Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/07/25/tour-france-bikes-hidden-motors/

Tour de France confronts a new threat: Are cyclists using tiny motors?
After a doping scandal upended the sport, professional cycling is pursuing dual challenges of keeping cycling honest and convincing a skeptical audience it is.
July 25, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
By Kevin Sieff

MUR-DE-BRETAGNE, France — After the world’s best cyclists charged up the final climb in Stage 7 of the Tour de France, passing a roaring crowd at the finish line, a group of officials in black polo shirts darted toward their bikes.

The officials put red bracelets on the carbon frames. Their job was to conduct a little-known check in one of the world’s most scandal-stained sports: The bikes were being inspected for tiny motors.

Eight bikes were wheeled to a black tent a few feet from the podium, the handlebar tape still wet with riders’ sweat. One belonged to the winner of the stage, Tadej Pogacar. The other bikes belonged to riders who cycling officials had targeted based on questionable performances or tips.

Twenty years after a doping scandal upended the sport, professional cycling is pursuing dual challenges of keeping the world’s most famous cycling race honest and convincing a skeptical audience of the Tour’s legitimacy. That’s why Nicholas Raudenski, a former U.S. Homeland Security investigator, was standing next to the finish line as officials escorted the bikes to an X-ray machine.

As electronic bikes — with motors that provide up to 1,000 watts of power — have become available for recreational cyclists, hobbyists began building lighter road bikes with more discreet motors. Some of those are about 50 watts, hidden near the rear hub. It’s theoretically enough power to change the conclusion of a race.

During the Tour de France, bikes are now taken directly to be tested instead of returning first to team mechanics, as they once were. The bikes in question are weighed and then scanned with a handheld X-ray machine and tested with a magnetometer. In some cases, the bikes are almost completely disassembled.

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