Why did horner follow hincapie

And that explains why George Hincapie is the only rider to pedal alongside Armstrong in all six of the Texan's Tour de France triumphs. Actually, Hincapie usually can be found pedaling in front of Armstrong, ripping a pocket through the wind, protecting him in the peloton, pacing him up mountainsides. Yet Big George is also a monster one-day racer and could be one of the sport's big names if he focused on the Spring Classics and other major races.

To punctuate the point, Hincapie finished second in April's Paris-Roubaix, the epic, cobblestone-studded, mile crusher. All of which has caused considerable wonder among cycling cognoscenti: why has Hincapie stayed with Armstrong? Even the year-old Hincapie says he's turned down lucrative offers from European teams hoping to pry him away.

But he's stayed with Postal and Discovery the new team sponsor for two reasons: comfort and loyalty. Hincapie is also a creature of habit. He's ridden for American teams throughout his year pro career Motorola, U.

Postal, Discovery , and team managers have learned to trust his racing and training programs. He picks the races he wants to ride and, following the Spring Classics, he moves home to Greenville, S.

Ah, the Tour. Training to ride the mountainous three-week race has changed Hincapie. Once a pure sprinter who was loaded with muscle, he's now leaner 6'3'', pounds and has lost some of his finishing kick. On the plus side, he's a more dominating all-around rider: strong on the flats, in time trials and through the middle slopes of the mountains. In the crowded peloton, Hincapie acts as Armstrong's pulling guard.

Spot Lance, and you'll see George six inches off his front wheel. That's Hincapie's role. In addition to helping Armstrong win six times, Hincapie has mined the Tour for other bounty. She was one of those impossibly gorgeous podium girls, and after Hincapie spotted her, he returned to the team bus and declared, "I'm in love. Back in the peloton, it's easy to debate Hincapie's would-have-been place in cycling's history. But the rider has answered for himself. Chris Horner has seen bike racing's brutal side.

Before turning pro in , he drove to races knowing he needed to win gas money for the drive home. He used credit cards to buy things so he could return them for cash. He baby-sat for his sister's kids in return for a room, and smuggled soda into fast-food joints the only places he could afford to eat. Four times in his 10 years as a pro, the year-old Horner has been the topranked rider in the U.

But he's still hungry for the main meal: a ride in the Tour de France. He'll get his shot this year with the Spanish team Saunier Duval-Prodir. To outsiders, Horner might have been forgiven had he said no when Saunier invited him to join the team last fall. He was scheduled to ride the Tour in but broke his wrist.

His fortunes didn't improve over the next two years, and after a string of disappointing results, Horner returned to the U. That did the trick: he was a podium contender at nearly every one of the or-so U. But just when it seemed that Horner's Tour time had passed, he finished a stunning eighth at the worlds. Impressed, Saunier called and Horner jumped, even though he wasn't guaranteed a Tour spot. He cracked his right femur in a March crash, which caused him to miss the Tour of Italy and the Tour de Georgia.

But following a third-place finish at the June U. Pro in Philly and a mountaintop stage win in the Tour of Switzerland, Saunier handed him the keys to the Tour, where he will be a domestique for co-leaders Fabian Jeker and Juan Carlos Dominguez.

The timing, says Horner, is perfect: "I'm the freshest guy on the team. You'd be hard-pressed to find a sweatier rider than Bobby Julich after a stage of Le Tour. But that doesn't mean the year-old sweats it when he's off his bike. My knowledge of the Tour route is minimal.

Not that Julich, who has started seven Tours and finished six, lacks ambition. He wants to win his first Tour stage and wear the yellow jersey for at least a day. He just has realistic goals. The bar was not always so middling for Julich. He grew up in Colorado and fell for cycling at 13, when he watched the now-defunct Coors Classic speed through his hometown of Glenwood Springs.

He won the national junior championships two years after he started racing, and turned pro in He placed third in the Tour, making him the only American not named Armstrong or LeMond to stand on the podium. But Julich's confidence dissolved over the next few years, as he spun his wheels with a series of ill-fitting European teams. By , he was watching the Tour from his couch. Less than two months after gutting through a broken wrist to finish the Tour, Julich found himself with an Olympic bronze medal in the time trial.

Two wins in Europe early this season have restored his swagger. Disclaimer: I think, having watched quiet, unassuming George over the years, I would personally like him very much back then, and still today. Does the book overhaul his image? I guess that depends on your current view. He doped and most people are pissed about that. Does it burnish his image as one of the most respected riders in the peloton, at least as viewed by his competitors?

