EPO/Blood doping vs. height

JohnDDD said:

I was discussing with a few friends of mine whether or not using blood doping as a tall person would be a greater advantage than using blood doping as a smaller person.

I reasoned that tall people have more blood and can thus make more red blood cells before their hematocrite is increased with 1% than the smaller person. This means that if a tall person increased his hematocrite from 40% to 60% this would mean that he had in fact gained more new red blood cells (and ways to transport oxygen) than the smaller person going from 40 to 60.

Now my friend pointed out that the taller person also had a bigger body with more muscles and thus the advantage would be equal or even less in taller persons.

Now I was looking back at the years that EPO was freely used within the peloton - say the 90s - and of course my eye fell on Miguel Indurain and Bjarne Riis. Now I do not want to suggest Indurain used blood doping, because there was never any suggestion that he might have, but Bjarne Riis is far more interesting.

Of course Riis was known - some people claim - as Mr. 60% for his high hematocrite level. He was willing to go quite far, maybe even further than others. But there must have been others who went this distance in those days and Riis was not particularly talented. He was quite an average time trialists and climber, and in 96, he suddenly won the Tour, when others, with more talent, failed.

This led me to believe that my hypothesis might be correct, that the blood-muscle rating in taller persons is actually quite good and that they have more advantage when using EPO than a smaller rider.

Could anyone back or deny my claim by using science?

Well, I can't say much to your theory, but I can point out that Riis was considered a top rider even before he won the Tour so his win was not really "sudden". What was sudden in the '96 Tour was Indurain's cracking.
I might add that Riis had quite a bit of help from a very young domestique named Jan Ulrich.

Riis, before his Tour win in 96, used to ride for two or three suspicious teams. Teams with guys like Berzin, Tonkov and Ugromov. I'm sure he was taking before 96 also.

It depends on whether the advantage comes from having a greater absolute number of red blood cells, or whether it comes from having a higher percentage of them.

You are correct that taller, bigger people have more blood, and therefore a greater number of red blood cells. To increase this number by 1% means acquiring a greater absolute number of new cells, than it does for a person with less blood who increases his number 1%.

But, a bigger person also has more body mass that needs to be oxygenated; they therefore *need* to have that greater number of red cells to see the same benefit.

So, my first thought is that absolute numbers of red cells are not important; percentages of them in the blood are.

I have no idea how doping actually works physiologically, however, so it's just a speculation.

Red cells per unit of blood is the real indicator of effect on performance. % is subject to dilutional effects and levels of other blood components. Height has no effect on effects of EPO or other blood boosting (though having a greater body surface area/kg would improve cooling in hot weather for a tall thin person).

JohnDDD said:

This led me to believe that my hypothesis might be correct, that the blood-muscle rating in taller persons is actually quite good and that they have more advantage when using EPO than a smaller rider.

N=1 great study! Besides Riis is only 6'1". Hardly a standout and rather average.

As others have pointed out, being taller is not relative to your more blood to boost theory since given the same proportions a taller person will have more mass, in fact taller people are known to have denser bones which would actually act against your theory. Body proportions may if you could define a person that has a higher blood/overall mass ratio, but that would have nothing to do with height.