Following the recent interest in motorise doping and the large number of checks carried out at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the UCI are now reported to be considering in-race tests for hidden motors.

“The technology that we have now allows testing perhaps not literally on the move, but it’s very flexible, it’s very lightweight,” UCI President Brian Cookson from the track world championships in London. “It can even be attached to an iPhone, certainly an iPad. We will be testing before, after and, if necessary, during (races) from time to time.”

“We have an open mind at looking at the opportunities for that. We will maybe have a commissaire on a motorbike who will stop with a rider who is changing a bike. We’ll look for suspicious and intelligence-led solutions, as we are doing in the anti-doping field.”

Cookson says that the selection process would be random, but eventually he is hoping to test almost every bike in a race if that is possible.

“At the moment we’re looking at a random system, but all of the events, all of the bikes will be checked as they go on,” he said. “I’m not saying 100 percent, every bike will be tested, but I think you can be assured every medalist here will have had their bike tested.”