Giro d’Italia has been rocked by a cheating scandal, with riders accusing broadcasters’ motorbikes of providing a slipstream to leading riders.
Last week, during stage 15 of the three-week-long cycling race, a new record average speed of 51.391 km/h was set in Milan, as Fredrik Dversnes secured what has since become a controversial victory.
Since the stage, Lidl-Trek’s Max Walscheid and other riders have voiced their concerns that Dversnes and three other breakaway riders benefited from having the television motorbike riding in front of them.
Many believe the bike proved key in helping the four riders get clear of the chasing peloton and end up breaking the speed record.
While Dversnes maintains his innocence, claiming the ‘only motorbikes in the race were the guys in the breakaway’, Matxin Joxean Fernandez, team director of UAE Team Emirates, believes that the science shows the motorbike does have an impact on the leaders’ pace.
Speaking to Marca, Fernandez said: ”It’s not a matter of opinion, it’s a mathematical and scientific reality. Studies by engineers like Bert Blocken have demonstrated that a motorcycle riding five metres ahead provides assistance that translates into a gain of about 12 seconds per kilometre.
Fredrik Dversnes won stage 15 of Giro d’Italia in Milan but there have been accusations that he and three breakaway riders used slipstream from a broadcaster’s motorbike
‘If the UCI requires cars to stay 25 metres behind in time trials because their slipstream has an impact, it’s clear that a motorcycle less than 10 metres ahead has a huge impact. When a cyclist is at 99.9 per cent of their limit, every little bit of help counts.
‘We have sometimes been disadvantaged and many other times benefited, especially having a rider like Tadej Pogacar, who starts from very far back.
‘The race dynamics are usually the same: when the distance to the pursuer is small, the motorbike goes ahead (benefiting the leader); when the distance is large, the motorbike positions itself behind.’
The Spanish media outlet also spoke to Max Sciandri, a retired British road cyclist, and he agrees with Fernandez.
‘Motorcycles have a huge influence,’ he said. ‘It’s true that this isn’t something completely new; I remember my racing days in Belgium, when Van Hooydonck would escape on the photographer’s bike.
‘We had a Belgian photographer friend and for the first two kilometres… well, it’s not like he did everything, but the bike has always had some influence on the speed.’
Nevertheless, Dversnes believes the complaints are only flooding in because the other riders were not the ones benefiting.
Team director of UAE Team Emirates Matxin Joxean Fernandez believes that the motorbikes are influecing races
‘The only motorbikes in the race were the guys in the breakaway,’ he told Cyclingnews. ‘I didn’t believe in our chances from the start.
‘It was a hopeless plan to start with, but it got better and better along the way. If you have strong enough guys, it’s very, very favourable to be ahead of the bunch on the city circuits.
‘The guys who said that motorpacing was involved also know that it is a known thing in the sport,’ Dversnes continued in the press conference.
‘Since it was not in their favour, they will of course complain about it.’
