Comments on: The EPO effect unburied

By: The effect of EPO on performance | EightLane

The effect of EPO on performance | EightLane — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:01:00 +0000

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By: TrickyDickyBE

TrickyDickyBE — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 21:09:54 +0000

veloclinic TrickyDickyBE My problem with your IF is that it really doesn’t follow the rule of Occam’s Razor. Whilst it is internally coherent it is just not the most viable explanation of what happened. I think we all have to be super vigilant about micro-dosing of EPO and the new variants, but this analysis verges on mendacious because what is implied just can not be derived from this data set. That aside, I’m still a fan 😉

By: veloclinic

veloclinic — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:29:53 +0000

TrickyDickyBE Thanks for the comment. The post is NOT saying that doping is the only factor. It is saying IF doping was the only factor and causes a 3-4% difference, that difference would be evident at the critical points of the race, but could easily be lost if looking at overall finishing times. Cheers DocP.

By: TrickyDickyBE

TrickyDickyBE — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 16:39:53 +0000

But this analysis, whilst providing a good and proper insight – i.e. FTP is the most relevant measure of performance, not overall ride time in the Grand Tour – there is also a major flaw in the analysis.
It presumes that cycling is an individual activity and that the power generated in the legs of the two named athletes, is the only differentiating factor. And on the basis of this analysis, that Wiggins was able to have 3½% more FTP than Nibbali, then the dangerous assumption is hinted at – that Wiggins could have achieved this gain by using EPO.
But if I remember what I saw in the TDF, was that Nibbali was constantly in front of his team on the mountains, virtually always exposed as a lone climber. And Wiggins invariably was riding on the back wheel of a host of riders, most notably Froome. Of course in the Time Trials, this was not possible, but then again, Wiggins has been a time trialling star for many a year now, so there’s no surprises that he was the top performer there.
For any of the above graphs to make any sense, you first have to remove the ‘team’ effect. Take away any advantage that Sky brought to Wiggins compared to what Liquigas could do for Nibbali. The accumulated additional fatigue that theItalian rider would have experienced could easily be worth a negative 3½ of http://FTP. I hated the cheating of Armstrong as much as anyone, but this sort of analysis does no one any favours.