14. Disc or no disc

April 20 | In this week’s Telegraph Cycling Podcast Richard Moore and Daniel Friebe are joined by Rob Hatch as they discuss the Ardennes Classics and two equipment-related controversies, involving disc brakes and renewed allegations of motors in bikes.

Only a few teams have been using disc brakes this season as part of a UCI-sanctioned trial. But the trial ended abruptly last week after the Spanish rider Fran Ventoso posted gruesome pictures of wounds he claimed were a result of his flesh coming into contact with the discs in a crash during Paris-Roubaix.

Some claimed that allowing discs was akin to attaching lethal blades to the bikes, while others questioned whether Ventoso’s injuries could even have been caused by the brakes. We hear from someone in the second camp, Brent Copeland, manager of Lampre-Merida, one of the teams using discs.

Meanwhile, the latest allegations of riders using hidden motors in bikes, aired at the weekend by French television and an Italian newspaper, raised more questions than answers. Although one such device was recently discovered in the bike of a female under-23 cyclocross rider, there is no evidence of widespread use. The podcast team discuss whether so-called ‘mechanical doping’ is a sensational headline or a reality.

The Telegraph Cycling Podcast is supported by SigmaSport.co.uk and Eurosport