Two-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has urged the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to "check bikes more regularly" in the fight against motorisation. Rumours of cyclists using motors to power their vehicles were further fuelled when the UCI confirmed that a bike used by 19-year-old rider Femke Van den Driessche in the U23 Cyclo Cross World Championships was fitted with a small motor to power the rear wheel. Van den Driessche denied any wrongdoing and said the bike belonged to a friend.

"It's a concern that I've had, something I've brought up with the UCI independent commission when I sat down with them and said, listen, from my point of view there are these rumours, it would be my advice that the UCI implements controls and measure to start checking bikes more regularly. Just speaking from personal experience over the last couple of seasons, my bikes been checked and dismantled at least a dozen times so I think they are taking the threat seriously and hopefully this will mean that they only increase the number of checks that they do on the world tour level," Froome told reporters.

Froome, in Melbourne ahead of the Herald Sun Tour, a four-stage race in Victoria that starts on 3 February, will become the first Tour de France champion to compete in Australia's oldest stage race.

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