Both VN and CN link to Ferrari's latest blog with headlines purporting that the claim that Armstrong would have won clean is the main message.
http://www.53x12.com/do/show?page=article&id=126
I am thinking that instead the subliminal message of the blog is that whatever we did, it was no different from what was done in decades prior. The two references to champions from the past are hardly subtle. A little bit of mudslinging by the doctore.
+ Ferrari
This is very cagey stuff. He's nothing if not smart. Those citations, however, are cringe-inducing; though perfectly legitimate, they are at direct odds with just as many papers one could think of that contradict them. As he himself states, "Scientific studies on the topic are often inadequate and come with conflicting conclusions." There are big, big problems with altitude training, and the workaround protocols to deal with these issues -- mainly ones of integrating parenchymal changes with structural adaptations created in (and suited to) normoxic conditions -- are much more expensive than outright doping/masking, very impractical for people without immense support teams and private jets, and I would assume far harder to regulate. Even the dumbed-down CAT-type gadgetry and hypoxic apartments and the like are famously erratic in results.
That's the thing. What makes me cringe is the media dumbing this down to a "Lance would have won clean too, Ferrari says" headline. Do they have a reading comprehension problem or are they mocking us?
What I came away from them is the sentiment that he COULD have gotten the same gains with altitude training, had he chosen to do it instead of using EPO. It is very easy to defend "if only he had done this instead of that, he could still have won" because you will never know. It seemed to work for Lemond...
L7: This is very cagey stuff.
most definitely.
i think that article proves hamilton's point about the anti-doping agencies taking years to come up with a test and ferrari finding a way around it in 5 minutes. his erudite discussion (at arm's length) reinforces my belief that although armstrong was experimenting pre-cancer (and had been introduced to ferrari by the cannibal) he didn't achieve the golden formula until he returned and worked with il maestro in tutti.
Regardless of how much high altitude training a rider does before a grand Tour, they can't increase their hematocrit in the middle of a three week Tour like Armstrong did without doping. This is what won Armstrong those Tours.
During a grand tour, one's hematocrit naturally goes down, and no amount of high altitude training can change that. But blood doping and EPO abuse takes care of that.
Funny how Ferrari fails to mention that in his article.
When Ferrari says "doping" he means "coitus." Theoretically this was possible.
+1 mahoba!!!
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