Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

George Hincapie became the surprise winner of Stage 15 the “Queen Stage” of the Tour which included 1,000 HC climbs and put all of the riders through the proverbial ringer. The move apparently was not planned, but ended up being a way to help out Lance during the closing moments of the Stage.

The break eventually was over 18 minutes ahead, so George and his co-break buddies actually had a chance to win. Hincapie was accompanied by such riders as Oscar Perriero, Oscar “Speed Racer” “Baby Face” Sevilla, Pietro Caucchioli, and Michael “Best Teeth in the Peleton” Boogerd. Boogerd was looking for the win using teammate Karsten Kroon to set the pace.

Attacks by Caucchioli cause the break to fracture and it was Hincapie and Perriero to fight for the finish. Hincapie basically sat on most of the break with the excuse of shadowing the break for the Yellow Jersey. The sitting on continued as Hincapie and Perriero were working their way home. Hincapie offered not much help fearing Perriero’s ability and that paid off in the end as Hincapie was fresher and easily beat the Phonak rider for the sprint.

Hincapie was in disbelief winning one of the most diffcult stages of this Tour. It was a good way to get payback after working to help Lance win his last six Tours. He will savor this win and the fact that Armstrong put further time into all of the major GC riders except Ivan Basso.

Basso showed that he is the man to beat once Lance leaves. Ivan attacked and unleashed several accelerations to whittle down the top centender’s group to just him and Armstrong. Lance was happy to tag along and helped make the pace to further drop Ullrich. Ullrich lost anther 1:24. He showed he is the best T-Mobile rider, but is now hoping to get to the podium by next Sunday. “Skeletor” Rasmussen lost more time and guarenteed that he will not be second. He will have to fight to keep third as Ullrich is eyeing that spot, plus the St. Etienne Time Trial will mean that Skeletor might fall further down the GC because there are several good TTers in the top ten.

The rest day is on tap for tomorrow, and this week will offer some less difficult stages. These stages could still provide some shakeup for the GC, but overall it looks like Lance is still well in control.