How you COULD Motor Dope In The Tour De France | GCN Tech Show Ep.343

Is it possible to really motor dope at the Tour de France?! Ollie and Alex go on a deep dive on how this notion is plausible.

New Orbea city bikes, the launch of the Zwift Academy, and a new Strava plan are discussed as well!

00:00 Welcome to the GCN Tech Show
00:38 Is motor doping happening at the Tour de France?
10:30 Hot tech
11:35 #AD Launch of Zwift Academy
16:16 #AD Orbea Kemen city bike launch
18:42 #AD Strava Family Plan
19:34 Comments of the week
23:05 Bike vault

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welcome to the gcn tech show this week we’re discussing the record-breaking climbing performances that we’ve seen at the Tor of France is motor doping happening and if it is how could you do it we also have loads of hot Tech to discuss including two new bikes neither of which claim to be lighter or faster than the previous version a new helmet with something called a carbon wing and there’s news from with news from stra news from Team Uno X and I’ve got one of the best looking cassettes I have ever seen and my chair has got back to it so I can now do this Ah that’s BR doping happening at the tour France and if it is how could you do it no it’s not happening all right that was quick stick with it I me with with the incredible performances that we’ve been seeing on the clim scene yeah last Sunday on the plate de Bay um I mean there’s been a lot of speculation about because of cying past people are having to defend it raises questions doesn’t it before actually before we get on to the subject of moto do because I know you’re itching to discuss it I think we should mention like the mindblowing numbers that have been estimated and floating around online because it’s kind of crazy right so um quite a lot of the speculation has been around the 6.96 wats per kilogram Mark for patcha on that final climent what yeah that’s like 485 Watts based on what I weighed myself this morning as 528 Watts for me that would be for 40 minutes which is absolutely mental I can do that for about 2 to 3 minutes yeah um ridiculous I’ve got it off my chest now so yeah back to motor dopin well we previously did a tech show on the subject of motor dopi and it was very popular and there’s a lot of people commenting underneath that and so we wanted to revisit the topic here the first thing to point out is that we’re not conspiracy theorists and we’ve seen nothing to suggest in this year’s race that there is any motor doping or technological fraud happening um but we do feel it’s important to talk about it because we don’t want to see it happen if it were to happen it would massively damage the sport and so we feel it’s important to actually shed light on on something which is possible yeah fortunately the UCI are taken this very seriously and have openly acknowledged the threat of Motors being used in the sport now speaking on the ghost in the machine podcast David Laren openly acknowledged this and said that the UCI is aware that Mo doing is plausible and is not just a fantasy Dre dreamt up by conspiracy theorists yeah I Le party for those who AR familiar is the president of the UCI um and he’s appointed this guy called Nick redensky who is a former special agent of Homeland Security you got an impressive CV that is an impressive CV his job at the UCI is uh to investigate technological fraud both past and present so rensky believes that if there is a way to cheat humans are naturally going to almost gravitate towards it and that can be applied to all sorts of different walks of life say like I don’t know speeding tickets yeah speeding tickets I don’t know cheating any kind of system when you’re playing Monopoly at home with your family I mean I think that can be that can be allowed at Christmas Bankers the banking system yeah um so if you were going to try to cheat what is is it that like what what is it we’re talking about I don’t understand well one of the areas in which you could ways you potentially cheat and this has been highlighted and the U is aware of this looking into it is is is the sort of Fairly frequent bike changes and wheel changes that we’ve observed in races so at the Tour of France all Riders have got at least three road bikes and at least two time tra bikes and a host of different wheels that means that throughout the stages they can switch bikes if there’s say a mechanical problem or a crash for instance but at the moment only one bike at most per Rider is scanned so that means if a rider was to change their bike partway through a stage there’s potential for it to go unscanned um and avoid detection yeah yeah well I mean like speaking to the the ghost in the machine podcast Laren um said that the bikes tested at the end of the stage need to be uh the bikes that were used in that stage yeah and at the moment he does acknowledge that this is not 100% secure and there are gaps that Riders could potentially exploit okay right so say you are using a motor hidden away in your bike and it’s going to get your bike gets scanned will they definitely find the motor well this is