If the Hct upper safety limit (50%) was uniformly enforced, then riders in the Armstrong era would be capped on how much they could dope. And the riders with the lowest baseline Hcts could dope on a higher percentage basis than guys that had a higher baseline number. Armstrong supposedly had a baseline Hct in the high 30's (he has stated this many times in interviews), therefore if he doped right up to the limit, he's seeing a 25% + increase in his blood values. Plus there's his cocktail of HGH, testosterone, corticosteroids, etc, that most of his rivals were also using (probably not a "super responder" in the true sense but someone that had more leeway with his extremely low baseline crit).I think if the sport of cycling was traditionally one where less natural ability + being a super responder to dope outperformed more natural ability and the same dope and that was a measurable thing/fact/number/win, all teams involved through to Festina and Armstrong would have naturally evolved to signing only such super responders to gain an advantage, just like all teams doped to try and gain an advantage. They didn't though, or perhaps it all gets blurred through youth progression and a mistake is made that progression equals some form of credibility regardless of them doping probably throughout. So I'm not even sure you could claim Armstrong must have been a super responder when even Ferrari said they used very little doping compared to what was happening in the peloton or could be used, but you would then easily get caught like Ullrich, Pantani etc. Of course we can say Ullrich & Pantani were doped donkeys like Armstrong too, but that's generally not the story told in the clinic.
It was a much different situation in the Wild West of the 90's where no upper safety limit existed for most of the decade & guys could dope to dangerously high blood levels. Take a look at Gewiss-Ballan's systematic doping program overseen by Ferrari. Released documents show Hct variations in 1994-95 with some of their top riders (e.g., Riis 41.1 - 56.3, Ugrumov 32.8 - 60.0, Berzin 41.7 - 53.0).
Gewiss–Ballan - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Last edited: