Hincapie: hard day ahead

Lance Armstrong's right hand man George Hincapie is in little doubt that the parcours of stage 15 is the toughest of the 2005 Tour. "Today's stage is the most difficult," he told Cyclingnews this morning. "There are six big climbs whereas yesterday there were only two. So today is much more difficult, a lot harder."

When asked if Armstrong would have extra motivation today to win a stage, Hincapie said that is not the first priority. "I think his main concern is to try to win the Tour. But if a stage win comes, then we will take it."

He said that the maillot jaune's concentration on the task at hand has stopped him lingering about the fact that this is the final Pyrenean summit finish of his career. "Every day is his last one, in some ways. Be it alpine stages, Pyrenees stages, Tour stages. I think his main goal is stay focussed and not think too much about things like that."