Quote Originally Posted by Thorn View Post
As for Vino, I want to believe him, but it is tough...lab people, may I ask a dumb question? Is it possible to contaminate the sample to give the test results? That is, could the 'evil person' who wanted to see Vino tossed, contaminate his blood sample with a second person's blood? Or, is the blood treated when it is extracted, thus, making it impossible to contaminate?
Maybe possible, but very unlikely. There are several parameters on a regular ole CBC that indicate a dimorphic population. It is very common to see in patients receiving blood transfusions. It is unlikely that a sample can be contaminated homogeneously enough to show these same results. As for Vino's excuse about the young versus old thing, there are a couple of blood test that can indicate that his bone marrow is trying to catch up for blood loss, I doubt that he came near to the loss required to put his body into this type of "panic" mode (like about 2 pints).

As for trying to cover for the presence of two blood types shows he may have bigger problems on the horizon. Meaning he didn't bother to get a compatible blood type, which could cause life-threatening conditions to occur.
Maybe even years down the road. What if he has to have a transfusion because of say a car accident? He has set himself up to a likely transfusion reaction, which could then take his life.

Do I feel sorry for Ras and the diary keeping of the pros? Not at all. It's part of the job. Don't like it...find another job. I think you should be fired if you don't follow the rules. Rabobank should have dumped him before the Tour started.