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Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

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Re: Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

#21

Post by anotherboffin »

its_ethan wrote: post #9
MBCook wrote: post #6

This sounds very stupidly dangerous. I’m amazed this is legal, and that people would do it in the first place. I get wanting to win at all costs but this is nuts.

I don't know what it is about cycling that seems to concentrate some of the most insane physiological manipulation (not sure if that's the right phrase tbh). Other sports like baseball/tennis/etc seem to have some issues with like general steroids. But the level that cyclists go to always seems to exceed them by orders of magnitude. I don't know how true it is, but I've heard that some cyclists had/have to set alarms…

I had heard that in the context of absurdly high hematocrit, where they would get their heart rate up to move the (very viscous) blood around their body. No source, but doesn’t sound impossible when everyone was on EPO.

Re: Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

#22

Post by rdtsc »

Aperocky wrote: post #16

> That’s what happened in January 2023 when two riders on Uno-X Mobility had to be taken to hospital after a go-karting session for team bonding left them with carbon monoxide poisoning. Surely it was the go-karting and the team-bonding...

Heh, “For some reason all these teams always do go-karting and indoor grilling bonding sessions before major tournaments…”

Re: Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

#23

Post by klyrs »

davidw wrote: post #15

I got a light case of CO poisoning from using a grill outdoors in a space that I guess wasn't really well ventilated. Threw up in the middle of the night (wasn't the food, everyone else was fine and so was I the very next day). I didn't feel any faster after that and it was kind of a miserable experience. I don't think I would mess around with that stuff.

Yeah, if I was gonna attempt this, it'd be N2 gas, or even CO2, but CO is stupid.

Re: Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

#24

Post by IncreasePosts »

weinzierl wrote: post #2

This article is shadow paywalled. It looks as if you could read it but suddenly throws a "Want to keep reading? Pay!" in your face.

I browse default with javascript off, and if it seems like a website is messed up, I enable it on a per-site basis. Browsing like this is 1) really nice for my laptop battery, but 2) also completely eliminates many of these soft paywalls.

Re: Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

#25

Post by beloch »

If it confers an advantage, even a small one, and it's allowed, everyone will be compelled to do it in order to remain competitive.

That's the crazy thing about high level sports. Either it's banned or everyone does it. There is no in between.

Re: Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

#26

Post by freetanga »

Latin American rowers from many countries train (or used to) at Tiquicaca Lake, in Bolivia. The highest lake in the world. Apparently intense training in a thin atmosphere made them more powerful when racing in richer atmospheres.

Source: Olympic rower who is a friend.

Re: Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

#27

Post by its_ethan »

LargeWu wrote: post #17
its_ethan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what it is about cycling that seems to concentrate some of the most insane physiological manipulation (not sure if that's the right phrase tbh). Other sports like baseball/tennis/etc seem to have some issues with like general steroids. But the level that cyclists go to always seems to exceed them by orders of magnitude. I don't know how true it is, but I've heard that some cyclists had/have to set alarms…

I think because there's less "skill" required, in the sense of hand-eye coordination, than ball sports. The predominant factor seems to be how hard and how long you can push yourself. Once you reach the human body's natural physical limits, chemical advantage seems like the only way to break through those.

This is an interesting thought, it makes sense intuitively.. I could see it being adjacent to why steroids are prevalent amongst body builders. After you've hit your "genetic wall" for size/strength, chemical advantage could seem like the only way to keep progressing.

It's interesting to see it play out in an "official" sport, rather than just individual workout/ "aesthetic" tournaments. Maybe they should add some more skill elements to major cycling races.. perhaps a slalom through the orange cones of a construction site every few miles? lol

Re: Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

#28

Post by davidw »

klyrs wrote: post #23
davidw wrote: post #15

I got a light case of CO poisoning from using a grill outdoors in a space that I guess wasn't really well ventilated. Threw up in the middle of the night (wasn't the food, everyone else was fine and so was I the very next day). I didn't feel any faster after that and it was kind of a miserable experience. I don't think I would mess around with that stuff.

Yeah, if I was gonna attempt this, it'd be N2 gas, or even CO2, but CO is stupid.

Nitrogen is apparently pretty dangerous too because, from what I understand, your body doesn't feel like it's not "getting enough air" like it does with high CO2 concentrations? Something like that, I don't recall the specifics...

Re: Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

#29

Post by jablala »

freetanga wrote: post #26

Latin American rowers from many countries train (or used to) at Tiquicaca Lake, in Bolivia. The highest lake in the world. Apparently intense training in a thin atmosphere made them more powerful when racing in richer atmospheres. Source: Olympic rower who is a friend.

You'll also see a lot of MMA fighters train up in the mountains to the same extent.

Re: Tour de France riders are inhaling carbon monoxide in 'super altitude' recipe

#30

Post by ojbyrne »

freetanga wrote: post #26

Latin American rowers from many countries train (or used to) at Tiquicaca Lake, in Bolivia. The highest lake in the world. Apparently intense training in a thin atmosphere made them more powerful when racing in richer atmospheres. Source: Olympic rower who is a friend.

High altitude has been well known as a training aid for decades, e.g. Kenyan marathoners: https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/06/africa/kenya-runners-win-mara...
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