Cycling: Suspicious bikes could be checked during Tour stages – UCI (Reuters)

By Julien Pretot SAINT-LO, France, July 1 (Reuters) – Bikes could be checked for hidden motors during stages as part of plans to crack down on cheats in this year’s Tour de France, International Cycling Union (UCI) president Brian Cookson said on Friday. Bikes are usually tagged in the finish area before being checked for motors, but this year Tour stewards will have the option of acting during the stages. “We can do that at the start, at the finish, we can take bikes during the race if there are any changes, it’s not just the bikes that the riders start off the race with, we test the bikes on the cars, we test the bikes on the team trucks as well, and so far we had a very good cooperation from the teams because it is in the teams’ interest.” Such checks would happen when a rider swaps bikes.