The Tech Race to Produce an Instant Electric Bicycle

This summer, authorities in France are taking unprecedented steps to thwart an unexpected form of fraud in the Tour de France. The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission will deploy thermal cameras to detect tiny motors hidden in cyclists’ wheels, a form of cheating known as “mechanical doping.” The cameras will detect small trace heat signatures put off by a motor, even one that’s not in use—a precaution that became a necessity after the Belgian cyclist Femke Van den Driessche was caught using a secret motor this year.

While shortcut-taking cyclists may be on the bleeding edge of hybrid bicycle technology, there is a monumental effort afoot to rethink the bicycle wheel as a platform. Mechanical doping in the Tour only goes to show how small and lightweight creators can go with motors. It’s trickling down to average cyclists, too.