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People behind motor doping website reveal it was a honeypot operation

Doped Bikes aimed to find out who wanted to cheat - and say one UK team manager approached them

The people behind a website called Doped Bikes that launched last year purporting to sell motors specifically designed to be hidden within bikes during races have revealed that it was a ‘honeypot’ operation aimed at finding out who was prepared to cheat – and they claim that among those expressing interest was the manager of a UK-based cycling team.

When the website launched in June 2016, we wrote: “At times it reads like an elaborate spoof or perhaps an off-the-wall marketing exercise. If it is, fair play! Well done. But the balance of opinion seems to be that these guys are for real, just.”

> Doped Bikes – Italian website offers hidden motor to “make sure you win”

The website was extensively covered in the specialist cycling press and beyond, and today its founders, Moreno Grazioli and Roberto Bassi, revealed that they were part of a “group of concerned racers and industry insiders” who “set up a honeypot website claiming to have made hidden electric motors for bicycles.”

“We did it find out who was prepared to cheat our sport and to make organisers and competitors aware of what to watch out for over the coming months,” they added.

The idea came to them after a hidden motor was found in a bike prepared for Belgian under-23 rider Femke van den Driessche at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships.

> All our coverage of mechanical doping in one place

“We were aghast at this,” said the Doped Bikes team. “We knew technology was advancing at such a rate that this was going to be inevitable as some point but we hadn't expected it to be now, and certainly not in a junior race.

“We don't know much about pharmacology or sports science but between us all we do know about electrical engineering and websites, so we put our thinking hats on and came up with the idea to set up a dummy site that would offer a seemingly too good to be true motor that someone lacking in any type of moral scruples would want to use to help win bike races.”

With the help of a computer games designer, they produced a CGI video showing how the motor, hidden in the seat tube and powered by four batteries also placed there, helped turn the cranks, its use activated by a hidden button – similar, in short, to the device found on van den Driessche’s bike.

They said they intended the website to be “as brazen as possible” – there’s the name for a start – so it would reach the widest possible audience, raise awareness of the issue, alert race organisers and governing bodies and not least, tempt would-be cheats to take the bait.

Promoting the site through social media as well as approaching consumer and trade press directly as well as cycling clubs in the UK and Australia, much of the response they got was highly critical of their apparent attempts to encourage people to cheat – “this is despicable” being one of the more printable comments.

“Reassuringly, the response from grass roots cyclists has been one of disdain towards being able to cheat in cycle races,” they said. “We received hundreds of emails overwhelmingly against hidden motors.

“Unfortunately we also received emails from trade publications keen to take our money to promote these motors, team managers interested to find out more, overseas retailers wanting to stock them and individuals eager to be able to purchase a system that would allow them to cheat their fellow competitors.”

One of those emails, they say, was from “a UK team boss,” with the following email exchange said to have taken place:

Roberto

Thank you for your email regarding in-bike motors. We would be interested in hearing more

Kind rgds

[name redacted]

CEO

[team redacted]

We wrote back to say we didn't have pricing details so couldn't sell now

Hi Roberto

If you contact me then when you have exact prices

Speak to you then

And then again, same team boss

Hi Roberto

We would interested in hearing when you have price information

Revealing the results of the honeypot operation on the Doped Bikes website, they wrote: “The technology to build these systems is very real.

“We realised during the course of this project that what we were imagining could indeed be produced and sold by a small team with a solid electrical engineering background.

“With the parts all easily available from China these are probably being built by someone with very few scruples as you are reading this.”

After outlining steps that event organisers could take to catch cheats, they added: “We hope we have opened the cycling public's eyes to the methods of cheating that threaten our sport in the immediate future.

“There will always be unscrupulous people determined to cheat honest riders and others further up the chain prepared to facilitate and profit from it.

“The overwhelming response from grass roots cyclists was so incredibly strongly against the ideas of motors being used secretly in cycle sport that the sport is in a healthy condition as long as we are all vigilant against those who would cheat.

