From April Fool to Reality: Mechanical Doping in Professional Cycling
Back in April 1965, the late, legendary Bicycling writer and illustrator Charles Siple drew an April Fools’ joke for the magazine: He suggested that he’d been told a pro team was hiding engines in its riders’ bikes to help them get ahead. It was, naturally, taken for exactly what it was then: a witty essay that made an absurd claim. But today, mechanical doping isn’t just a prank—it’s a threat to the already-dramatic pro cycling scene.
RELATED: Just How Widespread Is Mechanical Doping?
Siple’s satiric essay, “The Checkered Flag Special,” tells the tale of a writer who finds himself apprenticing under a bike mechanic, who—with help from a local jeweler—fashions an engine that can be hidden within a bike’s tubing. The article details the minutiae of creating this hidden engine, driven by an energy-storing compressor housed in the seat tube, which improves his riding so much that he can go 12.5 miles in 27 minutes and 31 seconds.
The article finishes with an editor’s note: “Quite by accident I happened to read the name of the inventor, Mr. Egarim, backward. I wonder—do you suppose we could be the victims of an April Fools’ joke?” (The piece was published under Siple’s pseudonym, which spells Mr. Mirage when reversed.)
The joke of mechanical doping isn’t so funny today. In a recent interview with Cycling Tips, new UCI Technical Manager Mark Barfield told reporters that he believes mechanical doping in the pro peloton has happened in the past—though he’s sure it’s not currently a problem. But he adds that testing will become more rigorous and widespread under his reign, so he’s clearly working hard to make sure that Siple’s bike doesn’t become a phenomenon.
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