American cyclist George Hincapie missed the yellow jersey by 5 seconds on Saturday as he joined a breakaway that didn't get to the finish line quite fast enough.
The Columbia-HTC rider moved up 27 places to 2nd behind Rinaldo Nocentini.
Hincapie was the highest placed cyclist among the 12 that led Stage 14 for most of the day. In fact, he was the yellow jersey “on the road” as the margin back to the peloton grew to more than 6 minutes.
But the 12 couldn't work together as they neared the finish in Besancon and jockeyed for their stage win. With about 6 miles to go, Serguei Ivanov attacked and drove to a solo victory 16 seconds ahead of 11 others, including Hincapie.
Disappointment
After the race, a clearly disappointed and bitter Hincapie was wondering why Astana and Garmin helped drive the peloton, robbing him of the yellow jersey. He told Versus that it was “highly insulting.”
The 36-year-old cyclist in his 14th Tour de France was a teammate of Lance Armstrong during all 7 wins, but Armstrong's Astana team remained at the front of the peloton for much of the day to ensure Hincapie's break didn't gain too much time. Their tempo did retain Hincapie in the overall lead, however. AG2R seemed incapable of doing the job any longer for Nocentini.
Controversy
A lot of the controversy, however, involved the Garmin team driving hard at the end of the race. That may be because Astana's Armstrong and Bruyneel were quick to point fingers.
Armstrong wrote extensively on this at Twitter:
like there's quite a bit of confusion over this one… Noone, and I
mean noone, wanted George in yellow more than me.
“Our team rode a
moderate tempo to put him in the jersey by at least 2 mins. Ag2r said
they would not defend then they started to ride.
“Until 10km to go he was solidly in yellow until GARMIN put on the gas and made sure it didn't happen.
“And I reiterate. [Hincapie] deserves to be yellow tonight. He deserves more than that. Look to who pulled the last 50k to see who to blame.
“Last thing. There
were 13 guys in the breakaway. We had 2 guys riding “tempo”. That is
not chasing by any stretch of the imagination.“
Astana manager Johan Bruyneel, formerly Hincapie's coach for all those years with Armstrong, wrote at Twitter:
bummed about George Hincapie not getting yellow. Won't elaborate on the
strategies but what Garmin did was just BS. Sorry!“
Responding to all this at Twitter, Garmin manager Jonathan Vaughters wrote:
to do with George or Columbia. Wiggo [Bradley Wiggins] almost lost 15 seconds the other
day due to a split. We can't have that happen again.“
VeloNews' John Wilcockson's reaction:
50K of stage 14, Astana did normal tempo work; AG2R worked to defendi
YJ; & Garmin was a surprise element in the chase.”
Hincapie's Columbia team also rode toward the front of the chasing peloton at the finish, but waited until the last moment to try and capture green jersey points for Mark Cavendish. That ploy didn't work, however, as race judges ruled that Cavendish didn't hold his line during the sprint and he was moved to the back of the pack.
Standings
With Hincapie moving up to 2nd, Alberto Contador dropped to 3rd and Armstrong dropped to 4th overall.
More changes are in store for the overall lead of the Tour de France as the peloton enters the Alps on Sunday with a mountaintop finish at Verbier.
The break
The breakaway developed about 9 miles into the 124-mile race from Colmar to Besancon. Originally 14 riders attacked, but Cavendish quickly dropped out and Jens Voight suffered a puncture and couldn't regain the break.
Hincapie was placed 28th at the start of the day and was the highest in the break at 5:25 behind the leader. In spite of 14 Tours de France, Hincapie has had very little glory over the years, choosing instead to work for others.
He rode in yellow jersey for one day
in 2006 as a member of the Discovery Channel team. That year he finished 2nd
in the prologue and won by taking an intermediate time bonus in Stage 1.
Hincapie won Stage 15 in 2005, the Lézat-sur-Lèze to Saint-Lary Soulan (Pla d'Adet) stage that climbed six mountain passes in the Pyrenees.
In addition to Hincapie and Ivanov, other break members were Hayden Roulston (Cervélo Test Team), Martijn
Maaskant (Garmin Slipstream), Nicolas
Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale), Daniele Bennati, Frederik Willems (Liquigas),
Christophe Le Mevel (Française des Jeux), Sebastian Minard (Cofidis),
Daniele Righi (Lampre), Gerard Ciolek
(Milram) and Albert Timmer (Skil Shimano).
Top 10 overall
1. Rinaldo Nocentini,
AG2R
2. George Hincapie, Columbia – 5 seconds
3. Alberto Contador, Astana – 6
seconds
4. Lance Armstrong, Astana – 8
seconds
5. Levi Leipheimer, Astana – 39
seconds
6. Bradley Wiggins, Garmin – 46
seconds
7. Andreas Kloden, Astana — 54
seconds
8. Tony Martin, Columbia –
1:00
9. Christian Vande Velde, Garmin –
1:24
10. Andy Schleck, Saxo Bank –
1:49
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