The International Cycling Union (UCI) asked this Tuesday at World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to “avoid” carbon monoxide inhalation, a legal but controversial technique used by runners such as Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.
“The UCI clearly asks teams and riders not to use repeated inhalations of CO. Only the medical use of a single inhalation of CO in a controlled medical environment is acceptable. The UCI also officially requires the World Anti-Doping Agency (AMA) to rule on the use of this method by athletes,” the organization declared in a statement at the end of a seminar that brought together the various cycling families for two days in Nice .
The use of this potentially deadly gas by at least three cycling teams was revealed last summer during the Tour de France by the specialist website Escape Collective. These teams include Israel PT and the UAE team led by Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar and runner-up Visma Jonas Vingegaard.
Asked by the press at the Tour de France, the two champions admitted they used the method to measure the benefits of training at altitude.
Inhaling carbon monoxide in precise doses can improve sports performance, but in high doses it can be fatal, according to Dr. Iker García Alday (Logroño, 31 years old), professor of physiology at Escola Vitae, a center attached to the Universitat Abat Oliba CEU and researcher of exercise physiology. Such practice is a cause of debate in the cycling world, with opinions for and against.
While the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is studying the matter, the Movement for Credible Cycling (MPCC)which includes 8 World Team teams and a total of 385 riders, recently came out against carbon monoxide inhalation. The said body explained in a statement that “taking into account the health risk (potentially fatal), the complex and artificial technical aspects (misuse of technical and therapeutic means to artificially create physiological changes) and the current world anti-doping code, the MPCC can only strictly discourage the use of this method…until it is prohibited.”
The French cyclist Romain Bardet expressed concern about carbon monoxide inhalation practices and defined an “arms race” between teams for the most advanced mechanisms to increase performance.
Source: La Verdad
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