tour de france
cmonforton | July 12, 2017The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Gay describes the Tour de France as part bike race and part soap opera. The 198 riders who start the 23-day event are phenomenal athletes. Many will complete the race but not until they peddle 2,200 miles across farm land, past historic monasteries, through charming villages, and up (and down) the Pyrenees and Alps. In my cyclist-rich area of central Texas, many conversations this month are colored with comments about “The Tour.”
This year, as every year, some of the riders are involved in horrible crashes. Those who have to abandon the Tour often suffer broken…
rallain | July 23, 2010Check this out - NY Times: No Motors, but Mistrust at Tour de France.
So, the short story is that some people claim that Cancellara is cheating by putting a hidden electric motor in his bike. Now they are going to do random hidden-motor checks.
I have analyzed this motor-in-a-bike already:
Energy in a hidden battery: The short answer is that you could get about 500 watts for about 1.5 hours with a hidden battery that weighs 1.6 kg. Doable, yes. Advisable? Probably not. Also, you would probably hear the motor being used.
Do bikers cheat? In this post I look at some clips of Cancellara…