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Originally Posted by Glengoyne
I thought Hincappie had two top ten finishes in the Tour.
Don't get me wrong. I was surprised to hear him touted as a favorite by OLN, though I understand their motivation to do so. I felt that Lance's last Discovery team had lost too much from the year before. It made his last Tour win really all that more impressive in my book. The team didn't ride the field into the ground as it had in prevoius years, and Hincappie was the last rider to lead out Armstrong. He, well the whole team except for Lance, even got dropped on a climb midway through a stage last year.
Landis I felt differently about, as his defection to Phonak was one of the big factors in the weakening of Discovery.
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His tour finishes were almost all by account of his being the last or second to last lead-out man for Armstrong late in his career. Nobody was attacking Hincapie, and he certaintly wasn't trying to defend his place or move up. He just fell into to the spots. He certaintly is not a bad rider, as a bad rider could not have done what he did, but he did not have to defend his spot from attack or even concern himself with his GC position.