In a story that has rocked the triathlon world, it has just been announced that American professional Collin Chartier tested positive for the banned substance erythropoietin – or EPO – in an out-of-competition test in February. Chartier, made miraculous strides up the ranks last year, winning the PTO US Open in Dallas.

There had been an immense amount of chatter in this space over the last day or so. And the bottom line is, doping in this manner (in addition to any manner) gives a huge competitive advantage. A clean sport is absolute paramount for fair competition, and our sport. So in this blog, I am going to do a bit of a deep dive into EPO, how it works, and the effect it has on performance – which is why it is often the drug of choice for those seeking to climb up the podium by means other than hard work and discipline in training. I have written a fair bit about EPO recently, after a couple of studies have been published demonstrating that ketone supplements...