Hinapie's Success!

Guess who's in Yellow!! George!!
He doesn't fit the mold, he's big and he's known for one day races - so does he have a chance? Could George Hinacapie win the Tour? The scandall certainlly helps his chances, but we'll see! We are all rooting for George!!!
Floyd also stands a good chance! It's too bad about his flat, but I hope that we can get a few American's into podium space this year. I think that Cadel will be a threat, but Levi, Floyd and George should all finish well!!
For today's shameless plug (got to pay the bills) - check out Hincapie Clothing at http://www.rscycle.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.1172/.f

Here's the story as told be VeloNews -

Hincapie in yellow as Casper snags first win

By Kip Mikler
VeloNews editor

This report filed July 2, 2006

In the absence of his friend and longtime Tour de France team leader Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie proved on Sunday that he has no problems taking things into his own hands. In the first road stage of the 2006 Tour, the Discovery Channel rider made a crafty move at an intermediate sprint spot to grab a small time bonus and launch himself into the race lead to become just the fourth American to wear the yellow jersey in Tour history.
Stage 1, a mostly flat 184.5km loop that started and finished in the city of Strasbourg, was billed as a sprinters' affair and that's how it turned out as the 28-year-old French rider Jimmy Casper of Cofidis scored the first Tour de France stage win of his erratic eight-year career.
Today's Results

Hincapie, who lost Saturday's prologue by less than one second to Norwegian Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole), and started Sunday's stage 1 with the same GC time as Hushovd, made a surprise move to take third place in the last intermediate sprint 9km from the finish and pick up a two-second bonus. That proved to be the difference, but Hincapie's shining moment was somewhat overshadowed by an unfortunate accident in the dash to the line that left Hushovd injured by a cardboard sponsor sign being waved by a spectator leaning over the crowd barriers in 40 meters from the finish.

In the chaotic bunch sprint, Hushovd was riding close to the barriers on the right side of the road when his right arm was slashed by the green, oversized hand. Hushovd didn't crash, but his wound was bleeding profusely. He collapsed in pain after crossing the finish line in ninth place. Boonen, too, was hit by an object, and the world champ had to stop his sprint with about 300 meters to go. Boonen thought the projectile was a camera, but McEwen later said it was a small plastic bag filled with water that was thrown by a spectator, injuring Boonen and grazing McEwen.

Though a top-three finish would have given Hushovd the necessary time bonus to keep the yellow jersey, he was unable to contest the sprint. Australian Robbie McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) was second, and German Erik Zabel (Milram) was third.

Hushovd suffered cuts on his right arm and was transferred to a hospital in Strasbourg, where the main gash needed several stitches. He was listed as a probable starter for Monday's stage 2.

Hushovd crosses the line, with an arm already covered in blood.

photo: Graham Watson

"Those [signs] are dangerous, and it's not the first time this has happened," said stage winner Casper. "I think we should not have them in the last 500 meters."

Indeed, Tour officials agreed and issued a communiqué late Sunday evening ordering the giant plastic hands to be banned in the final two kilometers of flat stages, where mass sprints are more likely than not.

While it might not have been the ideal way for Hincapie to take his first yellow jersey, the 33-year-old certainly made a statement in the first stage of the first Tour de France in Discovery's post-Armstrong era.

"I was definitely very disappointed to lose by such a close [margin] yesterday," Hincapie said. "I was really gunning for the prologue and I thought I did a great ride, but I got beat by a great rider. Today it wasn't really the plan to go for any bonus sprints, but when we caught the breakaway I saw an opportunity that I couldn't pass up. I took it, and I think I made a great decision."

The cut turned out not to be as serious as it looked.

photo: AFP

It's that kind of take-charge, on-the-road aggression that Discovery Channel boss Johan Bruyneel has been preaching before the team's first Tour in the wake of Armstrong's retirement. Bruyneel promised that Discovery riders would no longer be tied to strict roles and would be given the opportunity to be more reactive and aggressive.

