@roadslave
That’s an awesome story, and I love that perspective!

By the way.. you can tell he’s getting old. here’s a photo of him at the start of this year’s Ronde Von Vlaanderen… look at those varicose veins. Zimmer frame next?

Man…those veins!

I think they look cool. It’s like there’s so much Rule #5 pumping through there that they bulged up.

The Stelvio of veins!

Not over-use here…

MSR 2012

Proper cycling cap wearing – dare I say Big Mig league. Respect.

@Pedale.Forchetta

I knew this day would have come, luckily I still have till the end of the season to get used to the idea…

@Cyclops

Count ’em: That’s two reasons to smile right there. Exceptional work.

I must say that @Pedale.Forchetta‘s artsy-fartsy B&W pretty much crushes my Idaho redneck point and shoot composition.

I knew this day would have come, luckily I still have till the end of the season to get used to the idea…

@Cyclops

Count ’em: That’s two reasons to smile right there. Exceptional work.

@Cyclops did Big George mention anything about the rules? He has made comment before hasn’t he?

He called us out on calling him a pussy for wearing overshoes. Actually, his response made me love him even more; he just replied with a picture of himself, drenched in mud, cornering at Paris-Roubaix – wearing shoe covers. He said something to the effect of, “Roubaix, 2001. Are shoe covers acceptable under these circumstances?”

@Cyclops did Big George mention anything about the rules? He has made comment before hasn’t he?

Naw, he had just got off the cool down on the TT bike and looked pretty anxious to get in the team bus.  I said something awestuckingly stupid and he was like “Cool” and then bolted.

@sprider
I second @ramenvelo. It’s perjury that gets the American riders to talk. Of course, riders from other countries can be subpoenaed by an American court, lie, then leave and not come back to the U.S. as a means of staying out of jail. American riders have to tell the truth or risk going to jail just like Marion Jones did.

I don’t think there’s a single sane American who will risk jail time to stand up for Lance. Now a business partner (read: sycophant) who’s large income depends on Lance-he might make the choice to lie and risk the consequences.

I think what Big George did will ultimately save the sport, but cycling is going to have a HUGE corporate backing problem for a few years. And any extensive big media coverage by American broadcasters will probably go poof.

I wonder what Trek, Oakley, and Nike will say and do. Oh, and RadioShack. I bet their PR directors won’t get much sleep this weekend.

I think I see JV doing cartwheels in the hotel lobby.

Lance is also on the board of FRS (invested)

If my stupid house ever sells.

@roadslave

I agree with this… if this is your natural pedal stroke, great. Everyone has slightly different bio-mechanics. But I would argue there is nothing pro about purposely moving your knees above the tube as you pedal if that is not a normal part of your movement.

Knitting your knees over the top tube is most likely losing energy from your pedal stroke. Although I do pull the knee inward on cornering and descending, but never thru the pedal stroke.

The father of my godchildren is from North Carolina and they will eventually move back there. He always says that when they move back my wife and I have to move with them. We probably will because nothing is really keeping us here, the riding/racing/weather is better in N.C. and the chances of running into Big George out on a ride jump exponentially.

Would love to connect around Paris Mtn. or Lake Lure (Tour DuPont) area whenever you are in NC. George would be spotted on Paris Mtn. (Greenville, SC)

And he married a podium girl – which is cool.

If I was a vascular surgeon I would be sending Big George my card.

MSR 2012

Thank you Mr. Hincapie.

 I knew this day would have come, luckily I still have till the end of the season to get used to the idea…

now, big George will be the only one i see as of yet that has any validity in telling something that resembles ‘truth’ in the sport. The others have told their story, lied and now have real problems in salvaging that, they are not as believable now…go figure.

As for others cyclists currently riding, telling less than the truth for Lance, its not just Lance that puts pressure on them…sure he is at the center of it, but so is the entire sport. Its that big, its their profession, its everything they have worked for.

