Just a thought on mechanical doping

Those of you who know me also know that I'm all for pure sport without doping, cheating and corruption. You may also know that I'm pretty black and white as a person when it comes to that. But now I'm facing a dilemma, which I'm gonna try to express in words.

Once the news came of the mechanical doping case in cyclocross, it all broke loose when it came to that topic. The girl got punished and fined – rightly so. Now they're driving penalties for the support entourage too. Something just bothers me, so here we go. I understand the seriousness and novelty of this case, but still I can't quite get my head around this. Lets make hypothetical scenario with exaggerations at places.

A rider with or without their support crew decide upon placing a hidden motor inside a bike to boost the performance. The motor provides ”a good few watts in bursts”, when the motor is on. On the other hand, the motor acts as excess weight when the batteries are drained or the motor is off. Yet, the rider still has to do the training without motor. Luckily, the respective rider is caught.

Simultaneously, a rider with or without their support crew decide upon injecting EPO to boost the performance. The steady dosing of EPO provides the athlete with steady excess reserve of ”a good few watts” for the whole duration of the race, for the whole duration of their training and it has the potential to aid their recovery. Luckily again, the rider is caught.

Then I start to get confused.

First, people reacted with hostility towards the motor and as a way of cheating held it more severe violation than the exemplary case of  EPO or other substance for that matter. Then comes the penalties, which are the standard two years for the glowing EPO sample and six year for the mechanical cheat, and the fine of 20.000 euros. With my math there is a four year and 20k difference for cheating, which is bewildering with EPO being potentially more beneficial.

What is there to create such difference, when EPO can provide you potentially better gains? Both are frauds and totally unacceptable, but are they really so different? And why so? Because, to me they aren't.