ESPN.com - MORESPORTS/TDF00 - Hincapie Diary No. 12

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	Training Room

Wednesday, July 19
Nothing to worry about

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 is sharing his experience through the eyes of a key member of the defending championship team.

MORZINE, France -- Marco Pantani attacked on the first climb of the day on Tuesday, which caught us all by surprise. It was a pretty crazy move by him, but he ended up breaking the group apart. There were only 30 or so guys left up in the front, and Tyler (Hamilton) and Kevin (Livingston) did a great job of keeping Pantani at only a minute ahead of Lance Armstrong.

Once it hit the big mountains, when there's only 10 or 15 guys in the front group, we have counted heavily on Tyler and Kevin to be the primary support for Lance. They've done an outstanding job throughout the Tour, as has everyone else on the team.

I think Pantani's early break was kind of his way of telling our team what he thinks of us, but it was definitely not a smart thing for him to do. He finished about 14 minutes behind, so it proved to be somewhat suicidal.


	Lance Armstrong struggled for the first time in this year's Tour on Tuesday.

Lance has a slight advantage over a lot of the guys because he has such a strong and supportive team surrounding him. The whole staff is one unit with one common goal, and we work great together.

We told Lance to relax all day long. He knew that giving up time off the lead was okay. He kept on saying, "We're fine, we're fine," throughout the entire ride.

Lance actually felt great today, he just didn't eat enough during the race. We usually eat a lot throughout the race, but today was just up and down, up and down -- there were no valleys. We all probably ate less than we do normally. I think Lance might have just felt so good that he forgot to eat and he paid for it a little in the end. But none of us are too worried.

He lost a minute and a half off the lead in the last climb, but it was nothing too tragic. He has still got a five-and-a-half minute lead and the whole team still feels really strong. In other words, things are still looking very good for us.

We knew before today's stage and post-race that this is the Tour de France, and you can't start thinking it's over until Sunday. Anything can happen, and today's results haven't changed our outlook on the race at all.

Wednesday's stage will be a short one -- 155 kilometers. But there's one pretty big climb in the middle of the race. Again, there will be a bunch of attacks, so we have to work hard in the beginning, control things and make sure nothing dangerous gets away. Our strategy hasn't changed.

Find out about George Hincapie's "Tour de Caf�," a line of specialty-roasted coffees with proceeds benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation on his web site at www.hincapie.com/2000tdf.html.

ALSO SEE
Armstrong's Tour lead cut by nearly 2 minutes

Hincapie Diary No. 11

Hincapie Diary No. 10

AUDIO/VIDEO
video

Richard Virenque wins Stage 16.
avi: 807 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1

Jan Ullrich gains on Lance Armstrong.
avi: 557 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1

Roberto Heras goes too wide and crashes.
avi: 784 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1

audio

Lance Armstrong says he just bonked on Tuesday.
wav: 361 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6

Armstrong is confident of his lead.
wav: 136 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6

Stage 16 course map
RealVideo: 28.8