Aug 23, 2006 0
No Luck Hincapie
A dramatic finish in the ENECO Tour (Tour of Benelux) saw Hincapie hit the deck in a controversial finish. George Hincapie looked set to bring home the win after several attacks by Vincenzo Nibali were neutralized. Nibali was seen as the biggest threat even though he was 11 seconds down.
In the final sprint Philippe Gilbert took the win ahead of the pack which saw Stefan Schumacher hook Hincapie. The hook resulted in Hincapie crashing meters from the finish while Schumacher grabbed a four second time bonus that allowed him to take the lead from Hincapie and win the ENECO Tour overall.
Schumi says that he swerved to avoid a spectator, but pictures of the finish show Schumacher and Hincapie with enough room on either side. Schumacher must have swerved violently to cause Hincapie to crash. Regardless, Schumacher must face some sort of penalty for not keeping his line. Instead he was awarded the overall victory.
Schumacher afterwards explained “I started the sprint on the inside, and as I was going along, one of the spectators caught my left arm. I almost fell and my bike swerved to the right.”
Hincapie was upset with the result and almost refused to cross the line. He had some heated words with Schumacher after the finish. The judges ruled that Schumi’s move was OK and Discovery’s protests fell on deaf ears. Regardless of intention, it seems that if a rider does swerve violently in a sprint they should suffer some sort of penalty.
Discvoery will appeal the descision to the UCI.