Treningsforum

Two years ago, ex-Spanish pro Jésus Manzano blew the lid open on the inside secrets of cheats in a series of paid interviews with the Spanish sports daily AS, revealing how cheats beat the system. The current system is so full of loopholes, it's easy for dubious characters to fool the testers.


Under the current system, anti-doping blood controls designed to measure the hematocrit, or red blood cell, count are typically held early in the morning, usually between 7:30 and 9, giving cheats a huge window to operate before the start of the race still a few hours away.


Manzano spelled out how riders would wait until the morning blood testers would leave and then inject themselves with "micro doses" of EPO-charged blood that would later be completely synthesized by the body to the point that they would be undetectable in postrace controls.