Yes, it does that nicely. But learning just how respected he was by his colleagues who most cycling fans think of as a bunch of cheating dirtbags does nothing to make us feel better about his doping.

The rates are stunningly high. It was never built; none of those custom homes and the cycling training center were ever sold.

Do I believe he wants good things for cycling. Padraig, have you, or one of the RKP contributors, ever considered contacting George for an interview? Pat: Yes and no. Thanks, Padraig. Like you said, he was not getting good PR advice. I think that RKP is exactly where he should have started.

It appears they just went for the size of the audience of each media outlet. That shows a lack of understanding on how the web works today. The hotel already existed when he took it over, so his investment — certainly unknown to mostly everyone- may not be as high as you might think. There are plenty of 40 — 90 mile routes in the area with very little traffic none, so be prepared to self support and to ft of climbing every 10 miles.

Why not? As the title suggested, I expected it would cover some aspects of his relationship with Lance and what that entailed throughout his career. An aside: Why is that podium still valid while others are not? I personally feel liking cutting Julich a break because he once sold me his old Ibis at a swap meet. Johan Museeuw. Museeuw was one of the biggest winners when one-day races got supercharged, and only admitted his career-long drug use a decade after his retirement.

Michael Rasmussen. A ranking this high for the Chicken of Tollose seemed unimaginable a decade ago, when he was tossed out of the Tour, technically for a whereabouts violation but karmically for riding like an extraterrestrial. Some also seemed to hold his gangly appearance and awkward mannerisms against him. Alberto Contador. If you want to diffuse public anger over alleged doping, it helps to have an inane narrative. And to ride like an angel out of the saddle and attack Grand Tours like a true champion.

Thus many people have been able to put aside the absurdity of the tainted-steak episode and his curious refusal to offer up a DNA sample to back up his Operation Puerto storyline. Frank Schleck. Despite evidence of large transfers to a Swiss bank account linked to Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes of Operation Puerto fame, Frank Schleck was formally cleared of wrongdoing and proclaimed his complete innocence. That position got tougher after he tested positive for Xipamide at the Tour de France, but the Luxembourgian insisted that he had not ingested the diuretic intentionally.

Yay cycling! All in all, the doping offenses that the elder Schleck brother faced were not remarkable for his era, and in truth his ranking is mostly a reflection of how some fans just never warmed to the Schleck brothers. Jeannie Longo. Over the course of several decades of supernatural domination, Longo has missed tests, failed tests, and aspired to convince the world that her husband bought EPO from Joe Papp for his personal use.

Jonathan Vaughters. He sits at the exact center of this list for good reason. No offense Pippo, but I think JV is harder to judge than you. Richard Virenque.

The boyish, camera-aware climber did more than enough drugs and told more than enough bald-faced lies to be near the sharp end of this list, but he seems too naive or buffoonish to be hated seriously. His refusal to go away inspires more eye rolling than rancor.

Still, the absurdist star of the Festina Affair only admitted to taking tons of EPO after theatrical denials, a weird book substantiating his innocence, and hypocritical denials and reversals in courtrooms. David Millar. He used to be ranked higher on this list, and for a while he seemed to be a poster child of literate reformation, a truth teller and elder spokesman who could help change the sport from the inside.

Millar clearly did not watch Fight Club. Danilo Di Luca. This explosive Italian climber is what an academic might call a habitual cheater. The Killer was popped three times — twice for CERA and once for EPO — and eventually earned a lifetime ban, but most of his biggest results still stand.

At times he rode like an extraterrestrial who did not care how blatant his cheating might appear. Filippo Pozzato. Despite what the tattoo says, a lot of people feel like they can judge Pippo. He offered up a dubious account of his relationship to Dr. Michelle Ferrari — during the pinnacle of his career, when he won the Milan-San Remo — but only got a flimsy three-month sanction due to a paperwork error.

The way that he has hung around the pro peloton pisses some folks off, too. Good for young riders to remember that having a flamboyant Instagram feed can boost your PED sympathy index. George Hincapie. But George has been quiet and likeable, and has lent legitimate support and guidance to a generation of young racers — in most every way acted like a classy champion from past generations who took PEDs.

Two additional data points that enhance his ranking: He was immensely talented as a junior and he never won Paris-Roubaix. Floyd Landis. This is a tricky one. He is at once a victim of injustice and an acute cheater, but he sure as hell is interesting to listen to these days.