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TECH NEWS
femke wilier.jpgMechanical doping: Wilier “shocked” and will take legal action against Femke Van Den Driessche
The bike involved in the mechanical doping scandal at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships at the weekend was a Wilier Carbon Cross bike, and the Italian company says it is “shocked” and is going to take legal action against Femke Van Den Driessche and anyone responsible for “this very serious matter”.
- Mechanical doping: All you need to know about concealed motors
"We are literally shocked, as the main technical partner, we want to distance from this act absolutely contrary to the basic values of our company, and with the principles of each sporting competition,” said CEO Andrea Gastaldello.
“Really unacceptable that the photos of our bike is making the rounds of the international media due to this unpleasant fact.
“We work every day to bring worldwide the quality of our products and when we know that a Wilier Triestina’s bike is meanly tampered we’re very sad. Our company will take legal action against the athlete and against any responsible for this very serious matter, in order to safeguard the good name and image of the company, marked by professionalism and seriousness in 110 years of history.”
- Mechanical doping at Cyclocross Worlds confirmed
We still don’t know the details of the hidden motor found by the UCI, but most speculation leads to it being a device concealed in the seat tube or down tube, and powers the bottom bracket axle, turning the cranks.
There are a couple of systems on the market that can be retrofitted to a bike, such as the Vivax Assist or Typhoon, and in the case of the former, it’s only compatible with 30.9 and 31.6mm seatposts. The Wilier Carbon Cross bike that Femke Van Den Driessche races has a 31.6mm seatpost.
More details soon...
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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13 comments
So let's suppose that all this speculation and conjecture is accurate, which is far from certain at this point. Here's some more opinion along those lines:
Yeah ok, the poor ickle 19 year-old girl (not sure what gender has to do with it, ficcamilio, but heyho) probably had support from somewhere, but where's the UCI's recourse against the parents? What can they do - stop them having more naughty kids?
At the moment their way in is that they've got a rider who appears to have been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and is attempting to explain it away as someone else's hand, or that she didn't know they were cookies, or she was counting them, or some other nonsensical way of labouring the metaphor I've gone with.
This rider seems upset, and would probably like to ride a bike competitively again. This is how the UCI can apply pressure to find out exactly who has been involved.
But even if she sings like a canary, and it is proved (as much as something like this can be) that it was her horrible, bullying parents that put her up to it, and fit the hidden motor and told her about the magic button that she could press that could make her feel a bit better when her little legs got tired, what can the UCI do about them? Ultimately, she's an adult, and has a fair amount of owning her own shit to do.
I didn't care much for Wilier, name sounds weird but now that I know it's Italian I like it a bit more. Perhaps they should pay advertising privilege to some people for all the publicity.
What legal action can Wilier take?, can they sue for damage to their reputation?.
As Wilier are a 'technical partner' there may well be contractual obligations but.. who knows.
At 19 she's an adult and competing in a World Championship, not a 13 year old bunking off school. How can you "punish the parents"?
As for Wilier, whether or not their bike is available with an optional motor is irrelevant, you're not allowed to race with it and everyone knows this, no excuses.
You've never heard of pushy sports parents then?
The brother's serving an EPO ban, the brother and father have allegedly been questioned for trying to nick stuff from a pet shop - there's definitely something not right about that family and definitely grounds to think there's lot's of pressure on the kids from the parents.
Regrettably there are a (thankfully small) number of cases in cycling where youth riders come under abusive (both mentally and/or sexually) relationships with coaches and end up doping - it's easy to see how this stuff happens in the constant drive to be successful.
I cannot accept that a 19 year old rider conciously turns round and says without any external pressure "get me a bike with a motor in so I can cheat"
Can we please concider the fact that this is a girl of 19 years old?!?!?!?!
She probably didn't decide this on her own, so please leave her alone, investigate (punsih propably the parents) and be a bit more soft and conciered to her.
And who wants a Wilier anyway????? Hyprocrit M............ F.......ers!
Why is Willier Trestina, as a company, distancing themselves from this? There is a Willier 'Cross bike available via a dealer in the Netherlands (this rider's home country!) that retro-fits the Vivax motors to the Willier bikes.....OK, its not Willier themselves, but why are they allowing one of their "agents" to sell these "motorised" bikes? Surely, they need to stop this and 'fess up that their machines available with this "adaptation".
If they don't want the bad press, then they should admit their mistake in allowing this to happen to their bikes, and stop this "agent" from selling their bikes.
wish my wilier had a secret motor
Maybe it does...
have you seen me on it??!!!
le bal des hypocrites ... now i know what bike not to buy .
why would this stop you buying a Wilier?