The gear drive is hidden inside the down tube and lithium battery packs are designed in water bottles. I guess the officials are walking the line pulling the bottles out of their cages before the race begins.
I’d think that bike doping would make the bike heavier. Do they ever weigh them prior to racing events?
Thy can compensate. Plus batteries are lighter now and more energy dense.
At that level, with time differences being so small, a person would only need a very small energy burst at a critics time to win a race. It may have been undetectable, even on the scales.
The gear drive is hidden inside the down tube and lithium battery packs are designed in water bottles. I guess the officials are walking the line pulling the bottles out of their cages before the race begins.
A tiny brushless motor and li battery could supply close to 1 hp and weigh well under 450 grams (perhaps the article clarifies the technical details).
There is a minimum weight but it would be easy to swap after weighing as teams have extra bikes
The way to stop this is to stop using the dangerously light and throw away carbon fiber frames with over sized tubing and going back to traditional steel, titanium, or aluminum frames. Those don’t have room for the motors or batteries
Most pro bicycle races have minimum weights that the bikes have to meet. For the Tour De France it’s just over 15 lbs. (6.8 kilos). So in theory, one could build a 13 pound bike and add a two pound motor and still be riding a bike that is no heavier than the ones any of the other riders are on.
IIRC there was some conspiracy theory style speculation a few years back that Fabian Cancellara might have done this but there was no hard evidence found (at least that I am aware of).