I don't want start a doping argument on HN, and I don't dispute what you've written, but a very low heart rate can be a result of EPO usage.
There's an interesting account in (IIRC) Pantani's biography of riders having to sleep with heart rate monitors. An alarm would trigger if their HR dropped into a dangerous territory, whereupon they'd wake up and have to jump on a bike (which would already be set up on a trainer) in their room to bring their HR back up again.
There's an interesting account in (IIRC) Pantani's biography of riders having to sleep with heart rate monitors. An alarm would trigger if their HR dropped into a dangerous territory, whereupon they'd wake up and have to jump on a bike (which would already be set up on a trainer) in their room to bring their HR back up again.