Perhaps coincidentally, the last time Hincapie came this close to the yellow jersey was the last time he rode without Armstrong. "In '98 I was two seconds behind [the overall leader Bo Hamburger], and that was probably the longest two seconds of my career," Hincapie said. "It was so hard, and I was sprinting against [Stuart] O'Grady back then. But today it wasn't even actually planned to sprint for the bonuses."
Today's Results

Hincapie's instinctual attack, which came just as a breakaway group was being mopped up in the last few kilometers, put him two seconds ahead of Hushovd on GC, while American Dave Zabriskie (CSC) finished in the main group to maintain his third-place GC standing. Hincapie is just the fourth U.S. rider to wear the yellow jersey after Zabriskie last year, seven-time champion Armstrong and three-time winner Greg LeMond. It also leaves Discovery Channel with a choice: Defend the jersey or not?

"I'd love to keep it as long as possible, but I just don't know," Hincapie said. "I don't have much time, and for me to sprint against Thor [Hushovd] and Tom Boonen and those guys, that's not really my thing any more. All I've been training for lately is time trials and climbing, so my sprint has gotten slower for sure."

Open race on the open road
One day after the 2006 Tour began in the wake of a massive doping scandal implicating several of the sport's marquee names - Ivan Basso (CSC) and Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile) included - there was heightened anticipation of how the first road stage would play out. Even before the shocking ejection of some of the sport's top stars, many expected this year's Tour to be a wide-open affair - with Armstrong and his devastating support crew no longer here to control the peloton, no one knew just what to expect.

"Now if you let a 10-minute break get away, there might not be any teams capable of bringing back 10 minutes," said Davitamon-Lotto's American Chris Horner. "It's not like where Lance could bring back 10 minutes on just about anyone other than two guys."

Before their leader was controversially ejected on the eve of the three-week race, the team that most expected to take control was CSC. Bjarne Riis's tight-knit squad had delivered their leader to a win at the Giro d'Italia in May and was generally considered top dog in the lead-up to the Tour.

Julich expects a much more open Tour

photo: Graham Watson

"Now it's going to be much more open," said CSC's American rider Bobby Julich. "I think before, the other teams could have pretty much relied on us to control the race. So now the race just got a lot harder for them."

While the unexpected can probably be expected in the coming weeks, Sunday's stage, was, on paper, a sprinters' affair. With just one Cat. 4 climb, the Côte de Heiligenstein, near the 100km mark in the foothills of the Vosges mountains - and with speedsters such as Hushovd, Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic), McEwen (Davitamon-Lotto) and Zabel (Milram) salivating at the thought of a stage win - a thundering herd was expected to arrive back in Strasbourg on Sunday afternoon after their loop through Alsace and Germany.

Before the start, Hushovd offered his ideal scenario for keeping that jersey for at least one more day: "The perfect day for us is for a break of a few guys to go early," he said. "And then hopefully the sprinters' teams will work to bring it back and there will be a fight between the sprinters like me and Robbie [McEwen] and Boonen."

The field of 176 riders assembled on a cobbled, tree-lined boulevard in front of Strasbourg's Council of Europe building for a 1 p.m. start. Hincapie rolled up to the start in the green points leader's jersey, earned by way of his second-place prologue finish, while Boonen, wearing the world champion's rainbow jersey, smiled and posed for photos.

The day's early break never got more than five minutes...

photo: Graham Watson

Shortly after starting the counterclockwise circuit of the Alsatian countryside sandwiched between the Rhine River and the Vosges foothills of eastern France, the race began to unfold as Hushovd had hoped: Frenchman Stéphane Augé (Cofidis) initiated a break of seven riders just 3km into the race.

Joining Auge were two Bouygues Télécom riders (Walter Bénéteau and Matthieu Sprick), along with Fabian Wegmann (Gerolsteiner), Nicolas Portal (Caisse d'Épargne-Illes Balears), Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux) and Unai Etxebarria (Euskaltel-Euskadi). For the first hour of the race, the peloton was content to give the group some breathing room, but when the break reached a gap close to five minutes after 40km Hushovd's Crédit Agricole troops upped the peloton's tempo. With the yellow jersey tucked in safely behind the green-and-white Crédit Agricole uniforms, the gap was cut to 4:15 at the 50km mark.

