Sky, Armstrong deny secret motor cheating — Report
NEW YORK: Team Sky, which has produced four of the past five Tour de France champions, and dopingdisgraced Lance Armstrong denied using secret motors in bicycles, a CBS television report said Sunday.
A segment on the show “60 Minutes” examined the possibility of motorized cheating in pro cycling with three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, admitted dope cheat ex-rider Tyler Hamilton and Hungarian designer Istvan Varjas, who makes hidden motors for bikes, saying they believe such cheating exists.
“I know the motor is still in the sport,” LeMond said. “There’s always a few bad apples because it’s a lot of money.”
Jean Pierre Verdy, a former FrenchAnti-DopingAgency testing director, told CBS he had been disturbed by speeds on mountain climbs, saying informants among riders and team managers told him that about 12 riders used motors in the 2015 Tour de France.
“They are hurting their sport, but human nature is like that. Man has always tried to find that magic potion,” Verdy said.
Varjas said he told French police he sold secret-motor cycles to an unknown client just before the 2015 Tour, delivering the bikes to a locked storage room. He noted one motor design can be hidden inside the hub of the back wheel but would boost the normal wheel weight by about 800 grams (1.7 pounds).
In the 2015 Tour de France, peloton bikes were weighed before a time trial stage, with CBS reporting French authorities said Team Sky was the only squad with heavier bikes, each about 800 grams more.
“Weight is everything,” LeMond said. “If your bike weighs a kilo more, you would never race on it.”
Britain’s Chris Froome, riding for Sky, won the 2013, 2015 and 2016 Tour de France crowns. In 2015, he was “King of the Mountains” for his times in the difficult climbing stages that often prove decisive. No Tour winner since 1970 had won the mountain crown as well. — AFP