Carbon monoxide inhalers will not be banned, for now

After the appearance of news that some teams were using carbon monoxide inhalation techniques to improve the efficiency of their cyclists' altitude training, the Movement For Credible Cycling has given its opinion on the matter "at the moment, there is no indication that it is being used to improve performance."

Calmness in the MPCC regarding the use of carbon monoxide

Last week, the well-known website Escape Collective published an article about the use of carbon monoxide inhalation machines among some teams in the peloton such as UAE Team Emirates, Visma-Lease a Bike, or Israel-PremierTech. Teams that have ended up admitting that they have access to this machine and use it for its original purpose, which is to measure various blood values of cyclists, such as hemoglobin, during altitude training camps.

However, there has been speculation, and some scientific studies are being conducted on the subject, that carbon monoxide inhalation could also be used to artificially improve blood values, which could pose a problem that may conflict with the anti-doping rules of the WADA.

Asked about it, MPCC president Roger Legeay stated that they do not plan to request modifications to the UCI regulations regarding carbon monoxide inhalation techniques "it is a hypothetical issue, not a suspicious one, but caution is necessary. At this time, there is no indication that it is being used to improve performance.". Actions that they did take, for example, regarding the widespread use of Tramadol.

Suspicions about the use of carbon monoxide inhalation to improve performance are linked to accusations made by some media outlets regarding the spectacular performances seen throughout the recently concluded Tour de France and the fact that Tadej Pogacar managed to achieve the Giro-Tour double that no cyclist had been able to add to their palmares since Marco Pantani did it in 1998.