Cycling Weekly 12 June, 1999

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

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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’.