Time bonuses of six, four and two seconds were on offer at three intermediate sprint spots, and at the first one, at 53km, Vaugrenard became the first man to win a road sprint at the 2006 Tour. For his effort, the 24-year-old Frenchman gained back six of the 20 seconds he had given up to Hushovd in Saturday's prologue, which he finished in 31st place. That was enough to help vault Vaugrenard into the white jersey of the best young rider (25 and under) at the end of the day.

... as Hushovd's crew kept a close eye on the gap.

photo: Graham Watson

The break hovered around the 4:30 mark until Wegmann took the first KOM points of this year's Tour de France on the Cote de Heiligenstein climb with 83km to go. That being the only climb of the day, Wegmann claimed the polka-dot jersey as leader of the KoM competition.

Chase heats up
As the peloton began to head north toward the second sprint at Plobsheim, the teams of Milram, Quick Step and Davitamon-Lotto began taking pulls at the front. With 55km to go, the gap had been cut to 3:30, and at the second sprint, with 47.5km to go, it was down to two minutes. Bénéteau took the sprint, followed by fellow French riders Vaugrenard and Sprick.

With 43km to go, riders crossed the Rhine and looped into Germany for 32km before passing back into France over the same river. Germany marked the first of five other countries outside of France that the 2006 Tour will visit. The others are Luxembourg (stages 2 and 3); Belgium (stage 3 and 4), the Netherlands (stage 3) and Spain (stage 11).

Traveling through the scenic towns of Germany, where fans lining the roads stood side-by-side waving both French and German flags, the chase heated up. With 25km to go, the gap had been cut to less than a minute. Wegmann and the other breakaways were fighting it, but the aggression from the sprinters' teams made it a losing battle; with 18km to go, Bénéteau made a last-ditch effort, attacking on his own and splitting the breakaway group.

The others were absorbed by the peloton shortly after that, while Bénéteau went it alone for a few kilometers. The Frenchman managed to cross the border and re-enter his home country in the lead, taking some more sprint points along the way, but he wouldn't survive much longer.

It was close... but Casper knew he had it.

photo: Graham Watson

Meanwhile, Hincapie sensed his opportunity and seized it. The Discovery Channel rider exploded out of the main group, surprising Hushovd and the other GC contenders. Hushovd's French teammate Sébastien Hinault got on Hincapie's wheel and came around him to take second, but the two seconds for third was all Hincapie needed to take it to the line and seize the overall lead.

The final sprint was a chaotic affair, with Boonen jumping early and no single team taking control. "It's really the kind of sprint I like, and it's an honor to beat great champions like Boonen and McEwen," Casper said.

Results - Stage 1
1. Jimmy Casper (F), Cofidis
2. Robbie Mc Ewen (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 00:00
3. Erik Zabel (G), Milram, 00:00
4. Daniele Bennati (I), Lampre, 00:00
5. Luca Paolini (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, 00:00
6. Isaac Galvez (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne-I.B., 00:00
7. Stuart O´Grady (Aus), CSC, 00:00
8. Bernhard Eisel (A), Francaise des Jeux, 00:00
9. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:00
10. Oscar Freire (Sp), Rabobank, 00:00

1. George Hincapie (USA), Discovery Channel
2. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, 00:02
3. David Zabriskie (USA), CSC, 00:06
4. Sebastian Lang (G), Gerolsteiner, 00:06
5. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne-I.B., 00:06
6. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), CSC, 00:06
7. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, 00:08
8. Paolo Savoldelli (I), Discovery Channel, 00:10
9. Floyd Landis (USA), Phonak, 00:11
10. Benoít Vaugrenard (F), Francaise des Jeux, 00:11

Full Results

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