BTW, it happens ever freaking june…just before july…and has since the French have had the prom et maillot juane

its a national enquirer mentality that drives this tripe, and its all around us in cycling, everyone else…soccor, baseball, football..all other sports love this in that it deflects the problem of doping from them to us. They then can claim falsely they aren’t as bad as cycling. They can continue to cash in the cow, and cycling will continue to kick itself around.

so don’t worry, there is always more to come

I don’t think there’s a single sane American who will risk jail time to stand up for Lance. Now a business partner (read: sycophant) who’s large income depends on Lance–he might make the choice to lie and risk the consequences.

I think what Big George did will ultimately save the sport, but cycling is going to have a HUGE corporate backing problem for a few years. And any extensive big media coverage by American broadcasters will probably go poof.

I wonder what Trek, Oakley, and Nike will say and do. Oh, and RadioShack. I bet their PR directors won’t get much sleep this weekend.

I think I see JV doing cartwheels in the hotel lobby.

“Hincapie is believed to have testified before the federal grand jury investigating claims that Armstrong took part in an organized doping program with the postal service-backed team.”

Two ways to ready that sentence I think. Another reason why I like to read Frank’s writing.

“I know you’ve got a job and you’ve got to ask these questions. I’ve got a job too,” Hincapie told VeloNews at the team’s hotel in Paso Robles, California. “My job’s here to race my bike, promote the sport that we all love; that I’ve sacrificed my whole life for and I just have no interest in dragging this sport through the mud, so I’m sorry, but I have no comment.”

What about an article (with photos) about a certain multi-day Australian ride?

I agree with this… if this is your natural pedal stroke, great. Everyone has slightly different bio-mechanics. But I would argue there is nothing pro about purposely moving your knees above the tube as you pedal if that is not a normal part of your movement.

Knees crossing the centreline?

You just set the topic for the next Look Pro edition.

Knees crossing the centreline?

pakrat :

So young, so much promise….

and so much time spent making shit movies too. George is clean but the one on the right was prescribed a lot of EPO back in the day.

By the way.. you can tell he’s getting old. here’s a photo of him at the start of this year’s Ronde Von Vlaanderen… look at those varicose veins. Zimmer frame next?

Man…those veins!

I think they look cool. It’s like there’s so much Rule #5 pumping through there that they bulged up.

I was riding with a buddy last week, he was wearing some DeFeet Low Slipstreams. He was doing this to preserve his very expensive shoes. I realized that I could do the same to hide my very inexpensive shoes. The most amazing thing is that I was actually riding with someone else.

Frank – small world, I’m not far from SEXYpaw, as I like to call it. I sometimes do longer rides there and back. It’s starting to see overflow from Chapel Hill. I ride to CH all the time. I could see not wanting to ride in Charlotte; my local NC friends won’t let me go there & even frown upon heading to Raleigh. I wouldn’t want to live in either place, as it might kill my cycling as well.

I plan on finally getting to Boone & Asheville this summer. Been invited before, but haven’t made it yet.

Jeez, Frank, glad you pulled your wheel out! That’s crazy.

Cyclops – not positive, but I think Greensboro should be okay for cycling. The city isn’t so big, must be able to get out of it quickly.

@Ron, @Bo, @Cyclops
I lived in Charlotte for 6 months and hated it. I actually quit riding; something about combining a general hatred for cyclists with NASCAR fans that made us easy targets. Very, very, very dangerous riding. One ride actually had my rear wheel completely underneath the trailer of a semi before it caught a ridge and righted itself before I literally was killed. Hung up the bike for the remainder of my stay in Charlotte.

Moved to Raleigh and that was better but still a challenge with beltways that were very unfriendly towards cyclists.

Moved to Chapel Hill (actually to Saxapahaw) and loved it. Almost didn’t leave it for Seattle. The riding was spectacular. Made loads of trips out to Boone and Asheville. Awesomeness. Meatcamp road in Boone is a killer.

