Category VII Cycling

For those unfortunate enough to be on Scott Coady’s e-mail list (he of “The Tour, Baby” fame or otherwise – I’d make a link, but frankly don’t want to encourage him), you received an incredible insight into the true workings of cycling.

The e-mail begins eerily enough like the annoying praise e-mails I get from evangelical relatives, asking “Hard Core Cycling Fans” to include George in our thoughts and prayers ahead of his most important Paris-Roubaix ever. Not only is this George’s favorite race, but he must stop the evil Boonen from accomplishing the Flanders-Roubaix Double-Double.

Coady tells us the strategy is damn near infallible: “IS it possible that there are more George Hincapie fans in the US and around the world than there are Belgians who root for Tom? Also, with so many Belgian riders, the Belgian fan base may be split among them where as everyone in the US can rally behind George. Let’s collectively will George to win this Sunday, just as we used to do for Lance as he charged up one of those climbs or during a long TT.”

So training be damned – literally. It wasn’t Lance’s determination, or training, or sheer will that allowed him to dominate at the Tour – IT WAS US! So stop the presses on the power of prayer, we have incontrovertible evidence of its effectiveness.

But consider for a moment the downside: if George loses on Sunday even with the spiritual support of the good ol’ U.S. of A, shouldn’t this be taken as a sure sign that he is the spawn of the devil and cast out from our midst? Possibly to be stoned? Or will the Lord call him and Jimmy Swaggert “home” if he doesn’t live up to the potential?

While Coady seems to definitely have a screw loose, if George wants to win on Sunday, he better make sure he does not. It’s Hincapie’s mental game that still remains he chief weakness. While he told Cyclingnews.com that he’s working with a mental coach now, you’d be hard-pressed to tell. Oddly enough, it is only the fiercely-criticized Leif Hoste – Hincapie’s teammate at Discovery Channel – that rides like he can beat Boonen. Certainly his Flanders ride wasn’t to perfection – far, in fact, from it. But at least he took the race to Boonen. The first part of his attack was perfect, if he botched the end.

Then again, that’s the same mistake Hincapie made last year in Roubaix, chasing down Juan Antonio Flecha’s late attacks, giving Boonen a free ride into the velodrome where he made short work of South Carolina’s professional athlete of the year. Boonen himself recognized that his own mental edge would be decisive in last year’s race. Afterwards he commented (in this German interview), “I’m always calm, and that certainly makes a difference. I knew in the finale today with Hincapie and Flecha, that I would be the least nervous. Hincapie has still not won a big race [Damn!]. Flecha, the Championship of Zurich, but for him a situation like today was nonetheless new. In such a finale, it’s absolutely critical to remain calm and cool.”

If Hincapie can enter such a Zen-like state, there is no reason that he can’t once again push Boonen to the limit or even beat the world’s most feared rider. But his mental game will have to be as much “on form” as his actual physical riding seems to be.

If his mental coach can bring that about, then perhaps she should then turn to convincing Hincapie that publishing these pictures (especially from July 26) aren’t going to do him any good either.