{"id":136782,"date":"2016-03-08T14:55:01","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T12:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/?p=136782"},"modified":"2016-03-08T14:55:01","modified_gmt":"2016-03-08T12:55:01","slug":"mechanical-doping-lifetime-ban-for-van-den-driessche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/03\/08\/mechanical-doping-lifetime-ban-for-van-den-driessche\/","title":{"rendered":"Mechanical Doping: Lifetime Ban for Van den Driessche?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The newspaper Het Nieuwsblad reports that the Belgian rider, accused of using a bicycle with a hidden motor at the 2016 Cyclo-cross World Championships, might be facing the \u2019capital punishment\u2019.<\/strong><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The UCI\u2019s reported recommendation is a lifetime ban and a fine of 50,000 euros. Van den Driessche\u2019s lawyers are unsurprisingly fuming and demanding \u2019a fair trial, not a sham\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It looks like the UCI has listened to the public and many cycling personalities who demanded tough action.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/02\/profimedia-0272732350-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-133481\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/02\/profimedia-0272732350-1-600x399.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cWorking independently from the UCI, the Disciplinary Commission is the body in charge of imposing sanctions for breaches of the UCI Regulations,\u201d says the official UCI statement.\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThey have to suspend for life, for me they have to suspend for life,\u201d said Eddy Merckx and Chris Wiggins agreed with the Belgian legend.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAside from ethics, you\u2019ve got to ask a lot of questions of the athlete, especially the girl that they found it on because she was the favourite to win the race anyway. I can understand why people would dope in terms of what\u2019s to be gained from it financially but to stick a motor in your bike, I don\u2019t understand the logic behind that and winning a race because you\u2019ve got an extra 200-odd watts in your bottom bracket. It is the same thing as doping, but I can\u2019t see the logic in it,\u201d said Wiggins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/02\/profimedia-0272711004-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-133479\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2016\/02\/profimedia-0272711004-1-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"Femke Van den Driessche, the European and Belgium's U23 champion, who allegedly used a mechanically doped bicycle at the World Cyclo-Cross Championships in Zolder, Belgium, is going to stand in front of the Disciplinary Commission.\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Femke Van den Driessche could become the example<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> dete<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">r<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ring anyone from trying the mechanical doping. The Belgian rider maintains that the bike in question actually belongs to her friend whom she sold it to last year<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and it was placed in the pits by accident.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Belgian rider is going to appear before the UCI Disciplinary Commission next week in Aigle, Switzerland.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The newspaper Het Nieuwsblad reports that the Belgian rider, accused of using a bicycle with a hidden motor at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":133477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-136782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mechanical Doping: Lifetime Ban for Van den Driessche? 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