Cycling: The motor doping case involving the young Belgian Femke van den Driessche is becoming increasingly confusing. The 19-year-old continues to protest her innocence and says the confiscated bike belongs to a friend. This has now reported for the first time today - several days after the incident.
It was the big excitement of the past weekend: The UCI confiscated a bike in which a hidden motor was found during the women's U23 race at the Cyclocross World Championships on Saturday. After that, more and more details came to light: Supposedly it was a bike belonging to 19-year-old Belgian Femke van den Driessche, who competed in the race on a bike that conformed to the rules and had to retire on the penultimate lap. However, since the modified bike was in the paddock with the former European Champion's spare wheels, it doesn't matter to the UCI that it wasn't used in the competition.
Van den Driessche herself protests her innocence. After her father announced to a Belgian newspaper on Saturday evening that it was the bike of a supervisor who trains with her from time to time, Van den Driessche agreed with this argument a day later: “The bike belongs to a friend of mine. He bought it from me after last season, so it's exactly the bike I use. This friend looked at the route with my brother and leaned the bike against the team car. One of my mechanics must have mistook it for my bike, cleaned it and put it with my other bikes.”
So far, so plausible. But this statement raises as many questions as it answers: it shouldn't be a problem for van den Driessche to explain to the UCI that it's not your bike - only the saddle height, stem length and other settings should be different differ in their setup. Equally irritating was the fact that this same friend did not speak out to the public. If it really wasn't her bike, then as a friend you would like to clear up such a misunderstanding as quickly as possible - at least that seems plausible.
Today was the day. Nico van Muylder, the friend who supposedly owns the bike, told Het Nieuwsblad - at least briefly: "All I can say is that it's my bike." He did not want to comment further on the incident – at least not publicly. Regardless of what really happened, it is important that the UCI fully investigates the case and that the truth comes to light.
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