Tour de France 2009- Stage #14
Posted by Matt Gilchrist on July 18, 2009
Wow, today’s stage was a nailbiter, and I sit here now only feeling terribly disappointed for Big George Hincapie. On a stage in which no one expected much action besides a small breakaway, ending up with a sprint finish, the fireworks were signficant, on the eve of the Alps.
The standings tonight show that George Hincapie finished 6th place on the stage, gaining 5:20, and slipping into 2nd place overall, just 5 seconds from the yellow jersey. It was exciting, as the escape’s lead went up to a maximum of 8:00 or so, with just about 70 km to go. It was an interesting break, with eleven teams represented, and some strong riders to provide some horsepower. With no real overal threats, one might’ve thought that they would have been given their pass, since the teams of the best sprinters were represented up front, and the overall favorites had no need to chase, only to save their energy for tomorrow. Even AG2R, with the yellow jersey on their team in Rinaldo Nocentini, were represented in the break.
What I couldn’t understand, tactically, was why the chasing started with Astana. With George Hincapie in the virtual lead by nearly 3 minutes, the team came to the front to start the pursuit, before the yellow jersey’s team did so. Armstrong stated afterwards that it was because they didn’t want the lead to climb to 10 or 15 minutes, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m not sure why they would care. I will concede that team tactics should come before friendships, as I’m sure that maybe Armstrong or even Bruyneel may have felt a bit torn, having their former friend and teammate with the opportunity to take the lead. With this in mind, though, there has been nothing to suggest that in the long run, Hincapie could ever stay with the top climbers on the hardest peaks. Had Hincapie taken a two minute lead into the Alps, he may have defended it for a day or so, but it is unlikely that he would be an overall threat to an Astana victory in the end. To see him miss out by 5 seconds just shows how cruel the race can be to the dreams of some men.
Admittedly, there are plenty of men who have been in similar situations in the history of the Tour. Every year, we see breakaways get a lead, and the riders start to think of the spoils, be they a jersey or a stage win. For many of these men, one day of glory can define their career forever, or perhaps a springboard to even great things (see: Nocentini, Rinaldo) as they will never be the same. For others, it can mean a reward for a career of toil, often in the service of others. I think that for George Hincapie, it would have been the Tour gods giving him a gift for his work done over one of the longest Tour careers in history, one which has seen him deliver Lance Armstrong to seven victories, and Alberto Contador to another one. It has seen him on three team trial victories, and at the head of the field over the last two years helping pave the way for Mark Cavendish’s success. While he has had one stage win of his own, plus one brief day in the yellow jersey, Hincapie is someone who has earned the respect of everyone in the field as being a strong and wily veteran, and one who will work tirelessly for his teammates, a consumate professional in every way.
George Hincapie is going to retire one of these years, and he will do so as probably one of the top American riders in history. While he has never won a grand tour, he has had several high placings in the Tour. He has been one the best in the classics in the last decade, even if he only has one victory, in Ghent-Wevelghem, to show for it. He has transformed himself from a young sprinter, in to a true all-arounder, comfortable in the mountains, and capable of holding his own in a time trial. While he will never win the great races that Armstrong, LeMond, or even Hampsten won, nor taken out the sprints that Davis Phinney did in his heyday, George has made his presence known in races throughout the entire season in Europe. Much like Darrell Green did for the Redskins, he has been consistantly great, and a fantastic teammate and professional. This is why I was so upset when he came up just short of the lead today.
After the disappoint of today disappates, the excitement for tomorrow, and indeed for the rest of the week starts. Phil Liggett mentioned this morning that he couldn’t remember ever going into the 15th stage of the Tour with nine seconds separating the top 4 riders. Just about two minutes separate the top 10 riders, even if tomorrow should shake up the standings. Looking at the top 10 alone, I don’t see Nocentini being up there after tomorrow, and I would expect Hincapie and Le Mevel (the frenchman in 5th, courtesy of today’s breakaway) to fall away. I would expect to see Evans, the Schlecks and Sastre move up. It will be a huge test for those with questions marks, such as Wiggins, Martin and Vande Velde. With the exception of the rest day on Monday (when I will revisit my original predictions), this week will see three days in the Alps, a time trial, a finish up Mont Ventoux, and then the final stage into Paris. After a weeklong transition, the race really starts tomorrow, and we will see a potential reshuffling occur each and every day.
Andrew said
Like many of us, I was pulling for George to take yellow, if just for a day. To me it seemed more like Garmin was doing the most aggressive chasing in the closing moments; sometimes it seems like Astana leads by default unless someone else wants to; their leading didn’t seem as aggressive to me, I think it’s the way they ride if they can, up-front, keeping guys out of trouble. (Except for some reason, Levi.)
Anyway, friends or not, Hincapie shouldn’t necessarily be expecting gifts from Garmin or Astana–basically, he leapfrogged all of Garmin’s and Astana’s GC riders today, even if he didn’t quite get enough for yellow. His own Columbia-HTC could have delayed the end-of-race pressure a bit as well, possibly netting him that 5 seconds. It also seems that if George really wanted it, he could have been pushing that breakaway group during the last 10k–but much of the time when they were on-camera, I saw him near the back of that group. They were disorganized, nobody was willing or able to make further sacrifices to catch the eventual stagewinner. Hincapie was riding like everyone else in that break, even though he had the most to gain–like he was unwilling to expend energy he might want in the final sprint. If anybody in that group helped his cause, it was Nicolas Roche, who at least pushed them to bring in in the two additional escapees and kept the pace a little higher. So, I too wish Hincapie had gotten the jersey, but instead of crying foul he should perhaps look in the mirror and ask if he had 5 more seconds in him, because I think he did, and I think his team could have slowed the chase a bit more–but they didn’t. And if Garmin pushed it a bit due to team rivalry, as one of Columbia-HTC’s big guns, Hincapie (whether he seems like a nice guy or not) may have helped sow those seeds as well. Some amount of this rivalry is team management-driven though with riders as pawns.
Anyway, if the result had been 50 seconds rather than 5, Big George probably wouldn’t have seemed so frustrated.