Hacker News Reader

Comment by Overtonwindow | Hacker News Reader

For the big races, why don't they embargo the bikes prior to the race? Then xray them at random. Beginning of the day the rider pics up the bike, turn it in at night. The mechanic can work on it, whatever, in a special shop. Especially for the one day races. I can see how this would be difficult with multi-day races, but something like this should be feasible elsewhere.

View on HN

It's logistically very difficult. All ProTour riders will have at least one spare bike. The teams will also have at least 20 spare wheelsets available. For a typical one-day like the Paris-Roubaix, that means at least 400 bikes and a thousand spare wheels. These bikes and wheels all need to be checked and maintained before every day of racing.

Cycle races often start and finish in small towns, so the teams may have to stay in hotels some distance from the course. It would be impractical to find a suitable building for parc ferme at most races and it would be costly to erect temporary facilities.

The professional racing calendar is extremely busy, so a team mechanic may be travelling continuously from late January to early December. There simply isn't the time available for a parc ferme.

I think the current strategy is perfectly satisfactory. Riders are immediately intercepted after the finish line. The race leaders and some randomly selected riders will have their equipment inspected, in the same way that they are tested for doping.

I don't see a problem with not testing the wheels - you can't really hide batteries inside the tube.

I imagined a mandatory thorough backscatter scanning through a special path just before starting point on the race day.

That could work. As the bike is going up to the start house, they have to put it through the backscatter machine. Just having it there, and saying they're going to randomly choose and at least 60% of the teams will have to go through it, could be a powerful deterrent. Also, I think they should up the penalty for bike doping. Lifetime ban for having a motor in your bike.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com