David Lappartient, the UCI president, has just given an official statement regarding this matter admitting that they ‘will investigate’ the former pro cyclist accusations for Fabian Cancellara because after all, that’s their job.
How it all started?
Earlier this month, once Gaimon published his book Draft Animals: Living the Pro Cycling Dream, he made a shocking claim regarding Cancellara. The truth is, these allegations first surfaced following Cancellara’s victories at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix back in 2010 but he has always denied such act about any hidden motors inside his bike.
“When you watch the footage, his accelerations don’t look natural at all, like he’s having trouble staying on the top of the pedals. That fucker probably did have a motor,” Gaimon wrote. He stood by the accusation when contacted for comment on Wednesday.
UCI’s president, Lappartient, said that body will search for more information regarding this allegation that Gaimon has made against Cancellara.
“What I would say regarding the case you are speaking about is that I will try to have more information and we will investigate. We will investigate because we need to know exactly what is behind this. Of course, I heard all the rumors, like everybody, and I just want to know exactly. So we will investigate, that is our job,” Lappartient said for Cyclingnews.
“At this level, I cannot say more than this, but I hope that this never happened in professional cycling. If this was the case, it would be a disaster for the image of cycling. That’s why we have to fight. I want the people and the fans on the road to be able to trust the result. Trust the UCI and trust the controls from our institutions.”
Keeping it cool
The funny thing about Gaimon’s accusations is that even though he made those allegations for the second time around, this time on his book, during an interview on Wednesday, he insisted that the mechanical doping issue was no longer an issue in pro cycling.
“I do think it happened that year a couple times. But as soon as somebody noticed and it became a story nobody did it again. I think it’s an absolute clickbait, red herring. Even up to the new UCI president who is acting like it’s a big issue that he is going to get to the bottom of. Anyone on the inside knows it’s a joke,” Gaimon said on the interview.
