Monday 27 June 2016 12:49, UK
A wide-reaching series of checks for hidden motors in bikes will be employed at the Tour de France, according to the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.
Three systems will be used for the checks; an already existing magnetic resonance method screening the start and finish lines, a motorbike mounted thermal detector and a third system provided by the French state from military sources.
The Tour gets under way next weekend at Mont Saint Michel and runs until July 24.
"This problem is worse than doping. The very future of cycling is hanging in the balance," French sports minister Thierry Braillard told the newspaper.
"Under my orders, research centres have been hard at work to establish the best way to combat this menace."
Femke van den Driessche of Belgium was banned for six years for the first recorded case of using hidden motors in racing last April after early motor check tests were used.
The motor was found in a bike used by the U23 European cyclo-cross champion at the U23 World Championships in Belgium in January.
The 19-year-old was banned for six years and fined £15,000. All of Van den Driessche's results from October last year have been annulled and she was ordered to return all prize money and medals.
