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Suspicious Blood and Performance in Professional Cycling

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Journal of Sports Economics

Published online on

Abstract

In this note, the authors analyze whether the International Cycling Union’s "index of suspicion," which reflects the extent to which a rider is suspected of using doping, correlates with performance during the 2010 Tour de France and the 1-year period before and after the 2010 Tour de France. Though our point estimates suggest a medium-sized performance improving effect of being suspected of doping, the index of suspicion can only explain a very small part of the variation in performance. This could be because the current doping practice in cycling has little effect on diverse rankings in these races.