Big George surprises the sprinters
The big names are in action at the Dauphiné. Following the examples of Levi Leipheimer and Alejandro Valverde, George Hincapie won stage two in Vienne. Hincapie anticipated the action of the sprinters and preceded Sébastien Chavanel while Thor Hushovd finished in fifth place and kept his yellow jersey for the time trial.
It was a typical day of racing with a three men breakaway chased down by the bunch. High Road gave a hand to Crédit Agricole but its plans were totally changed when their top sprinter André Greipel had a flat tyre with 15km to go. “We were working for him for the sprint,” said Hincapie. “Until the last five kilometers, that was the plan but with three kilometres to go while riding at 70km/h, we heard from our director Allan Peiper that he was not coming back.”
It didn’t take long for the American to figure out that he had a personal card to play instead. “I was a little bit sick in the Pyrénées last week,” he recalled. “I had no power during the prologue. I felt better yesterday in the lead out for André. Today I took some risk in the last curve. I made a big effort to catch Sebastian (Lang). It worked out. I won, and it was a nice finish.”
