George Hincapie on Team RadioShack in 2010

[Robert Merivel]

http://www.roadcycling.com/articles...ie_to_Reunite_on_Team_RadioShack_002935.shtml

In an interview with Outside Magazine Lance Armstrong confirms that he is to reunite with personal friend and former teammate George Hincapie on Team RadioShack in 2010. George Hincapie is currently riding for successful Team Columbia-HTC and was a strong power behind the throne when he helped Lance Armstrong secure his so-far seven Tour de France victories while riding for Team US Postal Service and Team Discovery Channel.

"He’s already committed. Has been since before we got our funding," Lance Armstrong told Outside Magazine.

Armstrong intends to build his new Team RadioShack (or The Shack as it is to be known) around a solid base of riders well-known to him and cycling fans worldwide - riders such as personal friend Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, Chris Horner and Andreas Klöden. Armstrong's impressive network and peloton power is sure to open doors to additional powerful riders. Roadcycling.com expects his new team to be even stronger than Team Astana.

Commenting on his chances of winning the 2010 Tour de France Lance Armstrong told Outside Magazine that "I think we can have a better team [than Contador, ed). But it’s not rocket science. You have to avoid mistakes and accidents. To win, I’ve got to climb at a certain consistent speed, my tempo has to be fast, and I’ve got to get my time trial back. I can’t accelerate like I did before. And what you saw from Contador this year—I’ll never beat that. I wouldn’t have beat that before. But, who knows, that might have been the form of a lifetime ... What’s important is that we show up and try hard. People understand that I’m an old guy. Nobody expects 2001 again."

Lance Armstrong will take part in the 2009 Leadville 100 mountain bike race tomorrow. A race the incredibly multi-talented seven-time Tour de France champion really hopes to win this year.

 

[Nick C.]

Well George's odds on a good Flanders or Roubaix just went down. To think after the last Roubaix he said he diudn't want to go out liek that, so he signs with the same team structure that gave him less than zero support in the past when he was strong and young enough to overcome that handicap. But he will ghet to ride Tempo and chase down breaks before the TV comes on in the Tour. To each his own. Mind you that same quote was seen as ambiguous in another article so perhaps this is nothing more than speculation.

 

[Race Radio]

I am not sure if this is 100% correct. George is committed, but it might not be for RadioShack

 

[Dr. Maserati]

If he does take the Shack option, then I would agree his chances of winning Roubaix are gone.

Thanks for the update RM- and good luck tomorrow!

 

[Raupi7]

I don´t think Lance meant that George is commited to Radio Shack, I think he meant to say that George made a deal with another Team before they had Radio Shack as sponsor.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

Funny -- when this story was published in the Transfers thread, everybody said it was ridiculous.

Susan

 

[richwagmn]

Maybe my english parsing skills are poor, but I can't tell if he's committed to The Shack or committed to another team from that quote. Oh well, Sept 1st is almost here.

 

[hfer07]

I found this article from Velonews.com which confirms Hincapie's Commitment with COLUMBIA-HTC

http://velonews.com/article/96656/leipheimer-signs-with-radioshack-team-source-tells-velonews

 

[Hemoglobin 13]

Why would he leave Columbia?

George has it great at Columbia. He gets tons of ink doing the crucial pulls for Cav who always rewards the effort. He is on a classy, US based team which dominates the Pro Tour in terms of total wins. He gets to ride for himself in selected one day races and he's never been a GC guy. He'll never duplicate the Postal/Disco magic with Lance and he knows it - so does Lance.

10:1 he'll stay put. What's in it for him to transfer to an upstart team? I gotta imagine he enjoys being out of Lance's gravitational pull (despite the fact that the two are friends).

 

[mambo#5]

Obviously, George is committed to another outfit. If there was no funding for the shack at the time when he was presumably asked, there was nothing to commit to with regards to Lance's team.

 

[richwagmn]

Obviously, George is committed to another outfit. If there was no funding for the shack at the time when he was presumably asked, there was nothing to commit to with regards to Lance's team.

But the question is who? If Columbia resigned him, you'd think that would have been announced already. Can't see him going domestic yet. He really wants another shot at Paris Roubaix.

 

[bcounsell]

VN is reporting that GH was not pursued by The Shack due to another deal alread in place for '10.

 

[Cobber]

I am not sure if this is 100% correct. George is committed, but it might not be for RadioShack

+1.... when I first read the comment by Lance this is what I understood it to mean. Either there is some horrible reporting in Outside or the OP of this thread is being a little "creative" in his interpretation of a single sentence quote.

 

[mambo#5]

+1.... when I first read the comment by Lance this is what I understood it to mean. Either there is some horrible reporting in Outside or the OP of this thread is being a little "creative" in his interpretation of a single sentence quote.

that's the beauty of something like twitter nowadays. You get to hear it from the horse's mouth, instead of misinterpretations by sports writers that might have hidden agendas.

 

[Race Radio]

George is not going to RadioShack.

 

[FFWally]

Was hearing BMC until recently, but no Levi now. Looks like he is going to Postal/Disco/Astana/Shack.

Really think Levi should have gone elsewhere, but maybe he doesnt have any dilusions of winning the Tour and wants a shot at being the guy at the Vuelta next year and another ToC win.

Big Goerge should find a classics team. Belgian maybe, or stick with Columbia.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Is it November already?

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Aren't these guys all getting a little long in the tooth? Lance, George, Chris Horner, Azevedo, Rubiera, Levi. All are over the age now when most cyclists retire. Levi will be 36 next year, and he's the youngest out of all of them.

 

[scribe]

Aren't these guys all getting a little long in the tooth? Lance, George, Chris Horner, Azevedo, Rubiera, Levi. All are over the age now when most cyclists retire. Levi will be 36 next year, and he's the youngest out of all of them.

More respect within the peloton and control of the race might be the plan.

I hope Geritol isn't a banned substance.

 

[Anonymous]

Aren't these guys all getting a little long in the tooth? Lance, George, Chris Horner, Azevedo, Rubiera, Levi. All are over the age now when most cyclists retire. Levi will be 36 next year, and he's the youngest out of all of them.

Yea, they actually have TUE's for Viagra.

 

[Anonymous]

Funny -- when this story was published in the Transfers thread, everybody said it was ridiculous.

Susan

well to be fair i was the first to say it was ridiculous, and i think this thread is ridiculous too..

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Didn't Eva just post still that it's not going to happen?

 

[pedaling squares]

Aren't these guys all getting a little long in the tooth? Lance, George, Chris Horner, Azevedo, Rubiera, Levi. All are over the age now when most cyclists retire. Levi will be 36 next year, and he's the youngest out of all of them.

I read that Azevedo was going to be a sports director. Has there been a change of plans?

 

[horseman]

Aren't these guys all getting a little long in the tooth? Lance, George, Chris Horner, Azevedo, Rubiera, Levi. All are over the age now when most cyclists retire. Levi will be 36 next year, and he's the youngest out of all of them.

My thoughts as well, they are all still good but maybe not good enough to get on the top step of a GT.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I read that Azevedo was going to be a sports director. Has there been a change of plans?

Someone Tweeted that he was coming out of retirement to ride. Dunno if that was LA, or who, or when it was - you know the way Twitter is (sucks and unreliable). Could be either. The guy has a calm demeanor, and speaks like four languages, so I could see him being a DS.

The odd part is that in 2008 he rode for a Portugese UCI continental team, as he wanted to be near his family, then retired.