Hincapie x 9

[Joey_J]

That's 9 Tour wins as a teammate for Big George.
7 with Lance.
1 with Alberto.
1 with Cadel.
It's gotta be a record

 

[greenedge]

Very good performance by Hincapie. He was invaluable on flats and as road captain.

If Contador gets to compete in any more TDF's and wins one he shall have won with 3 different teams.

 

[Limazulu]

Hincapie x 9 - Is it a record?

I agree it's gotta be a record, but I cannot find any record-keeping out there on the web for such a statistic (# of times a rider has competed on a Tour-winning squad). We need to get this question to someone with electronic access to the necessary statistics, in order to confirm it.

 

[luckyboy]

One of the Eurosport commentators a few days ago said it would be a record for Hincapie if Evans wins. They said he was tied on 8 with someone, but I don't know who.

 

[mastersracer]

Very good performance by Hincapie. He was invaluable on flats and as road captain.

If Contador gets to compete in any more TDF's and wins one he shall have won with 3 different teams.

trying to think of other riders who have done that - Lemond comes to mind. Won on 3 different teams (la vie Claire, ADR, Z).

 

[downtubeshifter]

Hincapie on Galibier Climb

Major props to Hincapie for his effort during the Alpe-D’Huez stage. A critical point in the Tour, AS was off the front by almost 2 minutes, and if he extended his 0:53 lead to Cadel Evans, then Cadel would have been riding for second place in the time trial. By the end of the stage, the Schlecks and Cadel finished in the same time, a major phsycological victory for Evans.

I replayed the stage to better summarize the effort by Cadel and Hincapie.

With Contador and Schleck off the front, Liquigas was doing the work up the Col du Telegraphe. Hincapie started rotating with Liquigas during the descent and the false flat through Valloire. As the climb on the Col du Galibier started, Liquigas fell back, and BMC took over with 2 other riders up with Hincapie. Evans was in 4th wheel. Hincapie started his tempo with AS 1:50 off the front, 74k remaining in the race and 13k to summit the Galibier. By this point, Contador and Schleck had started to work together.

Mentally, Evans had to be struggling, and needed the support of the team. I’m sure he had thoughts of “not again”. Hincapie rode his tempo for the next 7k up the climb (the less steep section), until 67k remaining when he fell back. During this time, with Contador and Schleck both working, the gap went from 1:50 down to 1:34 and then back up to 1:50 when Hincapie fell back.

The next 2 BMC riders only lasted at the front until 65k remaining (so they were at the front for less than 2k), but they dropped the gap to 1:20. With 65k remaining, Evans took over and reduced the gap to around 0:50 seconds by the summit at 61k.

So to summarize the Galibier climb against AS and Contador both working:
7k (flatter section), Hincapie, net gap change 0:00 1:50-1:50 (more than half of the climb!)
2k, 2 other BMC, net gap change -0:30, 1:50-1:20
4k, (steep section), Evans, net gap change -0:30, 1:20-0:50

The work done by the BMC team on that climb, especially Hincapie, when other teams wouldn’t (or couldn’t) work, is what restored Evans confidence and gave him the motivation for the aggressive final summit of the Galibier, allowing it to all come together before L’Alpe (imho).

Props again to Hincapie.

 

[davestoller]

I think it is appropriate that George is being recognized not only as captain on the road, but as keeper of the low-key-vibe and roll with it attitude that helped Cadel tremendously.

Some journalists are calling him the rabbit's foot for Tour winners.

It's kinda true. And not so far-fetched.

Look what happened to LA when he didnt have George.
Total disaster last year with crashes--like this year for the Shack.

Look at Cadel and BMC's path this year. Apparently people were criticizing BMC in the first 10 days for staying right at the front in the finale 10-15 km of sprint stages.
Anyone criticizing now?

George also maintains composure.

Apparently on the morning and day of the final ITT, the deal was, no one on the team was to talk to Cadel--like a pitcher in the clubhouse of a team in the world series.
But Cadel wanted George and I think Morabito around just to keep things easy, re-con the course (AGAIN), and then warm up together.

BTW: Cadel not only raced the ITT course Grenoble in Dauphine, he rode it like a dozen times in the spring.
It showed.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

GH is amazing. Besides the 9x, this is his 16 Tour. Post race today he said he is leaning toward doing another Tour becasue he still feels good on the bike, and feels he can still contribute well to the team. That was no declaration he will be back for another Tour, just that he's leaning that way.