I don't follow your logic on a lot of this rekrunner. What does LA being "among the best" of his era and not the top climber nor the top time-trialist at Sydney have to do with the improvement he achieved through doping? Pre-Ferrari he couldn't climb worth beans and was known as a good classics rider and one-day stage hunter through, by his own personal admission, low-octane doping (i.e. corticosteroids & T). With Ferrari's high-octane program, he transforms into one of the best climbers in the sport and suddenly becomes a GT champion.
And so what if he was only 3rd at Sydney or the #2 ranked climber on Alpe d'Huez behind "The Pirate." Going from non-climber to accomplished climber as a result of 02-vector doping is proof enough of the extraordinary benefit he received from doping (and you won't win any GTs unless you can climb).
And why do you think every doper has to set WRs, run a top 1% time or something, continually dominate year end and year out, run "X" number of sub-3:30s, etc? It's more about their individual improvement and where they were pre-doping to where they end up.
Case in point: Ramzi's dramatic improvement from an "also ran" to a world champion in a short time. Though his PB is only "3:29.14," he doubled at Helsinki setting a PB in the 800 while running around with those astronomically high Off-scores (153/148). He follows up with a silver in the 1500 at the 07 WC losing to Lagat (no shame there). A switch to CERA because it was undetectable at that time - and Ramzi goes thermonuclear at Beijing destroying a world-class field like they were sub-elites. Lol. His performances were phony...not real...illusionary due to his high-response to doping. If he hadn't eventually got caught a year later, people would argue today that he's the "real deal." There would be threads about how Ramzi is a clean runner and that people accusing him of doping don't know what they're talking about. There's even a past thread on him that didn't age very well. Lol.
And on the Ventoux study you're referencing - that's a poorly designed study that's been debunked:
https://www.bicycling.com/news/a20047436/epo-study-debunked/
"Dr. Mark Burnley, a physiology professor at the University of Kent and noted expert in endurance physiology, took to Twitter to criticize the study as “quite frankly, awful,” noting several flaws. (Gregoire Millet, a professor of exercise physiology at the University of Lausanne, tweeted “100 percent agree!” and Ross Tucker, the physiologist and writer known for the Science in Sport blog, also said he agreed with Dr. Burnley’s verdict.)"
"The EPO group did actually improve compared to the placebo group; their hemoglobin concentration, maximal power output and VO2Max, among other measures, all tested higher than the placebo group. Net improvements for V02Max and Maximal power, for instance, were about five percent improved relative to the control group, which the authors note is “in line with” effects from previous studies. In fact, in every laboratory measure of maximal exercise capacity in this study, improvements in the EPO group outstripped the control group (and in several cases, the EPO group started from lower absolute baseline values, for which the estimated difference values at study end do not account)."
"The authors also measured, but did not control, the training programs of the study subjects, which were assessed only in terms of hours (average 5-6/week), distance (average 185-200km/week) and overall average power output during rides. No attempt was made to control for differences in training quality."
"-Mont Ventoux, site of the field test, is often featured in the Tour de France. It also has some of the windiest weather in western Europe, which might have affected results. The day of the test, the authors noted that winds at the summit were 85 kph, or 52mph, and two riders from each group were unable to complete the ride due to exhaustion."
"The authors’ results focused on the effect on sub-maximal (below threshold) performance."
"That last one’s key. Much was made of the fact that the EPO group was, on average, a few seconds slower than the control group in the uphill time trial on Ventoux. But that was a sub-threshold effort, not a test of maximal performance . (And it's a little puzzling that four supposedly trained amateur athletes got so fatigued they were unable to complete a sub-two hour ride at sub-maximal intensity.) This is important because EPO's impact on maximal efforts is why it's likely so effective."
"One of the ways that EPO is thought to work is by improving an athlete’s ability to do repeated above-threshold efforts and still recover in the race, partly by increasing lactate buffering capacity. The data from the new study, as with previous ones, supports these maximal intensity improvements. In terms of sub-maximal work, one of the primary benefits showed by EPO use in previous studies was increased time to exhaustion, which the new study did not measure."
"Basically: the effect of EPO may depend on what you’re measuring, and the authors of this study focused on a different measure than previous studies: one that likely doesn't have as much to do with performance in actual races. As with this study, most previous work on EPO’s effect on performance tested both sub-maximal and maximal efforts. The results aren’t uniform, but they do have broad similarities, including that the effect of EPO seems most visible at maximal exercise intensity."
“The limiting factor to performance in recreationally fit subjects is likely to be different to Tour de France riders, who train and race for 4 to 5 hours a day,” says Dr. Rob Child of the Elite Sports Group, which counts several pro cyclists among its clients, including two-time Tour stage winner Steve Cummings. For Tour pros, Child says, “oxygen-carrying capacity could be more of a performance determinant than in recreational athletes, who might be more limited by cardiac output, respiratory muscle fatigue, or lack of fuel availability.” And that’s particularly important when we consider that so much concern about doping relates to pro cyclists and other highly trained athletes.