What hapened to Contador?

[Parrot23]

As are, apparently, 99.99% of those who post here.

Clearly, the UCI is too.

But not apparently here: http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=8206

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

As are, apparently, 99.99% of those who post here.

I'm with the majority are you volunteering to educate us?

My questions are:

How big an increase in Hb is realistic from LHLT training, assuming altitude is high enough, iron count is sufficient, and the athlete is in the upper quartile of altitude responders?

About the decline in Hb observed during GTs....is this due to increase in blood volume or decrease in total body hemoglobin (or a combination of both)? Or is it not yet fully understood?

About natural variability in plasma volume with hydration, altitude, exercise and who knows what all else....I'm pretty clueless about this, except that I'm sure it's impossible to interpret blood values without understanding it, due to the magnitude of the possible fluctuations. Any snippets of info you care to share?

 

[acoggan]

I'm with the majority are you volunteering to educate us?

To the extent that I can, but only based on general physiological knowledge. Unlike so many here, I don't obsess over precisely how athletes might attempt to circumvent anti-doping measures...indeed, I only really care about doping in the abstract sense; who among current or former elite cyclists may or may not be guilty of such practices doesn't really even register on my radar.

My questions are:
How big an increase in Hb is realistic from LHLT training, assuming altitude is high enough, iron count is sufficient, and the athlete is in the upper quartile of altitude responders?

That is hard to say, but Levine et al. found that those in the upper half of responders (based on performance improvements) increased their hematocrit (measured after return to sea level) by 2.5 percentage points after just 4 wk of residing at 2500 m. It is also known that the increase in red cell mass is proportional to the altitude (i.e., you would expect a greater increase if someone lived even higher) and takes 9-12 mo (at very high altitudes) to plateau.

About the decline in Hb observed during GTs....is this due to increase in blood volume or decrease in total body hemoglobin (or a combination of both)? Or is it not yet fully understood?

I don't know if such measurements have yet been made, or at least published (you could check Asker Jeukendrup's Tour de France simulation study to see if he measured blood/red cell volume, or just hematocrit/hemoglobin). Certainly, though, you would expect a significant increase in plasma volume; whether or not someone could maintain red cell mass when placed under such stress I do not know.

About natural variability in plasma volume with hydration, altitude, exercise and who knows what all else....I'm pretty clueless about this, except that I'm sure it's impossible to interpret blood values without understanding it, due to the magnitude of the possible fluctuations. Any snippets of info you care to share?

What I can tell you is that plasma volume, and hence hematocrit/hemoglobin concentration, is very labile. For example, your hematocrit might be under 40% when resting in the supine position, increase within just a couple of minutes to the low 40s when seated upright (e.g., on a cycle ergometer), then increase further to the upper 40s or perhaps even 50% by the end of an incremental exercise test to determine VO2max. Obtaining highly reproducible results therefore requires careful standardization of testing conditions, i.e., much more like you would find in a research study than in a doctor's office (or hotel room).

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

Thanks for the info.