hold the phone wrote:
There's a lot of revisionist history surrounding these supposed EPO deaths. It's certainly true that the claims are mostly speculative, but the idea that EPO wasn't used or known at the time, or that it couldn't have been connected to some or even most of the deaths, simply isn't true.
I don't have at this moment access to my research file so I'll try to keep my answer pretty brief.
As I understand it, the rumors about possible EPO-use began somewhere around 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, when AP, UPI and news telegram agencies published EPO as a new super-drug that would replace transfusions. The substance must've been discussed regularly in sports circles all around the world from that point onward.
The first solid evidence of EPO use I've seen is from 1990, when Dutch sports doctor Rob Pluijmers told to LA Times, that he had heard of three cyclists using the drug. It is also said that when in 1997 Dutch authorities investigated Cycling team PDM, there was some evidence that they had purchased EPO in 1990 if not already in 1989, from foreign pharmacies. The few newspaper articles I've seen on the PDM case are very vague on details, if my memory is sound, but both years are mentioned.
The actual year when the EPO-habit started in cycling is and will remain a mystery, as unfortunately there is almost no blood data on cyclists prior to mid-1990s to help to solve the enigma. Luckily we do have data on cross-country skiers as blood testing began in 1989 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. These tests didn't seek for EPO use, but interestingly the mean (highest) hematocrit values for men and women were 44.4 (49.5) and 40.2 (44.4) respectively, so nothing suspicious there. It is also telling that Russian biathlete Sergei Tarasov nearly died to complications when he had his blood reinfused in the 1992 Winter Olympics. If EPO was widely and easily available, why to bother to use such a dated method?
And there is also more on the 1990 Johannes Draaijer - incidence, but the few mistakes in your post are of the N.Y.T writer, not yours (for instance, J.D. was 20th in the last stage of the 1989 Tour, but finished 130th). Anti-doping author Paul Kimmage made an interesting video just two years ago interviewing his widow.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/paul-kimmage-whos-afraid-of-johannes-draaijer-30479202.html