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tomasito
Best thing to read about cheating is Mikko's recent post on it.
https://www.randonneurs.fi/values-of-the-transcontinental-race-are-good-values-and-how-we-cheat/?fbclid=IwAR33Qgu8nPBrbyZFsAyAg9mbrVAlTE0d9sqUL7WcSZ5vMvISh3kTk7NWQRM
I don't think drugs would be a massive help. Sure EPO would help you to push it in traning, but AFAIK most only have a short term impact and you can't string it out for days on end before crashing.
But, if I wanted to cheat, I wouldn't mess around with popping pills. The best way would be to have a friend or a PA organising stuff. Looking up the weather in the area I was going into, looking up traffic conditions and roadworks, and sending me a new route to miss any problems. Checking my route against what others were doing to make sure I wasn't heading for any bad options. Re-route me if needed - so much easier with a computer than on the fly. Book hotels for me, and call them to check everything was ok, find food / water for me, etc. They would look up any medical issues I had and tell me what to do, find bike shops and order any spare parts, etc, etc.
Basically they would make it so I didn't have to think about stuff, and didn't make any bad decisions when tired. That is a big part of the challenge.
Then, when it came to a big climb one evening, I would forget to turn my tracker back on, and they would arrange a taxi to give me a lift for an hour or two up the climb, and I'd check into a hotel and have a good night's sleep. Then I'd get up in the morning and turn my tracker back on, and tweet about how I'd ridden all night. I could probably get away with doing that once or twice in a long event - although I'd change it the second time - different time of day.
A lot of this goes on (the first bit anyway, AFAIK no-one has been caught donig the second, although they have on PBP) but does it make that much difference? Not really - if I did it, it could get me a few places in the middle of the pack but it's not going to get me on the podium.