Episode 73 [TOUR DE FRANCE FUN] Wine, Cigarettes & Nails The Craziest Stories 🚲

Episode 73 [TOUR DE FRANCE FUN] Wine, Cigarettes & Nails The Craziest Stories 🚲💬 Got a question or feedback? Write us at: [email protected]☕ Buy a Gel Caf for Lactate to support the work: ko-fi.com/lactateSummary:Imagine a Tour de France where riders drank wine for hydration, smoked cigarettes on climbs, and survived armed mobs and roads littered with nails. This episode dissects the brutal physiology behind these historical myths. We reveal why alcohol, believed to be a fuel source, actually catastrophically impairs thermoregulation by acting as a peripheral vasodilator and suppressing antidiuretic hormone, leading to severe dehydration and cardiovascular drift. You'll learn how smoking to "open the lungs" introduced carbon monoxide that suffocated the oxygen transport system by forming carboxyhemoglobin, which has an affinity for hemoglobin 250 times greater than oxygen, crippling your VO₂ max. We then connect this primitive self-sabotage to the cutting-edge (and now banned) practice of carbon monoxide rebreathing, a method used by top teams to artificially trigger EPO production by manipulating the HIF-1α pathway, mimicking altitude training at sea level. Finally, we translate these historical errors into a practical blueprint for you: why ethanol must never be used for intra-race fueling, the dangers of overriding your brain's central governor, and the lethal risks of chasing marginal gains with toxicological "hacks."Keywords: tour de france, physiology, ethanol, carbon monoxide, doping, endurance, cycling, epo, hif-1α, history🎙️ Lactate, the podcast that deciphers science to improve your performance.Key references :Lecoultre, V., & Schutz, Y. (2009). Effect of a small dose of alcohol on the endurance performance of trained cyclists. *PubMed*. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19136497/nachrichten.idw-online.de. (2020, August 4). *University of Bayreuth Study: Carbon monoxide improves endurance performance*. IDW. https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2020/08/04/university-of-bayreuth-study-carbon-monoxide-improves-endurance-performanceTrainingPeaks. (n.d.). *The Science and Controversy of Carbon Monoxide Rebreathing*. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/carbon-monoxide-rebreathing/Vella, L. D., & Cameron-Smith, D. (2010). Alcohol, athletic performance and recovery. *Nutrients*, *2*(8), 781–789. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3257708/Zinner, C., & Schmidt, W. (2024). Low-dose carbon monoxide inhalation to increase total hemoglobin mass and endurance performance: scientific evidence and implications. *Journal of Applied Physiology*, *136*(6), 1335-1337. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11519625/Voices generated by artificial intelligence from the scientific report produced by the Lactate team.