-
Oh, my fault. I don't have any medical or administrative knowledge that would actually answer questions as to whether or not that sort of thing would be readily apparent, as I am unsure of how they test for excess testosterone in the blood. Some organizations simply compare testosterone levels to the average, which I tend to think is a poor methodology given that you are dealing with world-class athletes in their fields and they do not often cleave to Average Joe's metabolism, testosterone levels, oxygenation rates, etc, etc. I do know enough, however, to say that a single shot of testosterone will not enhance athletic performance in the space of a single day - Landis would be better off taking PCP.
I will plead the other bit to common sense, though: if you were filling yourself with someone else's red blood cells in a high-level professional sport, it stands to reason that you would be well aware of the contents of said fluid before you go giving yourself an armful. This is the same reason I never believe any athlete when they say they must have taken steroids accidentally - at that level of performance, you know your intake of calories, vitamins, supplements, and everything else down to the milligram. That being a given, how would you accidentally shoot yourself full of blood that will wind up making you pop hot for testosterone?
-
Mala: Yes, if the blood you used had roids in it, you would test positive. But people don't use other people's blood. They use their own. Blood Doping is a process by which you heavily oxygenate your own blood (through high altitude training and other scientific methods), and store it aside. Then you inject yourself with YOUR OWN blood later. This is cheating, of course.
They have a wide variety of tests that would show you have someone else's blood in your system. These tests are actually very reliable. That is why when people blood dope, they almost always use their own blood.
Obviously if you are storing and using your own blood, you are going to do it at a time you are not using any performance enhancing drugs.
Regarding more Europeans being busted than Americans, well a lot more Europeans compete. The reason so many of us are up in arms about the clear Anti-American bias is because of the outrageous and fanatical way they have gone after Lance Armstrong in the past and now Landis. Armstrong had to keep an army of lawyers and scientists on the payroll to defend against all their many attacks. The various cycling committees engaged in all sorts of super lame behavior, like sending people to demand drug tests when he was about to go with his wife into labor. They have used and abused their position of power to harass American riders for quite some time now.
The reason this situation outrages me so much is because there were far too many inconsistencies and errors in the way the lab operated. Then the way they leaked information to the press (totally in violation of their own rules) was just despicable. That is what resulted in Landis (a cyclist, not a public speaker) to postulate all manner of excuses as more and more information was inappropriately leaked. They made him look like a fraud and a liar by not respecting his rights and by never giving HIM time to even figure out what was going on.
Then there is this arbitration panel and its 100% winning record. How is that even possible? That is just fishy as hell. And the fact that even this panel saw that the lab errors were enough "in the future" to invalidate results, but somehow not now, just screams persecution.
