Tour de France Leader Suspended; Small Motor Found Attached to Bike

Raul Ibanez, leader by 32 seconds after 11 stages of the 2008 Tour de France, was suspended from the race after a random post-stage check of his bicycle revealed a small motor attached to the front wheel.

“He apparently told others in the peleton that he was being followed by a small swarm of bees,” Pierre Augustin, a spokesman for the race, told a hastily assembled Pain de Cou, France news conference.

Ibanez’ record time of 2:27:35 over a mountainous stage that Lance Armstrong had never completed in less than 4 hours led to suspicions about the Spanish biker.

“It was a very good time,” Augustin told reporters. “Maybe too good, we think. So we subjected M. Ibanez to drug testing, which he passed. But then when he was riding back to his hotel on his bike, a 7-year-old boy in the street heard the buzzing sound, and we investigated it at once.”

The Tour de France has been subject to repeated drug scandals as cyclists have sought to find an edge over their competitors, but no one could recall a bicycle mounted with a small engine on it. Critics have also expressed concerns that cyclists were still finding ways to cheat.

“M. Ibanez has violated the trust of the entire cycling community,” Augustin said. “We attempt to run a clean race. He went too fast. Thank goodness for that small child who heard the motor. Otherwise, we would never have found out.”