Blood transfusions

gregssmirkingrevenge

So from what i see, autologous blood tranfusions seem the most effective and safe (in terms of getting caught) method of blood doping and i was just looking to find a bit more about them- and what's being done to prevent them? It seems like as long as you use your own blood- its undetectable- is this right? Are they used in conjuncture with other drugs and epo, or do you use epo while your training, bank the blood from your training then transfuse back as needed during the race?
Nowadays Injecting epo during a stage race seems like such a clumsy and risky technique compared to this- what's the catch? Can you be caught red handed or is only through puerto style investigations? Is everyone getting away with it like epo in the 90's?

Kléber

You've pretty much got it right. I wouldn't say every rider is doing this as supplying and storing blood takes logistics, as does shipping it around Europe to bring to the race. Bringing the infamous "800ml of packed cells" per rider per day takes planning.

But a simple haematocrit test on the start line would help, if the haematocrit is suspiciously high then testers know something is up. In general the bio passport scheme should also show pointers of this, with weird fluctuations in haematocrit. But the UCI promised news on the bio passport months ago yet they've gone cold.