UCI to test for blood boosting

Yahoo! Sport | Blood transfusions detectable from this season: UCI

The UCI will adopt a new test to detect blood transfusions used to boost red blood cell levels.

Hein Verbruggen, UCI president, says the test will detect both transfusions from another rider with the same blood type, and self-transfusions:

"There is an Australian test which can determine, with more or less 100 percent certainty, whether any manipulation has taken place," Verbruggen told AFP Friday.

...Verbruggen added: "In 999 cases out of 1,000, we will be able to tell if there has been manipulation. But we cannot rely on that alone to sanction (the athlete), so we will do as we do for haematocrit."

Since the effect of EPO lingers after the drug is detectable, the UCI prohibits riders from racing with a hematocrit higher than 50.