|
|
||||
George Hincapie Information
George Hincapié Garcés (born June 29, 1973 in Queens, New York City) is an American professional road bicycle racer currently riding for UCI ProTour Team Columbia-HTC. Hincapie resides in Greenville, South Carolina. Hincapié is most widely known as a key domestique of Lance Armstrong, having been the only rider to assist Armstrong in all seven of his Tour de France victories. Hincapie was also a domestique for Alberto Contador during his 2007 Tour de France victory. Thus, he is the only rider to have raced on eight Tour-winning teams. As of the end of the 2008 Tour, Hincapie has raced the Tour 13 times, finishing all but the first year.  However, Hincapie does have several important wins of his own, starting with Gent-Wevelgem in 2001 and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in 2005. Also in 2005, Hincapie took two stage wins at the Dauphiné Libéré and 2nd place at Paris-Roubaix. In 2005 he also had his first stage win in the Tour de France where, on July 17, he finished seven seconds ahead of Óscar Pereiro to win stage 15 from Lézat-sur-Lèze to Pla d'Adet. More recent victories include two stages at the Tour of California (2006), the overall and a stage at the Tour of Missouri (2007), and another stage win at the Dauphiné Libéré in 2008. He is a two-time US Professional Road Race champion (1998, 2006). Throughout his career Hincapie has targeted the cobbled classics of April, specifically the week that begins with the Ronde van Vlaanderen, continues mid-week with Gent-Wevelgem, and ends with Paris-Roubaix. Since 2001 he has always been a threat to win, although only achieving the highest position on the podium with his 2001 victory in Gent-Wevelgem. His many other top 10 placings include 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 10th in various Ronde van Vlaanderen; 3rd, 4th (twice), and 5th in Gent-Wevelgem in addition to his victory; and 2nd, 4th (twice), 6th (twice), 8th, and 9th in Paris-Roubaix. While using Three Days of De Panne as a warmup ride during the prior week, he has placed well in that race also, winning the overall in 2004 and placing third overall in 2002.  In recent years Hincapie has shown a talent for short individual time trials (ITTs), winning the prologue at the 2005 Dauphiné Libéré, placing second three times and third once in prologues in 2006 (including at the Tour de France), and placing second in the short ITT at Three Days of De Panne. He also won the ITT at the Eneco Tour of Benelux in 2006 and placed fourth in two longer ITTs that year. He finished third in the prologue at the 2007 Tour de France and second in the prologue at the Volta a Catalunya in 2008. His father Ricardo, a Colombian, introduced him to cycling, and his first race training was in New York City's Central Park. Hincapie is married to former runway model and Tour de France podium girl Melanie Simonneau, and they had their first child, daughter Julia Paris, on November 3, 2004. Their second child, a son, Enzo was born on June 20, 2008. In 2004, Hincapie launched his own line of sportswear (see Hincapie Sports) with his brother Richard. Hincapie has been riding for Team Columbia since the 2008 season, departing Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team shortly before it disbanded. He is easily distinguished from the pack by his large size (6' 3", 191 cm). Major results References
External links
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
