Hidden motors in professional cycling bikes? Technological doping?

The suspicion that professional cyclist use small motors hidden in theis bikes as a kind of'technological doping' has spread in recent years.

Suspicions have grown to produce strange circumstances. There are some well known cases, as Swiss Fabian Cancellara, holder of six world titles in races and time trial Olympic champion in Beijing 2008.  In a race in 2010 he repeated strange movements to press a button near his right brake:  whenever he repeated the suspicious movement, there was a importan change of speed.

               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nd13ARuvVE

Or the Canadian Hesjedal in the Vuelta a España 2014, when after a tumble the bicycle was still moving on the road while trying to retrieve the cyclist.

               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIlmtQKLMUg

Electric bicycles

Electric bikes (as used in the BICIMAD program Madrid City Council) are "pedal-assist" bicycles, engines do not replace the human effort, but to complement it. So they have the same legal consideration of bicycle, otherwise it would be mopeds. In Spain must meet the following requirements:

               • Have a 250 watt motor nominal power, with assistance up to 25 km / h.

               • The engine is only active while pedaling.

               • Having two brakes (front / rear) and rear reflective.

               • To be authorized for distribution by the Ministry of Industry.

As we said electric bikes require, like normal bicycles, the cyclist pedals move through their own efforts. What elements make up the electrical system? Basically consist of battery, electric motor and pedal sensor that activates the controller.They can also have a screen to bring assistance at various levels and may even bring an accelerator that allows the bike to work as bike without pedaling. In this case it handles cutting out the signal from the engine as soon as the emergency brakes are pressed.
In the market today you may easily acquire these electric bikes or grab a kit to convert regular bike into an electric bike. They may even be practically invisible and silent kits, as well as easily installable, although prices are still high.
For example the Gruber Assit Kit, composed of a button thumbnail, the electronic control that fits into the seat tube, battery (which can provide up to 70 minutes of pedaling assistance) with its charger and engine 200 watts, with a wheel free and connected to the crankshaft through a bevel gear (if the cyclist does not pedal, the bicycle acts as a normal bicycle). The whole kit weighs only 900 grams and can be completely hidden, except the on / off button that sits discreetly at the end of the bar.

Invisible kits for professional cyclists

They say that there are workshops that are installing this hidden engine for professional cyclists, and has come to light even the name of some engineers working discreetly preparing these devices (eg the Hungarian Istvan Varjas who gave an interview to French newspaper L'Equipe). 

Even in recent years, technological advances have made ​​them completely silent and undetectable by mechanics. It is said that can have the size of a USB stick and be hidden in the wheel hubs.

In 2011 the International Cycling Union (UCI) vetoed the propulsion different to the lower muscle 'train'. Electric propulsion in professional sport was banned. So far it has failed to show anything but suspicions are there and have been growing at the pace of advances in the miniaturization of new electric motors designed as support for users of bicycles. In fact only a few days ago, at the end of a stage of the Giro of Italy, UCI made a control surprise of the bikes used by three of the main corridors, including  Spanish Alberto Contador.

The shadow of electronic doping threatens to professional cycling.