the UCI grading their own paper

[chiasticon]

"We don't want to find motors in bikes: we want to show that there aren't any"

obviously it would be tremendously bad for cycling and for the UCI if they found any motors. so they go through this massive coordinated and expensive effort and proclaim: "we're doing everything we can to find one!" but then freely admit: "we really don't want to find one..." so are we supposed to believe them when they say they haven't? isn't the obvious solution to have a third party involved?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-to-reveal-new-mechanical-doping-strategy-on-wednesday/

[MattTuck]

Not sure how much of that is a translation issue that just comes out sounding bad.

Still, talk about conflicts of interest and perverse incentives...

[benb]

Same story as doping, in the past, or maybe in the present too.

Maybe things are cleaned up, maybe they are just putting on a good theater to make us watch again, but in reality the same old same old is happening.

[Mark McM]

It has been shown time and time again, that organizations can be very poor at policing themselves, because of conflicts of interest between promoting a product or system, and finding (and exposing) problems in that produce or system.

A large part of the reason WADA was established (in 1999) was that in the wake of the Festina Scandal of 1998, the UCI has demonstrated that its main mission of promoting cycling prevented it from effectively fighting doping.

Here's a few more examples of organizations with conflicts of interest, just in the US (and for more important matters):

The AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) was formed in 1946 both to promote the public use of atomic energy, and to regulate safety of atomic energy. After showing lax oversight of atomic generators, it was dissolved in 1975, and replaced with the ERDA (Energy Research and Development Administration) to promote atomic energy, and the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Agency) to police and regulate atomic energy.

The CAB (Civil Aeronautics Board) was formed in 1938 to promote and regulate civil aviation, and to investigate air accidents. After it showed that it could investigate accidents without bias, the independent NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) was created in 1967, to take over investigation of air accidents.

There are plenty more examples.

[chiasticon]

Same story as doping, in the past, or maybe in the present too.yeah, honestly I just don't think about doping much. I try to have a Wrestlemania fan's viewpoint of cycling... but yeah, this whole "don't worry, we'll take care of making everyone believe what we're selling is real" aspect never really occurred to me.