George Hincapie has always been their, whether that meant taking care of Armstrong on the decisive stages of all seven Tour de France victories (no other Discovery rider has riden all seven with Lance) or placing in the top 10 numerous times in the greatest one day bike race of all Paris Roubaix, George has been their. Now as he enters into this years Tour de France a new opportunity opens as Armstrong bows out.
However this spring George has had a tough time, his early season preparation looked great and he had high hopes of winning Paris Roubaix, something that has been a goal of his for years. But it was not meant to be and in a freak accident Georges bike somehow busted up on him as his stem snapped and separated from his frame. George went down hard and many thought he would need surgery.
Last Sunday was the first time Hincapie had competed in about two months and many cycling fans (as well as Discovery director Dirk Demol) watched in wonder as George got underway. Dirk told the French newspaper L’Equipe “We’re not expecting [George] to be in the same form he was last year,”. I guess George was thinking otherwise as he nearly won the event and was just edged out by David Z (a slim two seconds separated the two Americans).
This year will be a huge departure for Discovery as they will not be expected to “control” the race and peleton. This will probably be George’s best opportunity to take it to the next level with the Discovery team, sure he will be wanting to place high in order to establish himself as the declared leader of the American team.
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