Saint-Lary-Soulan, France – The lieutenant looked like a general.
Maybe next year, George Hincapie will replace Lance Armstrong as one. It would be a natural progression, but Hincapie never thought of himself as anything more than one of Armstrong’s top wingmen, a guy who shepherded him up mountains and through valleys for seven years.
Until Sunday.
On one of the toughest routes in modern Tour de France history, on a day when everything pointed toward Armstrong stamping an exclamation point on his record seventh straight Tour win, Hincapie upstaged his teammate, winning his first stage.
As the Tour heads into next Sunday’s final jaunt into Paris, this rather predictable race is desperate for subplots. Armstrong didn’t lose any ground to Ivan Basso (CSC-Denmark), staying on his wheel to the finish in seventh place. Armstrong leads the second-place Italian overall by 2 minutes, 46 seconds and No. 3 Mickael Rasmussen of Denmark (Rabobank-Netherlands) by 3:09.
Seems like only a violent Basque uprising could prevent Armstrong from pouring champagne in Paris. Then again, after what happened here early Sunday morning, don’t rule that out.
Speaking of separatist movements, Hincapie’s topped them all. He separated himself, first from the peloton early in the race and then at the finish from the pack of lieutenants.
Hincapie’s résumé reads of potential. At 32 and a pro for 15 years, Hincapie had won one-day classics such as the Ghent-Wevelgem and stages of the Le Dauphine-Libere. But his most distinguished accomplishment in the Tour de France was marrying a podium girl.
“I’m really in a state of shock right now,” Hincapie said.
Not to say he wasn’t used to a winner’s podium, but he couldn’t figure out the drill. He spoke in a small news conference trailer with an audio feed from other reporters in the nearby pressroom. After answering one question from next door, Hincapie said, “Where are these guys?”
If he keeps this up, he’ll figure it out. One man who thinks he can is Armstrong, as well as team director Johan Bruyneel, who said Hincapie can take Armstrong’s red-hot torch as team leader when he retires Sunday.
“Hey, I’m just trying to deal with one thing right now,” Hincapie said with a laugh. “I just won the biggest race of my life. Let me think about this other stuff later. I’ve been working hard, and for Lance and Johan to start saying stuff like that is pretty amazing.”
Hincapie’s inaugural Tour victory came at an unlikely stage. The 127.7-mile ride from Lezat-sur-Leze to this ski resort high in the Pyrenees featured a rare six major climbs including five Category 1 (1 is the highest) and finishing with an HC (French for too high to classify; English for Hellacious Climb).
Sunday’s 16,000 feet of climbing that skirted through quaint French mountain villages with tree-lined boulevards, fields of sunflowers and corn and views of dark blue lakes at the foot of the towering, craggy Pyrenees. The spectacular beauty, however, was masked by torturous, lung-melting climbs. Halfway up the second-to-last hill, with the highest mountain still left, a sign ominously reads “25 kilometers to arrive” (15 miles to the finish).
While it’s tailor made for Armstrong, Hincapie did the conquering. CSC set a blistering pace for Basso to break Armstrong, and Hincapie went with the first break of 14 riders.
“I thought, ‘You know what, if I go with one of these breaks, with 10 or 12 guys, I’ll be able to get a good gap and definitely be there for Lance in the last two climbs,”‘ Hincapie said. “So I kind of decided on my own.”
However, Armstrong didn’t follow. Neither did Basso. With his most dangerous foe in his sights, Armstrong let the pack go and Hincapie found himself 18 minutes ahead of his leader.
“Once Johan and Dirk saw that, they said, ‘Listen, George, you’re probably not going to come back and you can do your own race,”‘ Hincapie said. “After that I just started to think about the win.”
Hincapie and Spain’s Oscar Pereiro (Phonak-Switzerland) wound up shedding everyone, and Hincapie outsprinted Pereiro to the finish.
“Unbelievable,” is all Armstrong said.
Hincapie was lucky he had a finish line.
At 1 a.m. Sunday, a large group of fans wearing the orange of the Basque-based Euskaltel-Euskadi team from neighboring northern Spain attacked a Spanish TV truck trying to park nearby. They tried unsuccessfully to drag away the driver, Antonio Jimenez, who Sunday night requested a police escort down the mountain.
Route workers refused to finish the course until police settled the fans. As a result, only a kilometer (sixth of a mile) of barriers was placed at the finish line instead of the usual three, and Hincapie and Pereiro had to part a dangerous sea of humanity, predominantly colored orange, nearly the whole way up.
Hincapie, however, may have to get used to crowds.
Tour de France / At a glance
A brief look at Sunday’s 15th stage of the Tour de France:
Stage: Sunday’s stage in the Pyrenees was a 127.7-mile route from Lezat-sur-Leze to Saint-Lary-Soulan, featuring six categorized climbs.
Winner: George Hincapie, United States, Discovery Channel, in 6 hours, 6 minutes, 38 seconds.
How others fared: Oscar Pereiro, Spain, Phonak, was six seconds behind in second place; Pietro Caucchioli, Italy, Credit Agricole, was 38 seconds behind in third place. Lance Armstrong and Ivan Basso crossed the line 5:04 behind Hincapie.
Yellow jersey: Six-time champion Armstrong keeps the yellow jersey. He leads Basso by 2:46 and Mickael Rasmussen by 3:09.
Other jerseys: green (sprinter) – Thor Hushovd, Norway, Credit Agricole; polka-dot (climber) – Rasmussen, Denmark, Rabobank; white (youth) – Yaroslav Popovych, Ukraine, Discovery Channel.
Quote of the day: “I couldn’t have picked a better ending. George is a good friend, we’ve been riding together since we were 17. He deserves it.” – Armstrong
Next stage: Today is a rest day in Pau.
Staff writer John Henderson can be reached at 303-820-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com.
