The Haematocrit test measures hhe percentage by volume of packed red blood cells in a given sample of blood after centrifugation.
Essentially the higher the level the more oxygen is present in the blood and as such the longer you can push yourself and the faster you recover... EPO basically inflates this level.
The standard acceptable level is 50% in most sports (inc cycling) though it is 55% in skiing as they are mostly at altitude which will raise the level somewhat... (hence why athletes often train in altitude chambers).
Though the levels are pretty much irrelevant for most as only cycling and skiing are committed to blood testing... most athletes in other sports have never even had a bloodtest... purely urine tests.
This is not counted as a drugs test, it is a health test which alerts to the high possibility of drug use... This the test that saw Pantani ejected from the giro all those years ago.
Though not a true drugs test, if read write tells one hell of a story.
If you look prior to the festina affair in 98, the average level at the start of the tour across the peloton was 49,8 (a natural level for a male athlete should be around 43/44)
After the events of 98, come 99 the average had dropped to 44 (raised by the odd anomoly such as lances 49.1 level and a few columbians and the likes of colorado bred vaughters who had clearance of a naturally high level due to living at altitude.
The level rose slightly a year later but has generally dropped over the last years with every new drugs test the uci have come up with...
Whilst this test doesnt say a person definately does take drugs it does show that the drugs useful to cycling. eg. EPO is not in use toady as they were before.. As you cannot manipulate this level.. and even if you could the drug would be of no use whatsoever if your level wasnt increased... The Haematocrit level is the one key factor in all doping within endurance events...
Whilst outwardly dirty due to the ucis awful publicity wagon and high level of positive results (no one else comes close to the number and variety of tests cycling perform on every rider) the fact remains that cycling has done more in the fight against doping than any other sport and is undoubtedly one of the cleaner sports today.
Tell me why no other sport tests properly or regularly (especially out of seaon), Why in the likes of athletics can you actually not turn up for 3 tests before you even get dragged in to explain yourself, let alone actually get banned.
Why is that apparently cycling is the only dirty sport when you have things like operation puerto which named 408 sportspeople in its findings... yet only 58 were cyclists, the rest being footballers ,tennis players and athletes...
Why was this blown up as a cycling thing when the numbers for cyclists are actually pretty low, why is it whilst cycling had the balls to admit the fact and name the people involved that the rest of the names have been buried without mention... The fact is, today cycling is the scapegoat of world sport...
Essentially the higher the level the more oxygen is present in the blood and as such the longer you can push yourself and the faster you recover... EPO basically inflates this level.
The standard acceptable level is 50% in most sports (inc cycling) though it is 55% in skiing as they are mostly at altitude which will raise the level somewhat... (hence why athletes often train in altitude chambers).
Though the levels are pretty much irrelevant for most as only cycling and skiing are committed to blood testing... most athletes in other sports have never even had a bloodtest... purely urine tests.
This is not counted as a drugs test, it is a health test which alerts to the high possibility of drug use... This the test that saw Pantani ejected from the giro all those years ago.
Though not a true drugs test, if read write tells one hell of a story.
If you look prior to the festina affair in 98, the average level at the start of the tour across the peloton was 49,8 (a natural level for a male athlete should be around 43/44)
After the events of 98, come 99 the average had dropped to 44 (raised by the odd anomoly such as lances 49.1 level and a few columbians and the likes of colorado bred vaughters who had clearance of a naturally high level due to living at altitude.
The level rose slightly a year later but has generally dropped over the last years with every new drugs test the uci have come up with...
Whilst this test doesnt say a person definately does take drugs it does show that the drugs useful to cycling. eg. EPO is not in use toady as they were before.. As you cannot manipulate this level.. and even if you could the drug would be of no use whatsoever if your level wasnt increased... The Haematocrit level is the one key factor in all doping within endurance events...
Whilst outwardly dirty due to the ucis awful publicity wagon and high level of positive results (no one else comes close to the number and variety of tests cycling perform on every rider) the fact remains that cycling has done more in the fight against doping than any other sport and is undoubtedly one of the cleaner sports today.
Tell me why no other sport tests properly or regularly (especially out of seaon), Why in the likes of athletics can you actually not turn up for 3 tests before you even get dragged in to explain yourself, let alone actually get banned.
Why is that apparently cycling is the only dirty sport when you have things like operation puerto which named 408 sportspeople in its findings... yet only 58 were cyclists, the rest being footballers ,tennis players and athletes...
Why was this blown up as a cycling thing when the numbers for cyclists are actually pretty low, why is it whilst cycling had the balls to admit the fact and name the people involved that the rest of the names have been buried without mention... The fact is, today cycling is the scapegoat of world sport...
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