Thanks for the link. The researchers cited in the NYT article seem to comprehensively support what Thomas Frei said after his EPO positive--namely, that if he had just consumed enough water before going to bed that he probably would have sailed through the doping control the next morning. I remember that Pat McQuaid tried to dismiss this claim, saying essentially that there would still be a good probability of catching the microdosers. Yet again, Pat McQuaid seems to prefer to avoid the harder questions in favor of making big picture statements and demonstrating a commitment to broader principles (not to say that such higher-order stuff isn't important, too, but only that he doesn't seem completely interested in closing the loopholes when publicly admitting their existence would be inconvenient).
While I'm glad to see Frei suspended, I was equally glad to read of his very frank statements after his positive test. I hope that his remarks, as well as the NYT article and other mainstream attention, will contribute to catching more microdosers and further refining the tests. The most disturbing thing to me in the NYT article is the suggestion that microdosing is very effective--maybe even as good as earlier EPO abuse? I think a lot of people (myself included) had been assuming that the passport program and newer EPO tests had at least significantly reduced the potential benefits of EPO use because smaller dosing would mean smaller performance gains, too.