A cheating controversy has shaken the Giro d’Italia, with riders accusing broadcasters’ motorcycles of giving leading riders a slipstream.
A new record average speed of 51.391 km/h was recorded in Milan last week during stage 15 of the three-week cycling event, and Fredrik Dversnes won what has since become a contentious triumph.
Max Walscheid of Lidl-Trek and other riders have expressed their worries since the event, claiming that Dversnes and three other breakaway riders profited from having the television motorcycle in front of them.
Many people think the bike was crucial in enabling the four riders to smash the speed record and escape the pursuing pack.
The team director of UAE Team Emirates, Matxin Joxean Fernandez, believes that the motorbike does affect the leaders’ pace, despite Dversnes’ insistence that the “only motorbikes in the race were the guys in the breakaway.”
“It’s not a matter of opinion, it’s a mathematical and scientific reality,” Fernandez told Marca. Research conducted by engineers such as Bert Blocken has shown that riding a motorcycle five meters ahead of you can help you gain roughly 12 seconds each kilometer.
If the UCI mandates that cars stay 25 meters behind in time trials because their slipstream has an impact, then it’s obvious that a motorcycle less than 10 meters ahead has a huge impact. Fredrik Dversnes won stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia in Milan, but he and three breakaway riders have been accused of using slipstream from a broadcaster’s motorcycle. Every bit of assistance matters when a cyclist is at 99.9% of their limit. “We have occasionally been disadvantaged and many other times benefited, especially having a rider like Tadej Pogacar who starts from very far back.”
“The race dynamics are typically the same: the motorcycle moves ahead (benefiting the leader) when the distance to the pursuer is small, and it positions itself behind when the distance is large.”
Max Sciandri, a retired British road cyclist, was also interviewed by the Spanish media site, and he concurs with Fernandez: “Motorcycles have a huge influence.” It’s true that this isn’t entirely new; I recall Van Hooydonck escaping on the photographer’s bike during my racing days in Belgium.
“The bike has always had some influence on the speed, even though our Belgian photographer friend didn’t do everything during the first two kilometers.”
However, Dversnes thinks the complaints are only coming in since the other passengers weren’t the ones who benefited.
According to Matxin Joxean Fernandez, team director of UAE Team Emirates, motorcyclists are influencing races.
“The guys in the breakaway were the only motorbikes in the race,” he told Cyclingnews. From the beginning, I didn’t think we had a chance.
At first, the strategy was doomed, but as time went on, it improved. “It’s very, very beneficial to be ahead of the bunch on the city circuits if you have strong enough guys,” Dversnes added during the press conference. “The guys who said that motorpacing was involved also know that it is a known thing in the sport, and since it was not in their favor, they will of course complain about it.”