@Cyclops, Greensboro should be OK. You’re close to the mountains there and I bet the riding is great, though I never got on my bike there. Had a project in Mt. Airy for a few months and I scouted the roads there, they looked fantastic.

So young, so much promise….

@Bo

I’d be moving to the Greensboro (Whitsett) area if I actually moved over there.

My club used to put on a crit in Danbury Ct. every year and he showed up once to race the 123 field(!) probably when he was still with the Mengoni team in NY. He didn’t win, but as I remember he podiumed.

About two years later he was on Motorola and racing Pro in Europe. This always blew me away.

He still makes it back to the Big Apple sometimes to support a local shop or an important cause. I’ve never heard a bad word about the guy.

@Cyclops
Just a little over a week ago, I was out getting in the required “age in miles” ride on my birthday and passed George blasting away in the other direction on his TT bike, getting ready for ATOC. Even got a wave from him. Just another day in the life of a cyclist around here. Feel free to join us any time!

frank:
@Nof Landrien, @Blah
It’s not so much an issue of is he a doper or not; it’s the arrogance and assholeishness of Pharmy that makes us hate him so. I think the two massive Pharmapricks were Bruyneel and Armstrong; many of the teammates – if they were doping (probably) – were just doing what they were told. There’s a difference, even if they’re still cheats.

I agree, pretty much. Not necessarily on the specifics of each rider I see discussed here, but on the point that it’s largely down to personality. The sport is so full of doubts that very few confirmed positives would surprise me these days; much less so revelations from the past (noone ever, ever tell me Jens doped. That would kill me).
For the record, I’m a bit of a fan of Captain Georgie, as my wife calls him. I always liked Jan, the wonderful coked-up pork pie, and still do. I never liked Millar (jr). He’s essentially Andy Murray on a bike; they’re both tossers.
It’s pretty sad when you think about it, removing whether someone is a dirty, lying cheat from the equation. But strangely liberating, too. Gotta be a cycling fan to understand that, maybe.

Spring is all of a few weeks. May, June, July, August, and September can be rough.

That said, I can’t really complain. Plenty of good riding, plenty of other cool cyclists. A bit flat for my liking, but you can’t have it all. And then again, I haven’t gotten to the mountains in western NC yet. And when I’m not cycling, 2.5 hours to the beach for a swim & surf. Love to get up to VA for some of the Blue Ridge Parkway this summer.

Oh, and going to race some cross this fall. Friends have told me there will be over ten races within an hour of me. Not bad, not bad.

Overall, NC is pretty good for cycling. But then again, so was upstate NY. The winters make it harder there though for a dedicated road cyclist.

anyway back on subject, this is something which is unfortunately inherent in British sport, the english football team, rugby team and the worst kind of this ‘letting chances slip’ is Tim Henman, makes me want to cry sometimes

on the upside, the British Cycling seems to be bucking this trend, so there is hope

Personally, I think there were (are?) very few riders who didn’t dope during the Armstrong era, so to be a fan of any rider of that time means to accept the fact that doping was going on. But to lump a genuinely nice guy in with an asshole like Armstrong is a bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Big George is obviously not a doping mastermind, so if he doped, I’m going to be pretty lenient on him. Seems clean enough these days, anyway.

ChrisO:
@G’phant
Oooh I bet he enjoyed that.
It’s defensive for me. I wouldn’t say my wife is a pedant

I would hope not mate! It’s a pretty crazy thing to say that your wife has the hots for little kids. You should be ashamed of yourself.

NB. Clearly it’s a flat stage today and I am bored.

I have learned from this already – the VMH has a Macbook Pro and the thing never, ever goes haywire. Now…if I could just stop putting all my money into bikes, I could buy a computer that works well more often.

As I’m about to pour money into a CX bike, I guess I’ll ride top-notch machines & put up with crappy computers.

Nice write up, Frank!

Blah :
So…What’s the verdict on Georgie?

Legit question. I am with you on this one Blah.

Oooh I bet he enjoyed that.

