| | 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.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- I've always thought of Marco Pantani as a really classy rider, so I really don't know why he made that suicide break on Tuesday. I can't really speak for what he was thinking, but it seemed strange that a rider in sixth place overall would make an all-or-nothing move like that. I guess he was thinking he'd move into the top three or nothing. We were all really surprised that he stopped this morning.
There were attacks right off the bat on Wednesday. I was actually taking a "bathroom break" when the first one hit. It took me about a mile to catch back up to the group. We were controlling the race, so it didn't hurt us or anything.
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The U.S. Postal team continues to control the race's tempo. |
It turned out to be a real hard day, though. There was a second-category climb that was about 17 kilometers long, so it was more like a Category 1 climb.
We had to chase a bunch of riders down through the valley. There was one breakaway of about six riders, and we were kind of helping Telekom chase them back. They were moving really fast, so we decided that there wasn't any good reason to be helping Telekom get a stage win. They hadn't done anything to help us out in past stages, so we backed off and let them chase down the breakaway.
They eventually chased it down in an effort to get Erik Zabel the win, but he came in second.
At this point, getting Lance a stage victory isn't much of a concern. He has a good chance of winning the time trial on Friday, which will be a big ride-off between him and Jan Ullrich. But we've been riding these stages pretty defensively.
Thursday should be another long day. There's no huge climbs, but there are a couple of rollers. There will be another bunch of attacks; we just have to make sure that nothing dangerous gets away.
We're getting pretty close to winning, but we definitely know that we still have some hard work ahead of us. Both Thursday and Friday are extremely difficult stages.
We are the only team in the entire Tour that has all of its nine riders still in the race. I think that's a real testament to this team's sense of unity. We're all going 150 percent for the same goal and nothing else. I don't think the other teams can say that.
I think some of the European squads are a little less team-oriented than we are. It's easy, though, when you're riding for Lance. He's such a strong character and great team leader. The only way we can accomplish our goal is to have everybody on the same page, doing whatever he can to get him the win.
We do understand, however, that this is the Tour de France, and anything can happen. But we do want everyone on the Postal team to make it.
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ALSO SEE
Stage Seventeen results
Armstrong closes in on title; Pantani, Zülle pull out
A triple-Dekker day
Notes from Lausanne
Hincapie Diary No. 12
Hincapie Diary No. 11
Hincapie Diary No. 10
Hincapie Diary No. 9
Hincapie Diary No. 8
Hincapie Diary No. 7
Hincapie Diary No. 6
Hincapie Diary No. 5
Hincapie Diary No. 4
Hincapie Diary No. 3
Hincapie Diary No. 2
Hincapie Diary No. 1
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Stage 17 course map
RealVideo: 28.8
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