At Tour de France They will use thermal cameras to detect motors on the professionals’ bikes.
Professional cycling does not go through a good time. The shadow of doping has been around for years and as technology also advances, new forms of doping emerge that are not only applied to the rider himself.
It is called mechanical dopingand, although much has been said about it, it has not been detected so many times. However, at the beginning of the year we had a scandal for the cyclist Femke Van den Driessche, on whose bicycle they found an engine during the Cyclo-cross World Championship.
Thermal cameras to analyze the bikes before, during and after the stages
Femke Van den Driessche paid for the broken dishes with a 6-year penalty (unfortunate that there was nothing for the team). That was the first technological doping case in history Sunday, the confirmation of what has been rumored for so many years and many thought If they do it at the U23 World Cup, what won’t they do at higher levels?.
A few months later the controversy returned to the professional peloton, when the Italian media Corriere della Sera and the French television Stade2 published a report in which they used thermal cameras during the Strade Bianche and there were bicycle areas with unusual temperatures, such as the bottom bracket area or the profile of the wheels.
Bicycle engines exist, they are no secret and there are bicycle manufacturers who they sell models already assembled with the entire system perfectly hidden. From there to the use in the professional peloton there is a stretch, but in case the flies the UCI (International Cycling Union) has announced that during the 2016 Tour de France, which begins in a few days, there will be controls with thermal cameras.
Until now, the ICU has been usingmagnetometers to measure the density of magnetic flux using tablets and specific software, but now, in collaboration with the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Center for Scientific Research, they will use a thermal camera to measure the thermal properties of the bikes.
More than 4,000 controls to detect motors on bicycles
According to those responsible, the suspected mechanical doping It has grown and the last thing they want is for it to lose the soul of the Tour, one of the greatest cycling shows on the planet.
Thus, during the Tour de France they will add greater efforts and resources to the thermal control of the peloton, ensuring that some 4,000 controls to bicycles throughout the competition. The portable thermal camera will not only be used before and after each stage, but it can also be installed in motorcycles from the organization or on the side of the road at some points (and perhaps in the future, even from the helicopters that follow the race).
There is no technological doping, Every effort is good and considering that it is the Tour de France I doubt that any team or runner risks using an aid system with the risk of being exposed to the world in a round of that importance.
