Rich Hincapie responded to today’s stage and George’s loss in an email to us:
“I’m super disappointed at Today’s stage. At the end of the day the world knows what happened no matter what was said. Its sad to see that after all the years people don’t give George the respect he deserves. There aren’t many people like George in this world and even less athletes with his character. In the days of ‘me me me’ George is rare. He will come out ahead, maybe not in this tour but ultimately in life.”
Rich also spoke to Juliet Macur for a NYT article and wrote about the disappointment on his blog. Earlier today on the Hub, we posted that “Twitter lit up like nothing we’ve seen before” when George was denied the win. We’ve also never see so much, “wasn’t me” after a race. Everyone is blaming everyone else with Garmin insisting, “We weren’t out to ruin anyone else’s day in yellow. We came here to win the Tour de France.”
The Astana camp also went on the defensive right after the end of the stage, with Lance turning to Twitter to undo the negative press earned when George slammed Astana during the post-ride interview on Versus.
“Sounds like there’s quite a bit of confusion over this one… Noone [sic], and I mean noone[sic], wanted George in yellow more than me,” Armstrong commented on his feed. “Our team rode a moderate tempo to put him in the jersey by at least 2 mins. Ag2r said they would not defend then they started to ride.”
Garmin, Astana, Ag2R…, if it’s all seems a bit complicated, there’s a good posting at the Village Voice’s blogs that covers not only the controversy but also provides a look at the Twitter explosion this has caused.
Photo: Getty Images via Daylife
We’ll discuss this more, at length, during the live chat on tomorrow.
Disclosure: we have a business relationship with Hincapie Sports and sell Hincapie branded goods in our store.
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