Tour de France 2009

Not having done it myself it'll have to be anecdotal, but my understanding is that around 4-6 weeks before a major race like the Tour, a rider will have a pint or two of blood taken from them which is then stored (it'll only keep for 6 weeks or so in refrigeration). The body will compensate by producing additional blood cells to replace that taken out.

During the major event, some or all of the blood is reinfused to give the rider additional blood volume, which'll include red blood cells which boost the ability for the rider to process oxygen. It is also possible to 'spin' the blood to separate the red blood cells and to reinfuse these alone. Chelsea FC have admitted to this practice in the past, although it wasn't banned in football at the time.

This method is rumoured to be what Armstrong used, read the instant messaging between Jonathan Vaughters and Frankie Andreu for a discussion of this, during the latter period of his TdeF dominance. Vinokourov did the same thing in 2007, and was busted for it, and Patrick Sinkewitz claims he, Andreas Kloden and Matthias Kessler did this during the 2006 Tour.

I'd have said that this is arguably not cheating. it's 'organic', doesn't involve dangerous synthetic substances, and relies on the riders own physiology. if they want to do this, what's really wrong with it?