“For numerous reasons cycling is one of the greatest sports in the world and we believe grass roots riders and organisers will keep it as such.”

In conclusion, they said: “Got butthurt because you emailed us asking for a motor?

“Email your local federation/ADA [anti-doping agency] and explain it to them. They'll be waiting to speak to you.”

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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20 comments

Avatar
DrJDog | 6 years ago
0 likes

Anyone who uses the word butthurt should be hanged.

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LastBoyScout | 6 years ago
0 likes

To me, this sort of thing looks to have a quite legitimate market among some riders, especially as it would appear to be fairly easy to install such a thing in pretty much any bike and, possibly, a lot cheaper than buying a new e-bike. I've yet to even see an e-road bike, although there are plenty of e-mountain and leisure bikes popping up in my local bike shops. For example:

- Quite probably a lot of enquiries from older/injured riders that are struggling to keep up with their mates on rides or are struggling to do distances they used to do but don't want to ride an obvious e-bike or see this as a cheap/easy thing to retro fit to their current favourite bike.

- I'd also imagine there's a market for it among touring riders, especially where it gets rather hilly. Putting a motor inside the frame means it wouldn't interfere with luggage.

In fact, I don't have a problem with anyone using one of these, as long as it's not in any sort of official race. The devil is in how you catch the ones that are doing this.

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Morgoth985 | 6 years ago
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Oh well, maybe they can just pass the evidence on to British Cycling and let them take it forward.  Oh, wait . . .

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Jimmy Ray Will | 6 years ago
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Its not hugely suspicious... I'd question the authenticity of the claim.

If they really were fishing, and manageed to get a reasonable sized fish on the hook, why not real it in a bit? 

The example given is very much a case of getting a bite and then immediately cutting the cord. 

So many reasons why a manager would want to know more... nothing to see here. 

 

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jollygoodvelo | 6 years ago
1 like

Let's assume that it was the actual boss of an actual team writing the email and not spoofed.  It would still be "approximately" plausible to claim that what they were doing was researching how easy it would be for their competitors to get hold of such devices.  

Worth saying also that the UCI rules only state that bikes "within or on the margins of a cycling competition" must be compliant, so it would not be prohibited to have one at a training camp in Tenerife for example.  It could, quite reasonably, be there so that coaches could accompany riders.

Now, it's hugely suspicious, but in the absence of any evidence otherwise I think that defence would stand... you could certainly imagine a certain brass necked bald chap giving it a good go.

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Morgoth985 replied to jollygoodvelo | 6 years ago
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jollygoodvelo wrote:

Let's assume that it was the actual boss of an actual team writing the email and not spoofed.  It would still be "approximately" plausible to claim that what they were doing was researching how easy it would be for their competitors to get hold of such devices.  

Worth saying also that the UCI rules only state that bikes "within or on the margins of a cycling competition" must be compliant, so it would not be prohibited to have one at a training camp in Tenerife for example.  It could, quite reasonably, be there so that coaches could accompany riders.

 

Would it need to be a hidden motor in that case though?  I know, it's not conclusive in any way, it just smells to me.

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RobD | 6 years ago
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I would imagine there's one or two people who are a little bit nervous at this news, assuming they were who they said they were.

Fair enough that these guys thought it was a good idea to try to catch people out, although it seems more that it was done as something to raise awareness of the issue, if they were really trying to catch people out something more subtle might have been needed.

I highly doubt this would happen in a world tour team, it's not really clever enough for them, it'd be too easy to get caught, too many chances to go wrong and there's too much at stake. Privateer racers or much lower level teams at smaller races where they know checks are virtually non existant might be more of a possibility, but even so, if you suspected someone of doping you might be able to get the organisers to single them out for testing if you're lucky, and even then it'd need to be something that was still in their system, whereas if you really thought someone had a hidden motor, it's pretty quick for a race organiser to ask to inspect the bike and find something in a matter of seconds.

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P3t3 | 6 years ago
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Its a pretty stupid team boss that emails like that and puts their position/team name at the bottom if it is a serious enquiry, mind you if you are stupid enough to want to cheat...  

