| | 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.
TROYES, France -- Saturday's stage was unbelievably long -- 255 kilometers -- the longest stage of the Tour. It actually went relatively easy, though. There were a couple of attacks in the first 150k, but nothing major. We had to chase down one breakaway, but it wasn't too threatening.
The overall race is pretty much all set, so we kind of took it somewhat easy on Saturday and let things happen. Three guys got away in the last 70 kilometers, but the sprinter team caught them with about five kilometers to go. There was a real big field sprint, and Erik Zabel took the stage. I finished ninth.
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Lance Armstrong and his teammates are almost ready to celebrate. |
A lot of the top sprinters in cycling are out of the Tour at this point, so I'd say that Zabel is probably the best one in the field right now. He's won a ton of races over the years and he's done a good job for his team in this Tour. He hadn't won a stage in the Tour in three years even though he's always really close, so he's got to be pretty excited right now.
The first half of Sunday's stage is pretty much a parade. We'll go through Paris for about 60 kilometers around the Champs-Élysées before the real race starts. Typically, the whole field goes pretty easy, jokes around and drinks champagne -- it's essentially a day of celebration up to the halfway mark of the race.
Everybody looks forward to the final stage of the Tour. There are just thousands upon thousands of people all over the Champs-Élysées. It's a really special day, especially for the leading team. There's a tradition that the leading team goes to the front and brings the field into the Champs-Élysées. The crowd just goes totally nuts. It's deafening. It's an amazing feeling for us after having worked as hard as we have over the past few weeks.
But we can't forget that the race is still on, and we still have a job to do. There should be a pretty intense field sprint on Sunday, and we have to remain focused.
The media attention Lance has received hasn't been as bad as you might think. We have public relations people here that have done a good job limiting it and letting the team focus on the race itself. While not a lot of media requests for Lance have been granted, it's been pretty key for us in maintaining control of the race.
The Tour has been an awesome experience yet again. However, I am definitely looking forward to Sunday evening so we can celebrate and finally get some rest.
Find out about George Hincapie's "Tour de Café," a line of specialty-roasted coffees with proceeds benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation on his web site at www.hincapie.com/2000tdf.html.
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ALSO SEE
Stage Twenty results
Hincapie Diary No. 15
Hincapie Diary No. 14
Hincapie Diary No. 13
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
 Erik Zabel sprints to the Stage 20 victory.
avi: 1353 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Stage 20 course map
RealVideo: 28.8
Stage 21 course map
RealVideo: 28.8
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