Folks with details about potential motor doping in biking can now obtain a monetary reward from the UCI, after the world governing physique stepped up its efforts in combatting the chance that it described as posing “a major risk… to the integrity requirements of the game.”
Technological fraud, the act of propelling a motorbike “by a system or technique with electrical or different help”, has been a spectre hanging over biking for the previous twenty years, with the UCI’s president David Lappartient telling the Ghost within the Machine podcast earlier this 12 months that “if now we have a case of dishonest with a motor in a motorbike, it should destroy our sport.”
Belgian cyclocross rider Femke van den Driessche stays the solely rider to have ever been sanctioned for motor doping, however Biking Weekly understands that probably the most senior figures on the UCI are deeply involved that the observe should be ongoing. Lappartient vowed that “if we have to catch one of many high riders on the planet, I’m not afraid of that.”
Efficient instantly, the Battle towards Technological Fraud Rewards Programme “goals to encourage people who might possess crucial info however are reluctant to come back ahead, thereby offering a further instrument for the UCI to handle critical makes an attempt to defraud the biking group,” a assertion from the Switzerland-based federation learn.
It’s hoped that the supply of a monetary reward will incentivise individuals to provide info who in any other case might not really feel comfy doing so.
The UCI added that it’ll examine present and historic instances. Most allegations surrounding motor doping relate to the early 2010s, however all riders accused have constantly denied that they ever used motor know-how.
At the moment, the UCI has a number of strategies to detect potential technological fraud, together with two varieties of X-ray machines and a magnetic iPad scanner. No case of motor doping has been discovered since Van den Driessche in 2016.
Setting out its tips within the programme that first got here to gentle firstly of the 2024 Tour de France, the UCI mentioned that “the programme goals at incentivising reporting by means of monetary rewards or different types of compensation by means of confidential channels.”
Any info supplied will probably be assessed by the UCI to find out its high quality and reliability, with focused testing and in-depth investigations to comply with if required. Ought to the knowledge lead in the direction of the detection or prevention of technological fraud, the informant will probably be entitled to both materials help, monetary help, or financial or worth reward.
In Might, the UCI appointed former legal investigator Nick Raudenski to supervise its division in control of stopping motor doping, and the American advised the Ghost within the Machine podcast of his concern that authorities are unaware of the potential strategies of hid motors.
“I feel the know-how is on the market,” he mentioned. “I feel it exists and I feel if there may be sufficient cash to throw at an issue or a state of affairs, then there may be sufficient cash to supply an answer that may probably not be really easy to detect.”
The UCI’s assertion echoed Raudenski’s fears, stating {that a} additional goal of this system is present them with the data and alternative “to detect, deter and examine potential instances of technological fraud or makes an attempt to defraud biking occasions by means of using new and modern – and laborious to detect – know-how in bikes.”
Folks can present info by way of the UCI’s confidential SpeakUp platform, and in addition to a devoted e mail: techfraud@uci.ch.
