Hincapie misses yellow jersey at Tour

BESANCON, France (AP) — Lance Armstrong was unfazed about slipping to fourth place at the Tour de France. Instead, he was riled that his former lieutenant, George Hincapie, was deprived of the yellow jersey — allegedly by a rival U.S. team.

Hincapie, the only man to be a teammate of Armstrong on all seven of his Tour victories, came within 5 seconds of the race lead in the 14th stage won Saturday by Russia's Serguei Ivanov.

Starting the stage as the highest-placed rider in the breakaway group, 5:25 behind leader Rinaldo Nocentini of Italy, Hincapie had a shot to swipe the leader's yellow shirt.

Instead, as Armstrong and his Astana team claimed, the U.S. squad Garmin-Slipstream pressed the pace in a way that helped the Italian hold a slim lead over Hincapie.

Armstrong, on his Twitter feed, took aim at Garmin-Slipstream, which competes with Columbia for dibs as the top American squad at the Tour this year.

"No one wanted George in yellow more than me," he tweeted.

"Until 10km (6.2 miles) to go he was solidly in yellow until GARMIN put on the gas and made sure it didn't happen," Armstrong wrote.

Oh fer cryin' out loud. It's not Garmin's fault Hincapie couldn't catch the leader, Ag2r-La Mondiale (Nocentini's team) was pressing the pace to protect their lead. If Hincapie was truly DESERVING of the yellow, he would have sucked it up and actually fought for the lead, not go stomping off to the team trailer after the stage finish.

According to this Wash Post article,"Hincapie's breakaway group was more than six minutes ahead of the Italian, fanning suspense about the yellow shirt. Nocentini's AG2R-La Mondiale team, then American team Garmin both accelerated the pace, trimming the gap by the finish. Hincapie missed the yellow jersey by seconds."

"TV cameras showed a frustrated Hincapie as he watched Nocentini's pack cross the finish line. He did not speak to reporters before entering the team bus."

Two words: Sore. Loser.

"I mean that's a victory for everybody. That's something that would have gotten attention all over the U.S., that would have been good for the whole sport in America," [Columbia manager Bob Stapleton] said.

Okay, quick poll to non-cyclists: hands in the air if you know who George Hincapie is.

Anyone?

Yeah, I thought so. George Hincapie is about as well known as every other American rider on this tour. As sad as it sounds, Lance is the only one people care about, and Hincapie being in yellow for one frickin day would have made absolutely no difference on the sport.

"Garmin just wanted to prevent another American team from taking the yellow jersey. It's not right," Astana manager Johan Bruyneel said. "It's not very sporting.

No, it's called Garmin was doing what any other cycling team would have done: try to catch up on the lead so their top rider could advance. Also, if I'm reading correctly, having Hincapie in yellow would take the pressure off Astana and force Columbia (Hincapie's team) to work hard to try and defend the jersey… so I'm taking his statement with a grain of salt.

I don't blame Garmin for chasing down Ag2r, because chances are if they hadn't, another team would have. But then again, what do I know? I'm just an impartial observer, following the tour and crossing my fingers that maybe this year riders will stay clean and not dope. (So far, so good…)