Follow Armstrong's haematocrit online

Well it's meaningless really, but there you go: Detailed blood test results from seven International Cycling Union (UCI) and Damsgaard out-of-competition tests are now posted on www.livestrong.com.

It goes up and down, often without any particular reason (it has its own reasons, I guess). Mine is 46, or was when last tested. I still couldn't beat Lance over any distance, especially so with my Achilles injury!

And why meaningless? Well it has some meaning, especially if verified by an outside, independent body. We are however reading a public report and trusting that's it's verifiable. I don't think it would get published if it wasn't true, but it's still built on that trust. Would it get published if a value went over an accepted limit? We may never know, but it's something to wonder about.

And does it matter? Transparency may matter, however the ups and downs of a blood test result are fairly obscure unless you know how to read the details, understand the impact of workload and diet and take it in a longitudinal context. Most of us will just go, uh-huh. Or we will misinterpret something and start some sort of rumour...