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To: ScaniaBoy
That said, I do not know anything about this particular blood test.

Neither do I. From the IHT:

First revealing the news about Vinokourov on Tuesday, a rest day in the race, a French sports newspaper, l'Equipe, said on its Web site that the analysis of his blood was conducted by the Chatenay-Malabry laboratory outside of Paris.

It said that two distinctive types of red blood cells were found in the A, or first, test of his blood and showed that Vinokourov received a transfusion from a compatible donor shortly before the time trial in Albi.

Fresh blood augments the number of red corpuscles, which carry oxygen to depleted muscles.

Blood taken from a rider and then returned to his body cannot be detected but blood from a donor can be - a new test first caught Tyler Hamilton, the American winner of the Olympic time trial in Athens in 2004, when it was administered in Spain weeks after his triumph.

Bags of blood for transfusion back into the donor rider are at the heart of the Operación Puerto scandal in Madrid, which has implicated some of bicycle racing's stars."

[Vino's team manager Marc Biver "denies having manipulated his blood," The Associated Press reported from Pau & Biver added that the rider believed that "blood anomalies in his body" might have resulted from a crash he was involved in last week.]

If he were going to cheat this way, why wouldn't he have just brought some of his own blood for that purpose? Crazy!

33 posted on 07/24/2007 2:42:01 PM PDT by leilani (!)
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To: leilani
It's hard to believe that Vino could have been acting without the knowledge of team management. These blood transfusions are highly complex and require a great deal of planning - it isn't something you do on the spur of the moment, or while you're hiding in the men's room. So team Astana might be in deep doo doo.

But the whole sport is in deep doo doo. The fact that high-profile cheating is still being attempted - and detected - in the wake of the massive negative publicity of the Landis fiasco tells potential sponsors to stay away. This is very bad news for Discovery, looking for new sponsorship.
35 posted on 07/24/2007 3:27:16 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle ("Above all, shake your bum at Burton.")
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