Tuesday, July 22, 2008  Supplements, Dope, and The Tour, Part II
I'm officially bored of this topic. Well, I'm not really. It's
fascinating. But I'm ready for the cycling news to be about
racing and training. It's getting better, for sure. A couple of
years ago I stopped counting how many days in a row featured at
least one doping headline on cyclingnews. This year we've had
stretches of weeks at a time. The best thing, I suppose, is that
the public is getting a bit more informed about it.   The reason
for this is EPO. Over the course of intense daily training it's
natural for the body's red blood cell count to drop as the body
breaks down and doesn't have time to fully recover. This lowers
your blood’s oxygen carrying capacity and, essentially, your
performance ability. For a one day race you can taper and peak.
This isn't possible over time, especially when stage races are
fast every day (none are as fast as le Tour). By injecting EPO
you can offset the nature drop in haematocrit so that,
essentially, you'