This clip has emerged of how easy it is for the UCI to check for motors using these new hand-held tablets.
A video clip has emerged of the very simple new checks the UCI has devised to search for hidden motors in bikes.
The footage below has appeared on the French site DirectVelo, whose intrepid reporters were at stage 2 of the La Méditerranéenne pro stage race on France on Friday.
When they saw UCI officials checking the race bikes and spare bikes of Italian Bardiani-CSF outfit before the stage start in Banyuls-sur-Mer they whipped out their camera phone and captured this short clip.
Other teams also underwent the same scrutiny, including French Delko Marseille-Provence KTM squad.
Interestingly, the officials were not only scanning the bike frame for a motor, but also for wheel-based bike doping, with some reports suggest magnet systems have been hidden in rims to help you along.
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The checks were the same ones that detected what the UCI says was a motor in the bike of Belgian and European U23 cyclocross champion Femke Van den Driessche at the recent World Championships.
However, they appear to have been surprisingly absent from some of the major start-of-season pro races including the Herald Sun Tour in Australia and Tour of Qatar.
But the UCI said the tests were here to stay and that a large number would be carried out this year.
"The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) confirms that it has carried out unannounced bike checks at La Méditerranéenne on Friday 12 February, 2016, and that no technological fraud was detected," it said in a statement on Saturday.
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"Tests concerned 90 bikes from six teams participating. These bike checks used the same type of equipment which the UCI trialled at the 2016 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Heusden-Zolder (Belgium) where a concealed engine was detected.
"This equipment enables those performing the tests to investigate large numbers of bikes, both frames and wheels, in a short period of time.
"The UCI has invested considerable time and financial resources in this area and trialling new methods of detection is part of its commitment to ensuring its tests are as robust as possible.
"Intelligence has also been gained from active engagement with the industry and other information given to us which has enabled us to refine and improve our testing.
"The UCI will continue to test significant numbers of bikes in unannounced tests in all disciplines throughout 2016 and beyond."
While bikes were checked last year at major pro races, they needed to be taken apart. But the new tablets devised to scan the bikes are much faster.
Clip shows new UCI bike check
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