said that there is unfortunately no conclusive evidence.

It seems that not only Russia suffers from corruption.