As of Monday, February 10, carbon monoxide rebreathing will be officially banned by the UCI. That means you have one final weekend of inhaling poison gas before the totalitarians in Switzerland make it so that you have to breathe normal stuff like air and snozzberry nicotine vapes.
Carbon monoxide rebreathing can be used to optimize altitude training, “artificially increasing performances.” We used scare quotes there because the cornerstone of this entire website is an essay about how we define natural performances.
The gas has been used by pro cycling teams because it acts as a tracer for lung oxygen diffusion and hemoglobin mass. However, regularly inhaling low doses can lead to performance increases. Sentence A is ‘inhaling carbon monoxide can lead to improved performance’ and Sentence B is ‘inhaling carbon monoxide can lead to improved performance,’ but they’re very different things and one is bad.
Facetiousness aside, the UCI claims repeatedly inhaling the gas, “can result in acute and chronic health problems, for example headaches, lethargy, nausea, dizziness, and confusion. Such symptoms can worsen at any time and develop into problems with heart rhythm, seizures, paralysis, and loss of consciousness.” Well, fair enough. Let’s not kill ourselves with poison gas, it’s not 1917 anymore.
Despite the ban, the inhalation is still permitted “within a medical facility and under the responsibility of a medical professional experienced in the handling of this gas for medical reasons.” Under medical supervision, one inhalation is allowed to measure the total mass of hemoglobin. A second inhalation can take place two weeks after the first measurement.
The use of It came to public attention during the Tour, when a better website than Cyclry broke the news that several teams were chugging their car exhausts or whatever. Carbon monoxide rebreathing remains authorized by the World Anti-Doping Agency.