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Ex-pro cyclist Phil Gaimon claims Fabian Cancellara used hidden motor

“That fucker probably did have a motor,” claims American retired pro in new book

Former professional cyclist Phil Gaimon has accused Fabian Cancellara of cheating by using a hidden motor in his bike.

Gaimon, who retired at the end of the 2016 season after a decade in the peloton, made the claim in his recently published autobiography, Draft Animals.

The American singled out Cancellara’s race-winning performance in the 2008 edition of Milan-San Remo as being particularly suspicious.

In his book, Gaimon wrote: “I dismissed it until I heard his former teammates talk about certain events where Cancellara had his own mechanic, his bike was kept separate from everyone else's, and he rode away from a ‘who's who’ of dopers.

“When you watch the footage, his accelerations don't look natural at all, like he's having trouble staying on the top of the pedals.

“That fucker probably did have a motor,” he added.

Cancellara, a three-time winner of both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix and world time trial champion on four occasions, has always denied allegations of using a concealed motor.

Suspicions he may have been using illegal mechanical assistance were at their height in 2010, when the Swiss rider rode away from Tom Boonen on the Muur van Geraardsbergen to take a stunning victory at the Tour of Flanders and followed it up a week later by winning Paris-Roubaix.

Shortly afterwards, Italian ex-pro turned TV pundit Davide Cassani – now coach of Italy’s national team – demonstrated on television how he believed a pro cyclist could use a hidden motor to gain an unfair advantage.

World cycling’s governing body the UCI has stepped up the number of tests carried out on bikes since a concealed motor was found in the frame of a bike belonging to Belgian under-23 rider Femke van Den Driessche at the cyclo-cross world championships last year.

> Mechanical doping: “I won’t trust any victories of the Tour de France,” says Greg LeMond

Since then., however, no hidden motor has been found at a professional race.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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32 comments

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sneakerfrfeak replied to Scoob_84 | 6 years ago
4 likes

Scoob_84 wrote:

Can anyone can dig out youtube clips of these accelerations he's talking about? 

 

https://youtu.be/z6z7uUe0tVA

https://youtu.be/NXS-qTbR1Tk

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Rushie replied to sneakerfrfeak | 6 years ago
17 likes

sneakerfrfeak wrote:

Scoob_84 wrote:

Can anyone can dig out youtube clips of these accelerations he's talking about? 

 

https://youtu.be/z6z7uUe0tVA

https://youtu.be/NXS-qTbR1Tk

 

If you play that second clip backwards and slow it down a bit you can clearly hear him say "Satan Is Lord".

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