UAE stops using carbon monoxide technique, Rasmussen calls for ban: "Otherwise, teams will keep using it"

UAE Team Emirates has ceased using its carbon monoxide rebreathing technique. "It was an exercise that we conducted over 18 months... We finished that process now," Jeroen Swart, performance coordinator for UAE Emirates, told Cyclingnews. The technique came under scrutiny following an article by Escape Collective and was subsequently discouraged by the UCI.

According to Swart, the use of the technique was an exercise, a test, to evaluate riders’ improvements during altitude training camps. Other teams, such as Visma-Lease a Bike and Israel-Premier Tech, are also said to use these methods to test riders' blood values at the beginning and end of altitude camps.

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UAE in the lead during Strade Bianche

UAE has no plans to conduct further tests in the future

Swart further explained that the technique for measuring performance improvements has been used in various sports for two decades. He also confirmed that his team has stopped using it. "To give you complete clarity on that, carbon monoxide rebreathing is a technique that has already been validated for 20 years and has been used by climbers, endurance sportsmen and athletes around the world to measure haemoglobin mass when they go to altitude."

And UAE was curious about that too, because do the high-altitude training camps really work? "We've been very good with our altitude training camps in the last seven years. We feel that we've done a really good job in terms of the benefit, but there's no way that you can quantify that clearly, other than measuring haemoglobin mass. So, two years ago, we decided to assess whether or not our riders were improving to our expectations. And so, it was an exercise that we conducted over 18 months and assessed the haemoglobin mass using carbon monoxide rebreathing which is a very standardised technique with very specific equipment."

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UAE stopped using the carbon monoxide rebreathing technique

UAE halts the use of carbon monoxide; Rasmussen insists it should be completely banned

Now the process has been concluded. "And our results show that our training camps are actually very well suited to the maximal adaptation for our riders which we see in the performances as well." Swart confirmed that the team has no plans to resume the tests in the future.

However, Michael Rasmussen does not believe it at all, as he shared in a post on X. "As long as non-use of carbon monoxide only remains a 'recommendation' from UCI and it isn't prohibited by WADA, we can rest assured that it will be used to increase performance — and that's only natural. Teams and riders will say otherwise — and that's natural as well..."

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