David Anthony, the NYC weekend warrior who got popped for EPO at a fun ride spelled it out quite nicely.
Buried deep in the Ask JV1973 thread is his comments. I'll save you the trouble, it didn't work for him. He had big problems recovering after many days of racing, no problem with oxygen uptake.
Another side is an Armstrong. Zero to hero and back if he got off the doping cycle. Look at his vaguely recent multisport results as proof of how good doping can be if you are blessed with being an EPO super-responder.