| | By George Hincapie
Special to ABC Sports Online
Greenville, S.C.'s George Hincapie rides for the United States Postal Service team, and played an integral part in Lance Armstrong's victory in the Tour de France in 1999. He is a two-time winner of the World Road Cycling Championship, and was ranked 50th in the world last year. Throughout the Tour de France, Hincapie will share his experience through the eyes of a key member of the defending championship team.
The ninth stage was yet another difficult one. There were a lot of attacks, but U.S. Postal Service had a representative in every one. We had a good rotation going throughout, so the team was really strong today.
With about 25 kilometers to go, four riders jumped up to the front, but they weren't serious threats to the overall standings so it was an OK situation for us to let it go.
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U.S. Postal is in good shape heading into the mountain stages. |
There was a crash towards the end of the race which Tyler Hamilton and Viatcheslav Ekimov were involved in. Ekimov's got a big black eye, so he's pretty banged up, but it was nothing major. Tyler was OK as well, so it wasn't disastrous.
We all finished together as planned, so all in all it was a good day.
The first nine stages are pretty flat and rolling, so my role has been strictly to protect Lance Armstrong. Normally, I'm going for the sprints where things are pretty hectic and you have to take a lot of risks, but the team wanted to keep me out of the sprints this year. Most importantly, I have to cover Lance at the end of races -- the last five to 10 kilometers. There's a lot of jockeying for position at that point of the races, and things often get pretty dangerous.
The Tour de France is the biggest race in the world, and I'm here to make sure that Lance is well protected and in good shape to win the whole thing. It's a huge honor for me to help him accomplish this.
If I was in a different situation, I could potentially contend for stage wins, but not for the overall Tour. But at the same time, during the World Cups in the spring and a lot of the races throughout the year, the team works for me. I just understand that we are at the Tour de France 100 percent for Lance, and if that means that I can't be involved in the sprints, that's my job and I totally understand and accept that.
A lot of my fans would like to see me going for the stage wins, but the Tour is so hard these days that we need all of our efforts to help Lance repeat.
While the last couple of days have been real aggressive and tough, things are only going to get hairier in the mountains. Monday is going to be hard: 125 miles with three big climbs towards the last 50 miles. The overall standings will be hugely affected by Monday's stage. You're going to see all of the top guys giving it their all.
It's definitely time for Lance to make a move on the rest of the field.
For more information on George Hincapie, visit his web site at www.hincapie.com/2000tdf.html.
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ALSO SEE
Stage Nine results
Armstrong ready for Pyrénées climb
What they're saying as they head to the mountains
Hincapie Diary No. 5
U.S. Postal in an ideal situation right now
U.S.P.S. in good shape
Day one a success
U.S. Postal team built for Lance
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