It’s defensive for me. I wouldn’t say my wife is a pedant but she gets very worked up about simple mistakes like apostrophes and the use of ‘less’ instead of ‘fewer’. And don’t get her started on subject-verb agreement. Our children squirm but they are better people for it, and I have to watch myself ;-)

She also speaks pretty good French with a nice accent whereas mine is barely schoolboy and like something out of Allo Allo.

So I say things like “The Tour is going over Croix de Fer today” or something of the sort, and she looks at me like I’m a toddler trying to articulate quantum theory. Then she makes me repeat it and puts on a face of slow but kindly enlightenment before saying “Ah you mean Croix de Fer” in EXACTLY the same way I said it. I’m with the kids on that one.

roadslave:
@frank… great article. I ride with a guy who used to be a US-National Team rider and ex-pro, who rode a lot with Big George. I made the fatal mistake of calling Big George a pussy on a ride one day… the withering look I got back was only the start… the lecture that followed (dished out on the biggest climb of the day, where I was in bits, and this guy wasn’t even out of breath as he berated my ignorance)… in his view, Big George is one of the hardest men he’s ever ridden with… his point was there are two things: 1. your talent; 2. your ability to push yourself… there are many people with lots of 1. who fall down because they lack 2. His view of George was that he actually doesn’t have as much of 1. as people think, because he has bucket loads of 2…. and in his career he has far surpassed what could reasonably be expected of him to achieve given his ok-ish (in respect to the rest of his peers in the peloton) talent… I like this description of him, as it gives all of us average (in respect to the other middle aged fat people who live in London) men hope that by laying down enough of The V we can overcome our physiological shortcomings….
A good tribute to a great guy. My heart went out to him in 2009: it would have been nice for him to wear yellow again.. he’s spent his grand tours in the service of others, and that is noble

I’m kind of confused. The V community are pretty agreed, I thought, that “Pharmstrong” was on kind of go-go juice, yeh? Hence that nickname, along with COTHO (although that’s personality-based as well, I’m sure). In the Lexicon, the definition of Pharmstrong says “his organization could easily have doubled as a pharmaceutical business”. George is the one(?) constant in that organisation, as far as riders went.
So…
What’s the verdict on Georgie?

roadslave:
@frank… great article. I ride with a guy who used to be a US-National Team rider and ex-pro, who rode a lot with Big George. I made the fatal mistake of calling Big George a pussy on a ride one day… the withering look I got back was only the start… the lecture that followed (dished out on the biggest climb of the day, where I was in bits, and this guy wasn’t even out of breath as he berated my ignorance)… in his view, Big George is one of the hardest men he’s ever ridden with… his point was there are two things: 1. your talent; 2. your ability to push yourself… there are many people with lots of 1. who fall down because they lack 2. His view of George was that he actually doesn’t have as much of 1. as people think, because he has bucket loads of 2…. and in his career he has far surpassed what could reasonably be expected of him to achieve given his ok-ish (in respect to the rest of his peers in the peloton) talent… I like this description of him, as it gives all of us average (in respect to the other middle aged fat people who live in London) men hope that by laying down enough of The V we can overcome our physiological shortcomings….
A good tribute to a great guy. My heart went out to him in 2009: it would have been nice for him to wear yellow again.. he’s spent his grand tours in the service of others, and that is noble

I like this post a lot.

Woops, pedant’s burden… quoi not quois.

The phrase is ‘je ne sais quois’ rather than ‘je ne c’est quois’. I’m no linguist but it is one of the few bits of French I know – from the verb savoir, meaning ‘to know’, where we also get the term ‘savoir faire’ or knowing what to do.

I’ve noticed the same usage once before but thought it might have been a simple slip. I only mention it in the Velominati spirit of doing all things correctly :-)

A good tribute to a great guy. My heart went out to him in 2009: it would have been nice for him to wear yellow again.. he’s spent his grand tours in the service of others, and that is noble

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…

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

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.

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…

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

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…