Four times this season, including the prologue of the Eneco Tour, George Hincapie (Discovery...
George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) (Image credit: Elmar Krings)
Hincapie turns the tables
Four times this season, including the prologue of the Eneco Tour, George Hincapie (Discovery Channel) has finished second in a time trial. But today, on the very tricky 16.1 km course in Landgraaf, Hincapie finally scored, beating Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) by 14 hundredths of a second to win the fourth stage of the Eneco Tour. Nibali had the best time at halfway in 9'57, a full five seconds better than the American, but big George turned it on in the last half to finish in 19'58.23, topping Nibali's 19'58.37 by a narrow margin.
In doing so, Hincapie took over the leader's jersey from Tom Boonen (Quick.Step), who rode a fairly relaxed race to finish in 21'25. Hincapie now has a three second gap on GC over Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner), who was third today at 6 seconds.
"It's very close," commented Hincapie after the stage. "I've been on the other side many times this year, so I feel for Nibali, who got second. But I'm happy I came in on the other side. I worked super hard for this; I did everything I could to win. I'm very content at the way it worked out."