this is the other thing so larent has criticized the iPad scanners that we’ve seen and said that they are you know quite ineffective um and he’s done that more than once and so he thinks that they’re ineffective at detecting more Modern Motors so they were used to find the original FEMA motor in the cyclocross but motors have advanced in that’s 10 years ago and things like brushless motors uh that don’t use magnets um yeah they’re not they’re not great at detecting these things and you could avoid the detection so this is with the iPad scanner right they do also have um x-ray scanners but these are like big right and they can’t physically scan as many bikes with these um they’re far more effective but they’re just not practical for testing lots of bikes finish um but they do have a new detection system I already know the name of this I’m excited to hear you say it it’s called it’s called a back back scatter uh detector right come on tell us about this how’s this work well I’ve not seen it apparently it’s like a a mobile like x-ray gun thing that you can point and then in real time see a see through an object and it and it will it will show what’s inside a carbon frame or a carbon wheel and show you if there’s you know different density components in there and metal components that is actually some pretty cool T sounds like something Batman would have so at present so if there was a hidden object inside a motor or frame it would it would detect it so in theory So in theory I’m saying Theory here so if you are going to cheat does this mean the most important thing to make sure that happens is your bike is not scanned like you need to go on that basis I think that’s the I think that’s the conclusion that we can draw um but at present not every bike is is scanned even at the finish of a race yeah um but if you are the leader or the stage winner of that race it’s much more likely that your bike is going to get scammed which makes you think you’ve got kind of like two two options here like either you’re the leader of the race you’re like you know and you choose to use a motor earlier on in the stage to just like save some energy on one of the earlier climbs or something and then swap it out so you’ve got a bit more energy for the Finish or you know maybe you’re a domestic a lot of the domestics aren’t getting their bikes checked and they’re doing some superum performan as well but maybe you’re just trying to make time cut you know so there are other people who could benefit yeah I mean there’s lots of stuff I think the the thing that jumps out to me right is that it feels like for this to be plausible there has got to be a lot of different people involved and as soon as you start involving lots of different people I feel like you Branch this thing out kind of too too broadly and there’s almost like more possible weak links in the chain for this to go and and and it is important to point out you don’t need to scan every single bike to to make the disincentive of being caught great enough yeah it’s it’s it’s it just needs to be there you just need to have the threat that your bike will be scammed but at the moment it doesn’t that doesn’t feel strong enough that’s the same with anti-doping right every single Rider has anti-doping at every single stage yeah well I spoke to lyy about this um and cuz he had he had some you know made some really good points um and and he’s was agreeing on what you’re saying too many people would would have to know about this and be in on it so he said it’s impossible for a rider to do this by themselves yeah and then you’ve got to have a mechanic that’s helping them but then it would raise too much suspicion if there was just one mechanic helping them with a special bike that the other mechanics weren’t allowed they’re like don’t touch this bike don’t touch that one yeah um it feels like so then you’ve got to involve all of the other mechanics in on the conspiracy as well and it just feels like just it becomes too big and too complicated because then you’ve also got the person that’s made the the the motor or the company that’s made the motor then they they’re they’re implicated in it and it becomes a lot of money to keep a lot of people quiet um and it just feels like for a team it’s too big a risk because you know and Dan rightly points out like if a team got caught doping like doping with this method the end of everyone and everything all their sponsors gone that’s the end of the team and it’s just a massive massive massive risk and that’s a big you know disincentive right so what we’re trying to say in conclusion if you wanted to motor dope there’s the possibility that you maybe could but it’s just a possibility right I’d say if you if you really really really wanted to do it it is it is possible I think the technolog is there and you could swap it out in a midstage and use it for a portion of the stage and then get the bike on the back of the car again can I be clear that I don’t believe any this is happening because like like I’m I’m like torn between two things here because I find the the idea and the tech behind this kind