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http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2004/jul04/jul30news3

UCI give the all clear for Tour dope controls

The International Cycling Union has declared that all urine and blood samples taken during the 2004 Tour de France (except two samples belonging to Belgian Christophe Brandt) have not yielded any traces of banned substances or prohibited methods.

In addition, the UCI's Antidoping Commission examined all medical justifications presented for restricted products. "All riders who resorted to restricted products presented therapeutic justifications according to the Antidoping Rules," said the UCI in a statement.

Of the 189 medical checkups performed at the start of the Tour, the average hematocrit was 44.8% and the average haemoglobin was 14.9g/dl. As the Tour progressed, there were 107 additional blood controls carried out before July 13, which showed averages of 43.3% for hematocrit and 14.6g/dl for haemoglobin. During the last week of the Tour, 80 blood controls were performed, and the average hematocrit and haemoglobin were 42.3% and 14.1g/dl respectively.
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I'm not a doctor and don't know how to interpret this last bit. Why would hematocrit levels decline among tour riders over time? Is that a normal effect of competition, or does that indicate that a lot of the peloton is doping?

The extreme stress of racing every day elicits a plasma volume expansion-- basically increased blood volume with the same number of red blood cells. In other words, the stress response dilutes the blood. What's interesting is that the hematocrits seem fairly reasonable-- perhaps EPO abuse is not as prevalent as it once was?

I remember a Giro from a few years back, 1999 I think-- the hematocrits of many of the favorites were published, and I was struck by how many of them were in the 48-50% range near the end of the 3rd week. Very fishy!

bump!