Watson insisted on the bottom bracket being chiselled out of Wiggins’ bike - above - after the hour record, hence the damage to the frame. And now the rider has praised the robust search, which obviously yielded nothing but ruled out the possibility of any doubts around bike doping ever emerging.
When Bradley Wiggins broke the hour record in London last June, Irishman Paul Watson stripped the Pinarello Bolide HR bike he used to be sure it did not contain a motor.
When the bottom bracket proved impossible to shift, Watson insisted a mechanic force it out with a chisel even though the bike - a one-of-a-kind designed in conjunction with Jaguar - was damaged.
The international commissaire from Ireland also took photos of the frame when the bottom bracket was removed so the UCI could retain them and silence any doubts over bike doping if any such allegation ever emerged.
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And now, after a bike containing a motor was found at the World Cyclocross Championships, Wiggins has praised the thoroughness of the searching Watson put in place last summer.
“They did it after the hour record; they took my bike to pieces,” he told the media on Tuesday ahead of the start of the Dubai Tour.
“They didn’t give up with it, which is a good thing,” he said of the search that obviously gave the bike a clean bill of health and was carried out as a precautionary measure only.
Wiggins has spoken on the eve of the Dubai Tour about how thorough the search of his bike was for a motor, saying the officials didn’t give up. The man whose tenacity he was praising was our own Paul Watson.
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Watson late last year told stickybottle that Wiggins’ bike was not only searched but also modified before his ride in order to comply with the UCI’s rules.
“They had to cut 4mm off the front of his handlebars because that would have given him an illegal further reach,” he said.
“The dimensions had to fit within our limits. So the mechanics had to cut them by 4mm until everyone was happy.
“Motor checks are a big thing now as well; you hear all the talk of motors being used so the bike had to be stripped afterwards.”
Speaking in Dubai, Wiggins said he had long suspected bike doping was a feature in international cycling.
But he believed the discovery of the motor in a bike linked to U23 European and Belgian cyclocross champion Femke Van den Driessche (19) was perhaps good for the sport in the long run.
“In a way, it is good that they found it because they’ve been checking them for five years now,” he said.
“I think it’s probably been around for a while. For five years now they’ve had this suspicion because they’ve been checking the bikes.
“I think it is the first one they’ve found, but I’m sure that it has happened in the past, but they haven’t found them. It’s just one of them things.”
Irish commissaire Paul Watson oversees the start of Bradley Wiggins’ hour record ride. He later insisted the bike be “stripped” to check for a motor.
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