'Motorised bike' claims hit Cancellara
Olympic time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara on Tuesday
rubbished claims that he could have used a 'motorised' bike when
winning this season's Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix classics.
"It's so stupid I'm speechless," said Cancellara, who rides for
the Saxo Bank team. "I've never had batteries on my bike."
A video featuring former professional cyclist Davide Cassani
showed a bike operating with what he claimed was a motor concealed
by the pedals, with a button to operate the device hidden within
the gear levers on the handlebars.
In Cassani's video there is footage of
Cancellara and what it claims are suspicious slips of his right
hand on the bike handlebars before he acclerates effortlessly away
from his rivals.
"It's quite funny but it's become a bigger story and is no
longer so funny," said Cancellara. "It's a sad and really
outrageous story. Believe me, my feats are the result of hard
work."
In both races, which are held in April, the main casualty of
Cancellara's stunning accelerations was Tom Boonen -- a former
three-time winner of Paris-Roubaix and former Tour of Flanders
champion.
But the sport's governing body, the UCI, confirmed that there
was no case against the Swiss rider.
And the UCI's technical chief, Jean Wauthier, told Belgian daily
newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws that it was unlikely Cancellara would
use any kind of motor.
"The risk is simply too big. For him, his team and the bike
manufacturers. A champion like Cancellara would not take that
risk."
Wauthier admitted that even if the UCI wanted to, there was no
way of checking whether Cancellara had cheated by using a motorised
bike.
However he admitted the sport's governing body had, like Boonen,
perhaps been caught napping.
"If there's been some kind of fraud, there's no way of proving
it," Wauthier said.
He added: "Certainly we're going to have to speed up our
research so we can scan all competition bikes in a quick and
efficient way. Up till now, such controls simply haven't been
used."
Under close scrutiny the Youtube clip is almost believable.
But while Boonen's sports director Wilfried Peetrers said he had
to believe Cancellara, team manager Patrick Lefevere called on the
UCI to investigate the claims fully.
"The film on Youtube does make you doubt," Peeters, the Quick
Step sports director for both races, told Het Laatste Nieuws.
"But I'm convinced Fabian achieved his feats using his own
means."
Lefevere added: "I was a bit circumspect watching the clip. But
if we imagine it's true, it's daylight robbery. It's worse than
(performance-enhancing) drugs.
"I don't want to get involved in all these rumours and I'm
trying not to get paranoid. But after seeing this video I hope the
UCI are going to fully investigate."
UCI official Wauthier meanwhile admitted the sport's ruling body
have had to "amend the regulations to ban the use of such bikes in
competition" after the new technology emerged around 2005.
But the UCI said they are now faced with another problem.
"Today we're confronted with bikes that can run on batteries.
But we also know that similar mechanisms, that work without
batteries and can run on solar power, are being developed," said
Wauthier.
"We will have to get for that challenge too."