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ALLEZ, GO GO GO!: IT'S A RACE, SON!
Chris Henry
July 19, 2009
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There has been much discussion of George Hincapie's dashed hopes for a yellow jersey in this year's Tour de France after his five-second miss yesterday in stage 14. Hincapie figured in a 12-man breakaway that put him in the position of virtual leader of the race for much of the day, but a frantic effort to keep his companions in the escape riding smoothly to the finish- coupled with the concerted chase from AG2R la Mondiale for the actual yellow jersey, Rinaldo Nocentini- put Hincapie's efforts to rest.
Whose fault was it that George missed out? Was it Astana's for not letting the break get more than eight minutes early in the stage? Was it Garmin for chasing when they had no obvious reason to do so (with Martijn Maaskant in the break with Hincapie) in the final 20km?
Or was it Hincapie's own Columbia team, which after trying to block the AG2R train at the front of the field switched gears to set up Mark Cavendish for what turned out to be a botched field sprint (irregular sprinting left Cavendish relegated to last place)? Maybe Big George himself didn't do enough himself to overcome the disorganization in his group.
All of these may be a factors, but at the same time, none was uniquely responsible for the disappointment felt by Hincapie's legion of fans at home. The blame game started immediately after the stage, as first Astana was deemed the culprit, then Garmin, with Columbia thrown in the mix for good measure.
Much like a spending habits expand or contract to meet a budget, the chase of a breakaway adjusts throughout the course of the race to achieve its objective, whether to limit a time gap or to catch the group with 3km to set up a sprint. It's no coincidence that so many breakaways are caught by the field just in the nick of time.
Yesterday, AG2R did a flawless job of reeling in enough time to keep Nocentini in yellow. The pursuit by Garmin or the final kilometer acceleration of Columbia did not make or break Hincapie's move. Five seconds can be gained or lost at any moment and had the gap been bigger, AG2R would have pulled back more time. Had the gap been smaller, they would have started their chase closer to the finish.
As Foghorn Leghorn might have said, "it's a race, son!" Let's not forget that this is the Tour de France, and whatever the motivations (good or bad) of any team to ride or not ride, it's a bike race and every team has something to gain. One man's tough luck is another man's success.
Favors don't come easily on the Tour and in the end, it's a case of "sauve qui peut," or every man for himself.
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