LeMond satisfied with anti-motor doping measures but insists 'you've got to keep at it'

Motor doping, or mechanical doping, in competitive cycling terminology, is a method of cheating by using a hidden motor on the Bike. In 2016, in the under-23 Women's event at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships, Belgian cyclist Femke Van den Driessche was caught with a hidden motor, resulting in a six-year ban, for the first confirmed use of mechanical doping. 

"All of a sudden, the quality of bikes, derailleurs and batteries has gotten so much better over the last eight years," said LeMond, speaking to an audience at Rouleur Live, addressing concerns about hidden motors in professional cycling. 

"I don't think that's an issue now," LeMond stated, though he emphasised the importance of continued vigilance: "You've got to keep at it. You've got to test it."

LeMond explained how riders using hidden motors could potentially be identified through cadence analysis. "There's an RPM efficiency on power output. So if you're, if you see, even on climbs today, you'll see riders within five RPMs at the same power output," he explained. "When you see somebody above that, five to 10 RPMs, that's not a good sign."

The cycling pioneer also revealed he had proposed more effective detection methods that were rejected. "I actually did some research and I found these x-ray machines that weren't cheap, but you could test every bike at the peloton in 60 seconds," LeMond said.

LeMond suggested that this technology would streamline testing procedures significantly. "These are things at the border of control. And that means you don't even have to take the bikes," he explained, comparing it to security screening systems used elsewhere.

LeMond expressed some confidence in current anti-mechanical doping efforts. "I do think you look at the RPMs of riders today, I know they're testing. So it gives me a lot of satisfaction," he concluded.

At the 2025 Tour de France, up to 60 bikes were being checked by the UCI daily for any signs of Mechanical doping, "We have the ability to go further with our examinations, whether that's a partial dismantlement of the bike to look into certain components, act upon suspicions, act upon information that we have," Nick Raudenski, the UCI Head of the Fight Against Technological Fraud, told Reuters.