Altitude could conceal a new almost undetectable doping system according to the new book by James Witts

The British journalist James Witts has just published a new book that promises to become one of the most controversial works on doping in modern sports. Under the title Dope: How Drugs Changed Sport, the author reflects on the evolution of doping practices and presents a particularly striking theory about current professional cycling.

James Witts reignites the debate on doping in cycling with his new book

For now, the book is only available in English, but Witts' initial statements have already sparked an intense debate among fans and specialists.

The "Altitude Alibi" theory

One of the most striking concepts developed by Witts is the so-called "Altitude Alibi."

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As he explains in the preview of The Roadman Cycling Podcast, the usual altitude training of WorldTour teams could provide a perfect cover to hide certain doping practices through microdoses of EPO, a method that would be extremely difficult to detect with the current biological passport.

The reasoning is based on a known fact: staying at altitude causes a natural increase in hematocrit and red blood cell production, exactly the same physiological effect that EPO aims for.

Witts reminds us that the biological passport does not directly detect doping substances, but rather monitors the evolution of each rider's blood values and looks for deviations from their usual profile. However, during an altitude training camp, those changes are precisely what the system expects to find.

His hypothesis is that some riders could take advantage of this circumstance to administer microdoses of EPO, making the increase in blood parameters appear simply as a consequence of altitude training.

In the journalist's words, altitude training would cease to be merely a physiological preparation and would become an “alibi” that would make it difficult to distinguish a natural adaptation from an artificial manipulation.

Training hard without bearing the cost of altitude

Witts also explains that altitude training always involves a trade-off.

If a cyclist sleeps and trains at altitude, they achieve greater physiological adaptation, but the lower availability of oxygen limits the intensity of the workouts. Conversely, if they sleep at altitude but descend to lower elevations for the more demanding sessions, they can maintain a higher quality of training, although they lose some of the hematological benefits.

His theory posits that by resorting to microdoses of EPO, a rider could keep their blood values elevated without fully relying on the stimulus of altitude, allowing them to train at maximum intensity while the biological passport would interpret those changes as an expected physiological response.

It is important to note that this explanation corresponds to a hypothesis put forward by James Witts in his book and in the preview of the podcast. The author does not provide public evidence that this practice is occurring widely in the professional peloton.

“The absence of positives does not mean the absence of culprits”

In an interview with BikeRadar, Witts insists that current cycling is much cleaner than during the era of Lance Armstrong and notes that there have been no major doping scandals in the Tour de France since then.

The journalist highlights that tools like the biological passport, implemented in 2008, along with the Whereabouts system (the obligation for elite athletes to inform anti-doping authorities of their exact location to allow surprise checks at any time of the year), have greatly hindered the organized doping that characterized previous decades.

However, he also warns that limitations still exist.

“As we have seen many times before, the absence of positives does not necessarily mean the absence of culprits.”

To illustrate this, he recalls the case of Lance Armstrong, who publicly defended having passed hundreds of anti-doping tests for years before later admitting to the organized doping system he used.

Microdoses, nighttime controls, and the challenge of artificial intelligence

In the book, Witts also addresses other possible weaknesses in the fight against doping.

Among them, he cites the difficulty in detecting microdoses of EPO, the existence of certain time slots with a lower likelihood of controls, and the budgetary limitations of international anti-doping programs.

Additionally, he warns of a future challenge: the possibility that artificial intelligence accelerates the development of new doping compounds at a rate faster than detection methods can evolve.

Despite presenting concerning scenarios, Witts makes it clear both in BikeRadar and in the podcast preview that there is no public evidence of widespread doping in current professional cycling.

His thesis does not aim to assert that the peloton is systematically doping, but rather to open the debate on the possible gray areas that may still exist within the modern anti-doping system and whether current tools will be sufficient to face future challenges.

With that combination of history, research, and critical analysis, Dope: How Drugs Changed Sport aims to become one of the most discussed publications of the year among those closely following professional cycling.