Blood Values of Current Cyclists

[Juan Pelota]

Does anyone know the blood values, hematocrit, etc, of the top riders in today's peloton? Have the altitude camps been able to be a reasonable facsimile of taking EPO? We used to be able to get these numbers.

 

[E_F_]

Have the altitude camps been able to be a reasonable facsimile of taking EPO?

Nope. AFAIK a lasting effect of going to altitude camps has not been proven. So very, very far from free EPO, and far from blood bags and microdosing as well.

 

[Sciatic]

Nope. AFAIK a lasting effect of going to altitude camps has not been proven. So very, very far from free EPO, and far from blood bags and microdosing as well.

The boost in HCT from hypoxia at high-altitude slowly begins decreasing when the athlete returns to lower elevation and will have returned to baseline within two weeks.
Boost in HCT from taking EPO and then stopping decreases in much the same way, although it will take slightly longer (3wks?) before it’s back at baseline.

Thus both will look similar on the biological passport.

 

[Juan Pelota]

It would be interesting to see what the levels of today's riders are. If the average cyclist has a natural level of 43 hct (as was the average in the early 80s based on a study), and altitude camp gets you ~3-4 points, then if riders are starting a race at 47, it's not too far off what dopers were doing once the sub 50 rule was installed.

 

[repoman]

I wonder if they can mask high HC by administering drugs that boost blood plasma volume? Is there a way to test plasma volume?

 

[Nick2413]

What I want to know - if my HCT is 45 and I drink a large amount of fluids, or lose a large amount of fluids without replacing them, how much does my HCT change?

 

[Nomad]

The boost in HCT from hypoxia at high-altitude slowly begins decreasing when the athlete returns to lower elevation and will have returned to baseline within two weeks.
Boost in HCT from taking EPO and then stopping decreases in much the same way, although it will take slightly longer (3wks?) before it’s back at baseline.

Thus both will look similar on the biological passport.

Are you familiar with the Durussel et al study from 2013? That was the study involving 19 highly-trained distance runners who were administered a 4 week rEPO cycle with follow-up performance & blood values measured post-administration.

Running performance measured in a 3000m TT on the a 400m standard track improved post-EPO administration & remained enhanced 4 weeks after administration by approximately ~6% & ~3%, respectively.

The average baseline HCT was measured at ~41.9 & boosted up to ~49.2 at the end of the 4 week EPO cycle. At 2 weeks post-administration, HCT remained elevated at ~47.7, and at 4 weeks post-administration, HCT was still elevated at ~45.1.

Not surprisingly, RET% shot up from a baseline of 1.07 to 2.57 at the end of the EPO cycle, and drastically declined to 0.44 at 4 weeks post-administration.

As far as the ABP goes, this would be the typical Off-phase strategy utilized by dopers pre-competition. They stop the EPO administration well before IC testing (so as not to be glowing) but still receive some performance benefits of elevated blood values. This surely will raise the OFF-score of the ABP & create an atypical profile, but will it be a high enough specificity to initiate a hematological-anomalies case against the athlete is the challenge the anti-doping experts face on these types of cases.

Haemoglobin Mass and Running Time Trial Performance after Recombinant Human Erythropoietin Administration in Trained Men - PMC

Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) increases haemoglobin mass (Hbmass) and maximal oxygen uptake ( O2 max). This study defined the time course of changes in Hbmass, O2 max as well as running time trial performance following 4 weeks of rHuEpo ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Sciatic]

Are you familiar with the Durussel et al study from 2013? That was the study involving 19 highly-trained distance runners who were administered a 4 week rEPO cycle with follow-up performance & blood values measured post-administration.

Running performance measured in a 3000m TT on the a 400m standard track improved post-EPO administration & remained enhanced 4 weeks after administration by approximately ~6% & ~3%, respectively.

The average baseline HCT was measured at ~41.9 & boosted up to ~49.2 at the end of the 4 week EPO cycle. At 2 weeks post-administration, HCT remained elevated at ~47.7, and at 4 weeks post-administration, HCT was still elevated at ~45.1.

Not surprisingly, RET% shot up from a baseline of 1.07 to 2.57 at the end of the EPO cycle, and drastically declined to 0.44 at 4 weeks post-administration.

As far as the ABP goes, this would be the typical Off-phase strategy utilized by dopers pre-competition. They stop the EPO administration well before IC testing (so as not to be glowing) but still receive some performance benefits of elevated blood values. This surely will raise the OFF-score of the ABP & create an atypical profile, but will it be a high enough specificity to initiate a hematological-anomalies case against the athlete is the challenge the anti-doping experts face on these types of cases.

Haemoglobin Mass and Running Time Trial Performance after Recombinant Human Erythropoietin Administration in Trained Men - PMC

Recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) increases haemoglobin mass (Hbmass) and maximal oxygen uptake ( O2 max). This study defined the time course of changes in Hbmass, O2 max as well as running time trial performance following 4 weeks of rHuEpo ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Thanks, good info. With only 18 subjects there is room for random and individual-athlete variability, but saying 3-4 weeks seems reasonable. These were not elite athletes, so I also don’t know what kind of variability that introduces.