Critérium du Dauphiné leader Thomas De Gendt slept in a hypoxic tent in the build-up to the race, a practice which the Lotto Soudal general manager, Marc Sergeant, defended to Cyclingnews as a “good alternative” to altitude training.
Hypoxic chambers control the atmosphere to mimic the thinner air at altitude, which boosts production of red blood cells in the body, in turn increasing the oxygen-carrying capacity of the athlete.
“I'm back from nearly three weeks of altitude training. That is to say, I spent three weeks sleeping in an altitude tent in Calpe,” De Gendt told Belga after winning the first stage of the Dauphiné, joking about evenings at the bar by the Mediterranean Sea.
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“Last year I trained in the Sierra Nevada, and I used to go to Italy, but now I chose Calpe. I have a house there and, in consultation with my coach, we came to that solution. He is an advocate of the principle of ‘sleep high, train low’ because your body is taxed less and still reaps the benefits of the high altitude.”
Use of hypoxic chambers is permitted under the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) code, though there are ethical concerns, given the artificial nature of the process being taken to enhance the physiological capability of the body.
The tennis player Novak Djokovic attracted controversy when he credited an egg-shaped recovery pod as a factor behind his 2011 success, while Team Sky have faced questions over their rumoured use of the technology. It is understood to still be widely used in the pro peloton.
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