of like fascinating right but I also think it’s kind of almost ridiculous to suggest that it could ever be a thing so I just don’t think the two things go well together I like the tech but away from like the racing element and I don’t necessarily want to feel like I’m trying to associate the two I just find it interesting to I agree in conclusion I feel while it is possible to do it it’s two oceans 11 to actually do it yeah like it would be it would be like it make a great film if someone pulled it off like a heist but like I just think there’s just too many moving Parts it’s too complicated and if you want to cheat there are probably simpler ways to cheat yeah all right well I feel like that summed up our thoughts on it and please share your thoughts in the comment section down below because I know this is going to like fire up a lot of people to get panic typing around their keyboards it’s going to be great um as always best comments we’ll pick them out next week it’s time now for hot Tech there’s a lot this week starting with a rally Chopper yeah there’s a brand new rally Chopper well it’s it’s back at least for a short period of time um I was planning to mention this a couple of weeks ago but if I’m honest I wasn’t here and then I totally forgot anyway the chopper has been relaunched and for the second time actually a couple of weeks ago two new colorways let me get this right fizzy lemon and space blue it yeah now I actually went to look on the website because they’re launched in limited numbers and apparently an IT failure has caused the website to go down basically I think too many people tried to buy one at once so um temporarily they’re unavailable but um if it’s your thing you need to keep checking I want I once met a guy who did um and he he successfully got the hour record riding a rally Chopper in like a Roger Moore style Safari suit it feels like the sort of our record Hank would be up for yeah maybe we could get Hank on r yeah our record on our record um anyway of the week um first comment is from pal Jas Von penguin who was commenting under last week’s show where we were talking about secret Tech that the pros were using at the toour of France and we asked people to point out things that we’ missed um he said Cavendish is wearing Nike branded shoes yeah he’s he’s been doing that he’s in like well for a very long time at least 10 years I think going to say it’s not secret really 10 years no um the the secret is that they’re they’re you can’t buy them they’re just for him um but they’re made for him by um DMT I didn’t know that but I was going to guess that okay next question is from James Lee pein peev Hall 5087 they say Tom Simpson had frames built by Massie Eddie MX had frames built by D Roa Carl Hines could had frames built by Bernard car Carl’s bikes said gears all the others were using Simplex all three road for the per oh road perso with perso decals on the frames yeah um they were they were win on Sunday sell on Monday I like that idea yeah but but what what he making the point out there is that going nons sponsor with with equipment is not a new thing it’s been going on a long time yeah it’s just now the difference is it’s harder to hide it because there’s so many more cameras everywhere and there’s people like us that make video specifically highlighted yes sorry yeah uh Pete danant says um also from the last week’s show uh olle why are you promoting the UCI on the back of your laptop thought you were a no jurisdiction here man well are you PR the UCI on the back of your laptop uh you need to look closer because it actually says UCI you have no jurisdiction here so there you go oh except if I do a UCI event in which case they they do you will definitely abide by the rules yes CU you’re not a rule breaker um right underneath the EUR bonus video they did is this was our I want to say four vi video we got quite a lot of content from there laslo effectively everything combined into one llo says I find that this year most guys didn’t cover much only managed to get two rushed uploads and then went home you however have gone much further must be that special gcn energy Joe using well done now head home before the Miss clamps your wheels yeah that was good yeah yeah well it was good yeah I did make that I like that comment made that rubbish joke at the start I know yeah well also uh exard us Von lauan said thanks Chloe for allowing this yeah cheers chlo and boy 638 says rumor has it he’s still at the show floor no I’ve made it home I’m back I’m back I’m here this is AI it’s AI Alex Yeah Boy 638 is back again with another comment oh yeah we did well yeah he asked um how does gcn decide which which host to send to events like eurobike we just do um rock paper scissors for it don’t we yeah yeah rock paper scissors well it just kind of just it’s it changes really like it’s actually I think the first time in about nine years I’ve not been to eurobike so tell people the actual reason why I went to eurobike I’m like why well basically we were trying to decide who was going to tour of France and who was going to you and I said I don’t want