Cycling Weekly 12 June, 1999

Pantini's time is up, and a new tester hits the UK scene

Italy was in shock on the day their sporting hero, Marco Pantani, was kicked out of the Giro d’Italia while leading the race, the night before the final stage. A blood test revealed his hematocrit level to be 52% and therefore he was unable to continue to race on health grounds. The ‘health tests’ were used to spot riders using EPO in the days before a test for the drug had been created and deemed reliable to use.

A rider’s haematocrit level is essentially the amount of oxygen-carrying red blood cells in their blood. EPO boosted these cells and anything over 50% failed on ‘health grounds’.