Organisers for the Tour de France announced on Monday that they are to use thermal cameras to detect motors on bikes.

Thermal cameras will be used at this year's Tour de France to prevent riders hiding motors in their bikes. The cameras will be portable and can be operated from the back of a motorcycle or the edge of the road. A magnetic resonance system will also screen bikes at the start and finish lines.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Brian Cookson, President of the International Cycling Union (UCI):

"I think we've got a very effective way of testing before and after and perhaps during the race with I think both those forms of technology. Thermal imaging can supplement the magnetic resonance testing that we have invested in, that we believe is the most effective way."

SOUNDBITE: (French) Vincent Berger, director of research of CEA (Commission of Atomic Energy):
(during one to one)

"We believe it's very, very difficult to hide. You cannot hide your temperature, you know. And you can neither easily hide the magnetic field without putting on a device, that will be visible on the bicycle."

Vincent Berger, the director of research for the Commission of Atomic Energy demonstrated how the camera switches from visable to thermal images, to identify the cyclist.

Belgian rider Femke Van den Driessche was suspended for six years by the UCI this April in the first case of motorised doping in cycling. Cookson says it's an offence the UCI are taking very seriously:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Brian Cookson, President of the International Cycling Union (UCI):

"We have introduced rules, sanctions, very high sanctions up to life ban and very high penalties both for riders and for teams if they are found guilty of this offence."

The Tour de France begins at Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy this weekend and concludes in Paris on July 24.