Armchaircyclist said:Disgear wrote: "To me it seems clear that the high altitude program, that was common among the Norwegians in the late 90s and early 2000s, was a perfect cover in hiding blood manipulation/doping. Or was this acclaimed scientist so naïve that the skiers doped without his knowledge during the high altitude camps, and he was happy to see that his program gave stunning results, without any suspicions? I don’t know what is more devastating to a scientist, but after all, maybe it was just naivety from Stray-Gundersen? "
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Sundby who just won the world cup with almost twice the points of number 2, claims to have had around 150 days at high altitude this year, and wants to cut back next year. He actually says that he is not sure of the effects of high altitude training, and says maybe it's his hard training over the last 10 years that has finally given him the results this year. Maybe this will be a good test of how altitude training works, if he suc** next year while training at low altitude.
One thing is sure though - those 150 days at altitude means he is on training camp for around half the year, that surely has an effect also or what ? Is it so unlikely that Norway basicly being one of a few nations with big teams, and lots of top athletes in cross-country, who are well funded, and train together, plays a part also ?
Another Norwegian who believes in high altitude training is Bjørndalen. He just lives at high altitude all year round to be on the safe side. At 40 he lives in a campingcar, and is concentrating 100% on training and sleeping as he says.. plus walking on glowing coals before the season of course.
Sorry, but I am not buying the altitude. First it was much better grinds, skis and wax, now it's altitude. I know the Norwegians have a number of camps, including altitude camps in Val Senales pretty every year, multiple times a year, but it doesn't explain everything. Bjoerndalen has always done this, especially when he was with his italian girlfriend who lived in Toblach. With money and technology, i imagine it can be easy or easier than we think, to manipulate blood levels. I am sure they are using all means necessary to control their levels during the winter. Bjoerndalen has been at the top or near the top for 16-18 years now, he has survived the doping era of the 90's and 2000's and has more WC wins than Roger Federer has tennis titles. I am not sold on him being clean, especially not 10-15 years ago. So too Bjoergen or some of the other top Norwegians. In an endurance sport, where people like Kowalczyk are always suspected to be doping and Bjoergen has had the upper hand in a lot of their encounters and also considering her muscular build and ability to dominate a distance race a day after dominating the sprints with 4 races in one day, it's hard not to speculate. Unfortunately not many will speak out about this, just as not many spoke out against Armstrong's doping and how sad would it be if the top Norwegians DID in fact dope but were covered up by their federation, FIS, WADA, IOC, just like the UCI covered up Armstrong.