Hincapie struggles with injuries, investigation
The second stage of the Tour of Utah was ill-fated for George Hincapie. The 37-year-old BMC-Racing rider suffered a crash halfway through the 124km stage when he swerved to avoid another cyclist and lost his wheel from under him. The fall left him needing 18 stitches in his knee as well as face and shoulder abrasions which will keep him off his bike for at least a week.
“I rode into a bit of gravel and my front wheel went out,” said Hincapie. “Crashing is never a good thing. I'm definitely concerned with my knee and how much time I'm going to have to take off the bike. It's not a good time for that.”
The American rider plans to defend his title as the national champion in September, so as unfortunate as his injury is, he is relieved he didn’t break any bones.
"We'll see how it goes in the coming days and if he has the possibility to race the two ProTour races in Canada, just to get him two more racing days and more training," said BMC-Racing director John Lelangue. "I hope to see him at 100 percent for nationals because it's a special race, he's the defending champion and he's at home."
Hincapie is one of those implicated in the US Postal Service Team investigations. Former USPS teammate Floyd Landis, who rode with Hincapie and Lance Armstrong for the American team, has implicated the entire team in his allegations of an organized doping program run by Armstrong and team manager John Bruyneel. Because the team was funded by a government agency, the allegations have sparked a federal investigation led by Food & Drug Administration agent Jeff Novitzky.
UCI (International Cyclists Union) president Pat McQuaid has been publicly critical about how the investigations have been handled. He has suggested that the public nature of the scandal is due to a personal vendetta, a claim further supported by the fact that the Novitzky has not contacted the UCI as part of the investigation.
“To some extent, when you look at the way the investigation has come about, you have to ask whether there is a genuine investigation or whether there are vendettas going on here,” said McQuaid to the Associated Press. “From that point of view, it’s unfortunate that people who could have approached this in a completely different way didn’t do so. They just went public.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Hincapie has hired the New York law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz as his defense. Armstrong has announced the hiring of media expert Mark Fabiani as part of his defense team, who will be working to prevent any further harm to Armstrong’s public image.
“We're prepared to deal forthrightly with the improper and misleading leaks that so far have unfortunately characterized this unfair, Floyd Landis-inspired inquiry,” said Fabiani in an email. “With salmonella causing the recall of 380 million eggs, I’m probably not the only one wondering right now why the FDA is spending its resources looking into international bicycle races that occurred years ago.”
Fabiani worked with former president Bill Clinton during the Kosovo crisis of the nineties to deflect criticisms of the American military’s imperialistic tactics, including the bombing of Serbia. He was also employed as Al Gore’s deputy campaign manager and he countered political criticism against Michael Moore’s film Fahrenheit 9/11.
While many riders have publicly denied Landis’ allegations, at least one former USPS cyclist has anonymously backed up the allegations. The controversy began in March when Landis, who won the 2006 Tour de France but was stripped of his title and served with a two-year ban after testing positive for testosterone in 2008, presented the accusations via e-mail to a selection of sources. The World Anti-Doping Agency supports the investigation, but has suggested that it could be months or years before any conclusions can be reached.
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