I don't see why hidden motors should present such a problem to be honest, its not as if it isn't possible to inspect all the bikes on the start line.  We don't need 2 samples and zero punto zero zero zero zero grammos nonsense.  UCI just need to buy a cheap boroscope camera off ebay and pull out a few saddles on every start-line.  

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CygnusX1 replied to P3t3 | 6 years ago
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P3t3 wrote:

Its a pretty stupid team boss that emails like that and puts their position/team name at the bottom if it is a serious enquiry, mind you if you are stupid enough to want to cheat...  

It's also ridiculously easy to spoof an email address, and cheap to register a domain name and put up a mirror to the official site - for instance the following domains are unregistered right now:

No match for domain "TEAMSKYRACING.COM".

No match for domain "MOVISTAR-CYCLING-TEAM.COM".

 

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Nevis the cat | 6 years ago
0 likes

 

Without sounding like I just went to school to eat my lunch, the team manager (and others) may well have been enquiring to find out how the things could be used and how to spot the cheats. 

 

For the same reason when I stumbled across numerous dazzle covered Audis on the Sierra Nevada, doing a testing, there was a C class Merc in amongst them....

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Valbrona | 6 years ago
1 like

If these people named the team and/or team manager who showed an interest in the motors they would probably be committing libel, and they know it.

Just because someone might have enquired about this technology does not mean to say they had any intention of doping. Some of the people enquiring might have been wanting to expose the people involved in the business of mechanical doping.

And also, it could have been someone posing as a well known team manager in order to create a bit of mischief. Or it could have been someone's (almost funny) attempt at humour. You do not have to be Sherlock Holmes to realize this.

Why has road.cc even touched this story originating from a bunch of twerps who thought up a silly project? Stick to your reviews of bikelights and helmets.

 

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Morgoth985 replied to Valbrona | 6 years ago
0 likes

Valbrona wrote:

Some of the people enquiring might have been wanting to expose the people involved in the business of mechanical doping.

And also, it could have been someone posing as a well known team manager in order to create a bit of mischief. Or it could have been someone's (almost funny) attempt at humour.

 

Yes, it could have been any of those things, and so I guess you're right that they shouldn't publish, however much my evil streak might want to set the cat amongst the pigeons.  There's just the nagging doubt though - we're talking about a sport with an awful lot of "previous".

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BarryBianchi | 6 years ago
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This isn't a honneypot.  They are 6' blonde endurance tests called Svetlana.  You lose all credability, future sponsorship and quite a lot of skin*, but oddly, no regrets.  This is nothing like that.

 

* hotel flooring dependant. 

Avatar
BarryBianchi | 6 years ago
4 likes

This isn't a honneypot.  They are 6' blonde endurance tests called Svetlana.  You lose all credability, future sponsorship and quite a lot of skin*, but oddly, no regrets.  This is nothing like that.

 

* hotel flooring dependant. 

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Jackson | 6 years ago
3 likes

Ok so Ian Munro definitely put in for one.

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IanMunro | 6 years ago
8 likes

"I reckon publish a full list of everyone who enquired."

They won't because it would put them in the middle of a data protection shit storm.  
There's perfectly legitimate reasons people may have enquired. The technically curious,  teams wanting to examine how other teams may cheat, converning organisations wanting to surreptitiously check on current state of the art, and no doubt many people wanting to know if they can get away with cheating.  It's a foolhardy person who post anyone's name with the inference of cheating, if they can't back it up with evidence of actual cheating.

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Jackson | 6 years ago
1 like

Let's not jump to conclusions, I'm sure they're... umm... for team staff. Like Sky's 70 doses of triamcinolone. 

I reckon publish a full list of everyone who enquired.

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Yorkshire wallet | 6 years ago
1 like

Next week on Brass Eye....

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Bmblbzzz | 6 years ago
7 likes

What's the point of a honeypot which names no names?

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don simon fbpe | 6 years ago
4 likes

That's all well and good, but where can I get one?

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