Is Microdosing EPO to Mask Blood Doping Really That Suprising?
Its good to see a leader in the Anti-Doping field taking Floyd’s admission seriously. ‘”Floyd Landis has shown immense moral courage to take the stand he has, and one of the benefits from his disclosures is that we now have the missing piece of the puzzle,”" His knowledge could certainly go a long way to helping improve the Biopassport.
However, it is a bit surprising that the EPO microdosing was not suspected as masking method.”Of course we knew that autologous transfusions are undetectable, and we also knew that microdosing was probably being used. What I had never encountered before was the scenario that riders were using the two in tandem, during the major Tours. That was the missing piece of the puzzle.”
Masking blood doping was one of the logical possibilities considered in A Tale of Two Cyclists
“Masking:
Transfusion plus volume expansion: Very low Retic despite what looks like a low to normal Hgb without other cause for suppression.
EPO plus volume expansion: High retic normal HgB, and an effect that can overcome significant physical stress.
Transfussion plus EPO micro dose: High Hgb, low normal Retic, and an effect that can overcome significant physical stress.
Transfusion plus volume expansion with EPO micro dose: Low to normal Hgb, low normal retic, and an effect that can overcome significant physical stress.”
Remember also, that Altitude training may be a way to mask the Retic suppression that might come after discontinuation of EPO or a blood transfusion.
“Abrupt stop of EPO plus altitude: Very high Hgb, with low normal retic.”
Given the legality of Altitude training, this may be a preferred method when logistically possible. It would also explain the otherwise counterproductive use of altitude tents previously reported in the middle of grand tours. Hopefully officials pick up on this possibility as well.
Ashenden goes on to state, ”[Microdosing] keeps the percentage of reticulocytes close to normal – not exactly normal, but close enough that we would have difficulty excluding the possibility that some other reasonable explanation could account for the subtle change we had seen.” This statement makes for an uncomfortably good description of a Retic pattern we previously analyzed at length.
In an interesting aside, Ferrari offers comments that imply a bit too much knowledge, ”
Not everyone accepts the researchers’ conclusions. Among them is Michele Ferrari, the controversial Italian sports medicine doctor whose clients have included Armstrong. “It’s a bit like playing Russian roulette,” Ferrari said in an e-mail exchange. “There is absolutely no microdose that can be taken without the risk of getting detected by out of competition controls within a 12-hour window.”” His statement does to some degree corroborate Floyd’s statement that Ferrari may have advised against EPO use once the test was developed.
