EPO : researchers question its effect dope

Graham Duerden/Epictura

Published the 06.07.2017 at 18h34

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dopageEPOTour of France

The doctors of the team Festina would not have doped Richard Virenque without the knowledge of her own free will, and this, without the knowledge of their own voluntarily. Not sure that this defense takes to the court, but she can try, thanks to new data on erythropoietin (EPO) published by a team of Dutch researchers in The Lancet haematology.

Their research put in doubt the doping effects of EPO. To climb the mont Ventoux (Vaucluse), in any case, it does not give any advantage over a placebo, according to their experiences.

Cyclists roll

This hormone, produced naturally by the kidneys, stimulates the production of red blood cells. It is used in medicine, in synthetic form, to treat anemia. It has also been misused to increase the performance in sports, especially among long-distance runners and cyclists.

The increase in the number of red blood cells in the blood should be logically accompanied by an increase of the amount of oxygen transported to the muscles ; more fuel, thus better performance. This is the idea behind its use in the sport.

Fans suspicious

An idea that Jules Heuberger and Joris Rotmans, two researchers from the university of Leiden (the netherlands) – and, not surprisingly for the Dutch, cycling enthusiast – have called into question. In perusing the scientific literature on EPO, they have expressed doubts on the robustness of the results to the origin of its classification as a doping product. In particular, in most studies, the participants knew whether they were receiving EPO or not.

So, they decided to check for themselves its effectiveness in the laboratory and then under real conditions. To do this, they recruited 48 cyclists, experienced but not professional, they were separated into two groups. For eight weeks, the first group of 24 riders had received injections of EPO, and the other group a placebo, without knowing who received what injection.