Bradley Wiggins, GBR, recent 4th place finisher in the Tour de France, has published all of his blood testing work from the last several years. Info on the exact data can be found at cyclingnews.com and I'm sure other sources as well. Wiggins' values represent a fairly confident conclusion that he is a clean rider. His data from this year's Giro and Tour show naturally occuring changes in the blood values easily and logically attributed to the demands of a tough 3 week Grand Tour, basically, they went down. Wiggins also shows a caluculation of his "Off Score" which shows a relationship with hemoglobin and reticulites.
The following is a direct quote from the cyclingnews.com story.....
- The Off Score was developed as a more robust measure because reticulocytes tend to decrease when haemoglobin is artificially high. The upper limit for the Off Score is 134; Wiggins' haemoglobin, hematocrit, and off score values were 14.93 ± 0.8 g/dl, 44.9 ± 1.9 %, and 89.4 ± 9.4, respectively, well below the cut off parameters that indicate potential artificial performance enhancement.The best indication that Wiggins rode clean is in the fact that his hemoglobin and Off Score values followed the same curve - according to the logic employed in the Off Score, if there was artificial performance enhancement occurring, the end of each curve would point in the opposite direction. - cyclingnews.com -
Given this new data I feel very comfortable that my eyes have not deceived me and indeed the peloton looks a little slower (at least in France) than it has been AND it actually is. I do love that new term, 'cleanish'.
BRAVO BRAD WIGGINS, VIVE LE TOUR
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