Danish researchers have published a study in which they demonstrate a five per cent increase in a cycling time trial effort after an infusion of just 135ml (4.5 ounces) of the subject`s own packed red blood cells. In his column on Ekstrabladet.dk, Michael Rasmussen reacted, `I told you so!`. `I said on TV 2 during the summer`s Tour de France that it is largely possible to do what I did in my time as an active rider in the peloton today, to dope with your own blood without being detected,` Rasmussen said.ADVERTISEMENT It might be possible, but are riders really using these small volume transfusions? Nikolai Baastrup Nordsborg, the principal researcher at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen, told Cyclingnews that the experiments by Bejder et al, the results of which were be published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, started with rumours that athletes were using this low volume method. `This was talked about more than five years ago in the anti-doping environment,` Baastrup Nordsborg said. `There were rumours about doctors advising athletes not to take too high dosages of blood because that would increase the risk of being caught. Based on those rumours - and they are rumours - then we started to think we need to be able to detect these small volumes. The experiment Considerations for anti-doping
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