Day 3

Today started with a bang -- at the door. The so-called vampires woke our asses up at 8:00am for doping control. We had to walk down the hall to a makeshift testing center set up in one of the spare hotel rooms. Apparently 3 or 4 teams were checked, blood being taken to look for suspiciously high hematocrit. I thought the whole thing was a bit laughable, since I'm not taking EPO, ut some around here take such things pretty seriously. Most who know me would have had a good laugh watching me sign my name Carlos Hernandez on the doping control sheet, still in my boxers, just nodding to the arbiter and trying to keep my mouth shut and my eyes down.

I finally served my worth today. I felt a ton better, and got myself into the break of 10 guys on the first hill, allowing the rest of my team to sit in. I think we had a few minutes on the peloton at one point. Today featured monster ascents and monster descents -- truly epic. Hanging with the break on the descent was a proud moment for me. We didn't get caught until maybe 1/3 up the big, big climb. My job being done, I just had to set a tempo for myself until the top and survive until the end. I would have liked to stay with a particular grupetta, but they were a bit too quick. I'd like to think if I had been smarter and eaten more I would have been able to stick with them. But that's just me being hard on myself. Today was a success for me, one of the biggest days of my cycling career.

I've included a picture of my test results. Can anyone shed some light on some of the numbers?