to go to tour of France I went to tour FR went to he went to there you go people won’t believe that was it was it was yeah cuz they can fell at the same time so it was like one or the other okay right it’s now time for the bike Vault and I’m going to kick off the bike Vault with my new or Orca you didn’t know i’ put this in here did you no take a look at that take a look at that bad boy why is the seat post so high it’s con of been riding it don’t try and mock me there’s a lot of brown going on there right okay also with the green background and the brown you’re like trying to make the bike invisible to me in my color blindness okay all right hear me out first or sent me this bike a few weeks back and I actually had the chance to show one that so here it is um and I’m currently in the process of tricking this bike out to make I’m trying to find every shade of brown possible no this is still the brown saddle that everyone mocks me for having on different bikes I’ve got one brown saddle and I I keep putting it on different bikes I mean it’s nice but it’s just there just it’d be nice if it was all the same shade of brown it’s the way that it’s all just different shades of brown it’s just a bit weird we can brush past that to look at the other things like we’ve got minimal accessories valves aligned cranks alow pedals aligned a shadow couldn’t find a shadow stand they’re too well hidden also as I said I’m in the process tricking this out in the moment where’s he where he going oh no excuse no excuse thanks um you’re supposed to leave by example Alex this is why am look at it it’s what like otherwise it’s good how come how come you haven’t put some hearing aid Brown Bart tape on just a get all the Browns I was going to put Brown bartape on CU I changed the handlebars around yesterday some some 36 CM mvro boys nice there they are look that’s how narrow it is just nice is it yeah super nice unbelievable right go on first week first up this week what we got actually from high PSI low Cadence and with a retro e it’s a look yeah it’s very nice that is I like that yeah yeah I’m going to I’m going to go super nice on that yeah I’m super nice on that for sure love that uh Kai the bike guy I don’t know what this is It’s been custom painted that’s for sure that I don’t know what that is either this actually highlights a good point here is that if you are running one by I don’t feel like you should go Biggy Smalls for the for the f one I think one by needs be biggie middle are they silker titanium cages um um I cannot tell no I don’t they are but they do look cool yeah it is very I think that’s I mean I just don’t like it against that post yeah that’s actually quite triggering yeah that’s going to not good nice if it was not on the post super nice Chango is next with a biane ult what do you make of that um what do I make of it I like it 105 group people valves aligned they’ve tried to get blue valve caps as well to match up the color of their bike mounting by pedals on the road bike kind of acceptable to be honest if you want du sided easy it’s a Naf background but I think we can s super nice that one won’t argue with that next up is Marcus Allison with a Ribble uh JY angle really really small little mud guard on the back it’s not stopping any spray going on the mate’s face that’s a selfish mudar that’s a selfish mud you’re running there I like the bite though shame I don’t like the placement of the head unit I must say it’s unconventional but you know if it work if it works for him works it works um I think I’m just going to be a nice on this it’s it’s a great photo it’s great light look at the striations popping through the clouds I think I’m going to go nice yeah just because of the sort of juny angle really and a stick should have used a shadow stand I always have one handy yeah it’s a cool bike though that I really like it uh Brendan W oh right I put a I put a comment in with this because they’ they uploaded their bike into the bike vaat before and we said they need to come back and try Bella and do do a better job so have they done a better job they have done a better job that that that that wall is looking that fence is looking smart it needs a bit of weeding I think down on on your crazy Paving but the uh the bike is looking smart it’s well presented you know what you know what I would suggest though is swap out those tires yeah you you got well it’s just they’re just really slow aren’t they okay yeah maybe well yeah the best upgrade that you could make to that bike is to put some racy tires on it faster tires on it okay yeah I feel like it’s like slightly conflicting when you when you’re running an oversiz pulley wheel system and deep wheels and then you’ve got really really slow tires it’s a super nice super nice for sure but change Tire upgrade next there you go that’s your first one and that was it for the bik this week which means the tech show is drawing to a close Ole it’s been fantastic being back another good week and um please do get involved in the comment section down below I can’t wait to read these out that’s going to be good right see you later