Categories: NostalgiaThe Hardmen

The Experienced Mr. Hincapie

George Hincapie - photo Luc Claessen

Experience is something that we can only develop over time. We take it to imply there is some associated wisdom, garnered principally through those experiences that contributed that wisdom through hardship of some kind. As a society, we also refer to this as “learning from our mistakes”; mistakes make a much more convincing guide than does success.

I happen to be a semi-professional mistake-makerer, although I do feel as though I should have much more wisdom in my bones than I demonstrate. It sometimes feels as though all I make are mistakes. One gigantic snowball of mistakes that continues to build on itself with each successive heave down the snowy slope of life. At times, I fully comprehend the mistake as I’m making it, but soldier forth in the misguided hope that it will somehow work out for me despite my imminent failure. Other times, I’ll be certain that I’m right and true, only to discover later my fallacy.

The severity of all this mistake-making is lessened somewhat if one is able to learn from their mistakes and convert it into something resembling wisdom, as I optimistically believe I am. In fact, learning from my many mistakes is perhaps one of my greatest talents; it seems this particular  skill helps me forge long-lasting relationships and hold down jobs without getting fired for sucking so much.

George Hincapie and I have in common the fact that we are both “experienced”. But it is in this last respect, that of learning from one’s mistakes, that George Hincapie and I differ, aside from athletic ability and, I’m assuming, body odor. It is for this reason that being his fan necessitates that one be a masochist. Our hopes rise each season and for each classic, yet every time our hopes are crushed as we watch helplessly as he misses the opportunity to win.

Here is a rider of immense talent, not to mention America’s best hope for victory over the stones of Belgium and Northern France. As his career draws to a close, his huge potential remains unfulfilled. With one exception, when the stakes were highest, Big George repeated a chronic string of mistakes. Time and again, he would let the critical move go, look around for others to take initiative as the race exploded ahead, would mysteriously disappear from the front, or simply fall into a ditch.

A rider needs luck to win at the classics, but the most successful riders seem to make their own luck. Hincapie faltered each time victory was within his grasp, yet always found a locus of responsibility that lay outside himself. With the exception of his snapped steerer in the 2006 Roubaix, by and large, his were missed opportunities, with the prefect example being Stage 14 of the 2009 Tour. Hincapie was in a break which was set to place him into the Yellow Jersey when Sergei Ivanov broke free 10 or so kilometers from the line.

The bunch was bearing down on the group, and the gap was dropping quickly. As the gap neared the critical point where George might lose the buffer required to end the day in Yellow, he sat in the group and looked around for another to take up the chase. The bunch continued it’s unstoppable march and, sure enough, Yellow was missed by a scant 5 seconds. Afterwards, a downtrodden and bitter Hincapie blamed the Astana and Garmin teams for chasing too hard and stealing the jersey from him when in reality he squandered his chance by sitting on rather than taking the initiative to chase himself.

The Cobbled Spring Classics are one of the pinacles of our sport, and riders who specialize in these brutal races are few in number. Unless you’re Belgian, most countries boast few riders who are able to ride over the stones and stay in one piece, fewer still manage to arrive at the finish. Rare is the rider who can do so consistently. George Hincapie is the only American rider I can think of who fit this mold, and I’ve always loved him for it. But sadly he’s lacked the je ne sais quoi that would see him outmaneuver, outgun, or outsmart his opponents.

But I never stopped hoping. On the occasions that he arrived at the finish with the scent of victory on the handlebars, the excitement was palpable. Setting foot on the podium did nothing but bolster my belief that he would one day take either the Ronde or Roubaix, and it is sad that there appears to be little hope of seeing him atop the podium as his retirement seems imminent. It would have been glorious to see him atop the podium in Meerbeke or Roubaix, and if he races again next year, I will, against my better judgement, hold high expectations for him. So much for learning from my mistakes.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

View Comments

  • I happen to be a semi-professional mistake-makerer

    Just spent the weekend mounting an ovoid on a fixie. I'll just let that sink in...

  • Did you crop his feet so we couldn't see the shoe covers?

    Big George looks damn PRO in that picture though. Seriously sharp. He looks much better than Cadel. Though can Bat Boy, errr...Cadel look sharp in anything? I was appalled at how bad the Tirreno leader's jersey looked on him:
    Cadel in sky blue

  • @Collin
    What's with the gratuitous Cadel-bashing in the second post of what wad clearly intended to be a bagging session of Big George?

    Hoping for George (even as a non-American I do it) reminds me a little of my younger years watching Greg Norman play US Majors - just wanting him to win just one. I am still getting over the 96 Masters...

  • Well said, Frank. As an unabashed Big George homer (as stated before, Greenville native), I've gotten to the point where the anguish at watching yet another missed opportunity is not only dreaded, but expected. What makes the sting that much sharper is the fact that George is such a good guy. Yes, I know it's been said, but he's not just a nice, approachable fellow as PROs go. The man cares, and he backs it up with his time and money. He actively participates in the community, raising awareness, showing up for and putting on races (he'll show up to shell the regional pros in Hincapie spring series in February in the middle of a training day) and even showing up for charity rides in the offseason to help raise money for local wrenches and bike shop people with medical issues. Because of George, locals like Craig Lewis and Chris Butler are in the Giro right now (at least until Chris crashed out), and more are on the way (keep an eye out for Andy Baker with Bissell who just won an NCAA championship for his college team).

    Maybe it's the fact that I grew up a Red Sox fan and saw them slay the dragon in 2004, but I can't help but to let hope spring eternal for our man. He rips my heart out every April, but I will keep coming back until he's done. There are worse examples to want to emulate.

  • @Brett
    I would add a few more differences such world no. 1 for years on end and two British Opens. But as to personalities Shark is probably more COTHO than Big George.

    As to Franks call on learning from mistakes , you can get two types of learning-15 seasons of exprience or one season's experience 15 times

  • Well said Frank!
    I'm a very old fan of him, I'd say since the beginning, since he turned pro.
    He is the precise case where I like what he could win and not what he actually won.
    I think it's a fantastic thing after many, many years of disappointments that we don't give up on him.

  • @Bo
    Completely off topic, but the NCAA and collegiate cycling are two different things. If NCAA ran it instead of USAC, guys like Andy Baker wouldn't be allowed to participate. In fact, anyone who received prize money from cycling (even a Cat 4) would technically be ineligible.

  • @Pedale.Forchetta, @Bo, @Brett
    And that's one of the really tough things about George; I've never met him but I know a guy really well who raced with him back even as juniors and he was even then the nicest guy ever. I've literally (not figuratively) never heard anyone say anything other than that he's just an Aces guy.

    I just wish he liked getting on podiums more than he liked making excuses.

    And, of course, there's just the easy freebies like the wearing of the shoe covers all the time, and the shots around like this

    or this

    or this

    but for each of those, there's one of these:

    or these

    On the bike, so long as there's not a finish line involved, he's nothing but PRO. Off the bike...well...

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