Amateur rider suspected of motor-doping makes action movie escape from the scene: "He drove his car at me and I went about 100 metres on his bonnet"
Cycling
A rider suspected of motor doping ran down a race organiser after making a hurried getaway from bike inspectors. The drama took place on Monday, on the morning of the fourth and final stage of the amateur Routes de l'Oise stage race, north of Paris. Organisers targeted on particular amateur rider for a bike inspection after his riding and his bike had raised suspicions of motor doping.
"We had suspicions about potential cheating," explained race director Frédéric Lenormand. "On Saturday, in the stage between Beauvais and Maignelay-Montigny, he caught a breakaway in an abnormally fast period of time. On Sunday, several people mentioned an unusual noise when he was riding."
But when Lenormand attempted to check the rider's bike, he could scarcely have believed what would happen next. The rider "fled" towards his van, Le Parisien reported, despite efforts by Lenormand to "hold him back".
"I wanted to hold him back but he ran away," Lenormand says – and after catching up with the rider: "He drove his car at me and I went about 100 metres on his bonnet. It could have been even more dramatic," adds Lenormand, who was fortunate enough not to be injured.
"I gave my statement to the gendarmes at the beginning of the afternoon, this Monday," said Frédéric Lenormand. It's very sad to come to this. It’s inconceivable to me," he added. "Why cheat? There is no money... all just to win a winner's goody bag."
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Of course, one crucial piece of information isn’t given, did he run away with or without the bike?
Two things come to mind, the “education” parents gave this chap and, not unrelated, the stupidity of his mind. How can you be wired so badly to go make things worse when it’s obvious people know who you are and will find you back? I can understand people with a bad attitude will try to get away with things when they feel their not identified or anonymous but once you’ve been caught? Of course if you don’t have the imagination or reactivity to come up with a good story or mea culpa, you’re done but obviously, that part about consequences of your actions was completely missing in their childhood. You’re completely cooked now mate, and for what? Of course, maybe things are worse than we imagine, the bike ride might have nothing to do with his escape, maybe the van (stolen?) was filled with a murder or kidnap victim or a consignment of doping products?
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- I don’t know how generalised it is but in every race in every country I’ve participated in you either need to show a club licence (which you only get by having a medical around every 2-3 years) or by having a doctors’ aptitude certificate. Can’t ask for much more. Don’t forget, 15000 people (of which quite some are well into the latter part of life), that’s a small town where people will have medical issues every day even without cycling hard. In one country I lived in you even have to do a full ECG and power test regularly to ride competitively after 50.Mistermaumau05-04-2025
- Before or after their kids get married to each other ;-)Mistermaumau05-04-2025
- Ok guys, both of you, this is far too complex to debate as a whole as there are dozens of variables and none of the conditions have been rigidly defined, what’s more, everyone is looking at things from a different angle and for a different purpose so let’s go back to the real basics first to see if we can agree on some starting principles. If you throw a golf ball or ping pong ball (assuming same size here) at the same speed in the same direction, which is going to land further? Ditto if you launch them with the same power? If two identical riders of 70 and 80kg (lets assume the extra 10kg is just bones and drinks and lunch) on identical bikes ride side by side at speed X with zero wind (or alternatively a really strong head wind) and both stop pedalling at the same time, which is going to roll further or come to a stop sooner? The wind force does inevitably come into play but I want to keep an open mind as to the effect it has in situ in practice because it obviously isn’t the only criteria and with acem82’s example it’s highly likely that wind is more minor but that wouldn’t be true for every real-life situation. Regarding cobbles, that’s an extremely complex motion to analyse, you can call it bouncing or hopping or climbing or what you like but in reality it’s indescribable and only high precision analysis can tell you exactly how much of each effect is contributing for each rider at each speed and every tire pressure/behaviour, you will NEVER manage to say that one criteria alone governs the whole efficiency equation.Mistermaumau05-04-2025
- Medical test should be mandatory before participationabstractengineer05-04-2025
- You are completely wrongvappaxbipmv05-04-2025
- Tadej has a little more chance. It will be an exciting race and the most important thing is that no one gets hurt.
maria2024202405-04-2025 - Whatever happens tomorrow... it'll be a hell of a raceslappers6605-04-2025
- Exactly Tadej, the cancer of modern society. Full of good-for-nothing people who gain visibility and importance on social media mocking, humiliating (and worse things) to earn money. But it's the follower's fault, no followers, no "influencers".maria2024202405-04-2025
- Great commentCaralladas05-04-2025
- i’m such a sucker for those group-hug, happy ending moments between competitors, largely because it’s so WASN’T that way in my younger, stronger days. (on that note, i have this hope that somewhere down the road, maybe fifteen or twenty years, a middle aged wout and mathieu will go for a pleasure ride together in flanders, and reminisce about the days when they were the young, strong monsters that stalked the cobbles.)OCexile05-04-2025