Ronde van Vlaanderen
Of course Tom Boonen won.
I watched on OLN and it was a great race even though it was fairly obvious Quickstep was the strongest team and for the most part controlled every aspect of the race, while protecting Boonen.
The reason for this post isn't to celebrate Boonen's win, he's already got a whole country to help with that, but to talk about how pissed George Hincapie must be.
He was the team captain for this race and for whatever reason, Leif Hoste attacked on the third to last climb. This would have been ok, I suppose, if it were a team plan, but from the interview with Hincapie after the race, it seems it wasn't planned. If it were planned, Hincapie would have been better placed so that he could also follow giving Discovery much better odds of winning.
The attack by Hoste, basically rendered Hincapie's race for first over. Hincapie was a few riders back when Hoste put in his attack making it near impossible for George to make the jump. To boot, the only other rider that could go with Hoste was Boonen and once Boonen gets a gap, it's game on!
So, potentially, Hincapie was as strong as Hoste and if anything could have done a better sprint in the finale, but we'll never know. After the race Hincapie was quoted as saying
I'm fairly sure George was upset that he didn't have a chance to go for the win but being the consummate teammate, gave praise to Hoste for the move and for his second place on the day.
I watched on OLN and it was a great race even though it was fairly obvious Quickstep was the strongest team and for the most part controlled every aspect of the race, while protecting Boonen.
The reason for this post isn't to celebrate Boonen's win, he's already got a whole country to help with that, but to talk about how pissed George Hincapie must be.
He was the team captain for this race and for whatever reason, Leif Hoste attacked on the third to last climb. This would have been ok, I suppose, if it were a team plan, but from the interview with Hincapie after the race, it seems it wasn't planned. If it were planned, Hincapie would have been better placed so that he could also follow giving Discovery much better odds of winning.
The attack by Hoste, basically rendered Hincapie's race for first over. Hincapie was a few riders back when Hoste put in his attack making it near impossible for George to make the jump. To boot, the only other rider that could go with Hoste was Boonen and once Boonen gets a gap, it's game on!
So, potentially, Hincapie was as strong as Hoste and if anything could have done a better sprint in the finale, but we'll never know. After the race Hincapie was quoted as saying
"My legs were great today," Hincapie said after the finish. "Probably better than ever. And I wasn't really able to show that."
I'm fairly sure George was upset that he didn't have a chance to go for the win but being the consummate teammate, gave praise to Hoste for the move and for his second place on the day.
posted by Tony Rocha at
4/03/2006
3 Comments:
Yeah, I heard that interview too after the race, and was sorry George couldn't be there with Boonen at the end. But then again, could George really have taken Boonen in the sprint???
Probably not, but I think his odds might have been slightly higher than Hoste's.
It most likely would have turned out like Paris-Roubaix a couple years back where Boonen took the win in a sprint over Hincapie, easily.
Yes, I know what you mean. I believe George did have a better shot at beating Boonen - but man, that guy is just too quick!
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