EPFL helps the International Cycling Union combat technological fraud
Advances in performance of batteries and electric motors has provided new technological possibilities including drones and transport devices like hoverboards, e-bikes and e-scooters – technologies that solve the door-to-door challenge may help a greener future where more people abandon cars to commute by public transport.
However, the possibility to hide performant motors in bicycles has led to a challenge for cycling as a sport. Since 2010 rumors and speculations have circulated of so called technological fraud in professional bicycle races. In 2016, a bicycle with motor and battery hidden in the carbon-fiber frame was discovered at the Cyclocross world championships, and in 2017, a cyclist was caught using a hidden motor at a French amateur race. There is hope these were isolated cases, but cyclists and fans alike deserve assurance that the outcomes of bicycle races are not influenced by “mechanical doping”.
To this end, the UCI revealed in Geneva an X-ray inspection unit designed to scan bicycles for hidden motors. This tool will be deployed at up to 50% of race-days at the top level of the sport – the UCI Pro-tour. EPFL’s Institute of Physics and the University of Lausanne’s REDs unit assisted UCI to realize the solution. Initial X-ray tests were performed at EPFL, and the instutute’s expertise in radiation safety was employed to ensure a completely save operation which has been approved by the national health authorities.
“While other tools, including magnetic inspection and thermal imaging make it very difficult for someone to hide a motor without being caught, X-ray inspection of bicycles at the arrival ensures without doubt that there is no motor, and it is this certainty both riders and fans of the sport need,” says EPFL’s Professor Henrik Ronnow from EPFL, who took part in the press conference.
“One downside highlighted by some of the journalists present is that the machine is heavy (1500 kg), expensive, and that there is only one – which means that only the most important cycling races can be controlled,” he adds. “But this is only the beginning. By using a special X-ray source that emit only 50-nanosecond short pulses, our lab was able to design and construct a setup weighing less than 100 kg, which can be transported in a regular car. Each national cycling federation could have such a setup to ensure efficient controls at all levels of the sport.”
This is one of many examples where EPFL and University of Lausanne have lent their broad expertise to benefit sports. UNIL’s Institute of Sport Sciences (ISSUL) hosts world-leading experts in the physiology of sports, while EPFL’s engineering advances range from better skis, to speeding up America’s Cup-winning sailing boats, to advanced big-data analysis of NBA games.