Rio Olympic velodrome is still a 'challenge', says UCI's Brian Cookson

Brian Cookson, the head of world cycling, has admitted it will be a "challenge" to hold a test event at the Rio Olympic velodrome ahead of this summer's Games.

Construction of the building was hit by several delays and the wood of the track only started being laid in the past couple of days.

The planned Olympic test event had to be postponed from this month to the weekend of April 29-May 1, but given that the track needs time to set, there is still no guarantee those dates can be kept.

Speaking at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London, Cookson said: "I have been assured this week that the track will be ready. We know that the carpenters are out there on site with wood, hammers and nails and they are about to start working.

"You have to be assured when you're putting in Siberian timber that the conditions in there are absolutely perfect. The air conditioning needs to be in place and operational, and the moisture control and the dampness need to be under control because the last thing we want when the track is built is the timber going in and warping and bending.

"It would be very regrettable if there was not a test event. Ultimately, it is possible to go to an Olympic Games without a test event, but that makes it less than ideal for everybody.

"There is no Plan B. There is a not another usable velodrome in Brazil so far as I'm aware and there has to be an Olympic velodrome."

Cookson, who is president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), has also highlighted how the fight against motor doping - or "technological fraud", as the UCI terms it - has been stepped up in recent months.

After years of rumours, a motor was found in a bike for the first time at January's UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Belgium thanks to new technology that utilises iPhones and iPads, and the same gadget has been put to use at this week's track World Championships.

Cookson said: "We have been taking this issue very seriously. We will have tested more than 200 bikes by the end of these championships.

"We have developed a little bit of software with a specialist company, which works with an iPad or even an iPhone. It's a little gizmo that clips on and works with software to test for magnetic resonance and will indicate if there is anything suspicious on a frame or in wheels - any part of a bike - which can then lead to more invasive testing.

"This is what happened in Belgium at the cyclo-cross World Championships. The very first time we used that technology in a competition situation, we discovered somebody, and that's a case that's ongoing."

The bike in which the motor was found belonged to 19-year-old Belgian Femke van den Driessche. Her case is currently with the UCI's Disciplinary Commission and Cookson expects the hearing to be held later this month.

Cookson also revealed the 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships will be held in Hong Kong from April 12-16.