An Italian amateur rider has reportedly been caught at an event with an electric motor concealed within his bicycle's frame.
The 53-year-old was entered in a masters category at the event in Bedizzole, reported Italian website Tuttobici on Sunday.
The presence of the device was detected using a thermal scanner that highlights areas of high temperature in a frame – which can be a sign of a hidden motor, as they generate heat.
According to Tuttobici, the rider was invited to have his bike disassembled in order to confirm the presence of a motor or not, but he declined and left the race.
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Similar checks for hidden motors are now routinely carried out at professional level.
So far there has been only one previous reported incident of a rider being caught with a concealed motor in a top-level race, that of Belgian under-23 cyclo-cross rider Femke Van den Driessche.
Van den Driessche's bike was discovered to contain a hidden motor at the 2016 UCI cyclo-cross World Championships. She was subsequently suspended by the UCI for six years and handed a £14,000 fine.
Prior to that, there were persistent rumours for several years that 'motor doping' was taking place in pro-level races, but without firm evidence. Van den Driessche's case not only confirmed that it was possible to conceal an electric motor in a frame without any visible signs, but that they were actually being used in races.
