Nearly 3,000 bicyclists will line up in downtown Little Rock for Saturday’s Big Dam Bridge 100 tour, but only one of them has competed in the Tour de France - 17 times - and won three U.S. National Road Race championships.
Only one has raced the legendary classic races of Europe, finishing second at Paris-Roubaix and winning Gent-Welvegem. Only one was at Lance Armstrong’s side for each of the Texan’s seven Tour victories. And only one testified against Armstrong in the doping scandal that eventually erased those seven victories.
His name is George Hincapie.
For the eighth annual edition of the BDB 100, the Big Dam Bridge Foundation was looking for some special attraction to draw attention to the ride, which has grown steadily since its maiden tour in 2006.
“We were asking about someone who could create some buzz,” says foundation chairman Mark Rogers. “Some of the local riders said, ‘Man, if you could get Hincapie, that would be something else.’”
And so they did, wrangling the Greenville, S.C., resident into not only riding the 100-mile course (or most of it, anyway;
more on that in a bit), but also hanging out with fellow riders at the expo Friday in the Statehouse Convention Center, leading a Friday afternoon clinic for some of the state’s top junior riders and rubbing elbows with finishers at the Ace Glass post-ride reception from 12:30 to 2 p.m.
Saturday at Argenta Community Theater.
(Tickets for the reception are $15.) THE LONG RIDE
This year’s Big Dam Bridge 100 will feature the same routes as the past two years, says Fred Phillips of DLT Event Management. Phillips’ endurance-sports event company based in Arkadelphia has been contracted by the Big Dam Bridge Foundation to produce the tour from its inception. DLT also conducts on- and Off-road bike races, triathlons and duathlons, as well as aquathons, open water swims and the Arkansas Trail Running Series.
DLT has been in charge since the beginning, when the first BDB 100 was expected to attract maybe 800 or 900 riders.
“We had to shut off registration when we got close to 1,200 riders almost two weeks [before the start],” Phillips says.
This year’s cut-off is 2,800 riders, up from last year’s 2,500.
Cyclists have a choice between 15-, 25-, 50-, 62- and 100-mile courses. The one thing the routes all have in common is that they will cross the Big Dam Bridge, the more than three-quarter-mile pedestrian and bicycle span that stretches over the Arkansas River to connect Little Rock and North Little Rock.
Rest stops for each route are spaced roughly 10 miles apart, Phillips says, and will be stocked with food as well as drinks.
For riders on the two longer courses, there looms the snaking slope of Wye Mountain in western Pulaski County. OK, it’s no lofty, snow-covered peak in the Alps, but at nearly 800 feet, it’s still a mountain.
It is there and so it must be climbed.
Wye Mountain makes the century ride “significantly tougher,” says Bob McGowan of Little Rock, a veteran of six Big Dam Bridge 100 rides (a family event kept him out of the 2011 edition). The 100-mile course sends riders up Wye via Arkansas 113 at about the 60-mile mark.
“At about that time you start to wonder ‘Why am I doing this?’” McGowan says.
ALL THAT AND A TIMING CHIP
It never fails in a conversation about the BDB 100. Someone, even an organizer, is going to refer to the tour as a “race.” Of course, it’s not. The vast majority of participants, from 15-milers to centurions, are there simply to finish and then gorge on junk food.
But, yes, there are those who are looking to crush personal best times, or perhaps to crush their training buddies.
So new this year for all participants are timing chips, which will allow riders to find out how long it took them to complete the course.
“They will not only provide the time when riders cross the line, but also they can compare it to their friends’ time,” Phillips says.
Foundation chairman Rogers says timing chips are becoming more common in tours like the BDB 100: “That has been the trend lately. More rides are going toward a Gran Fondo style, which is somewhere between a tour and a race.”
Wait. A Gran who?
A Gran Fondo, which is Italian for, roughly, “long distance.” Gran Fondos have sprouted up around the United States as a kind of hybrid of the organized race and the noncompetitive tour. A few former pro riders like Levi Leipheimer and a certain Hincapie fella even conduct Gran Fondos.
The chips, which will be placed in the numbers that riders attach to their seatposts, will also allow finish-line announcers to identify finishers by name and city: “And rolling across the line now, Moe Murphy from Marianna! Let’s all give Moe a hand and an energy bar!” BIG GEORGE
“I’ve heard about [the Big Dam Bridge tour]for years,” Hincapie says. The 40-yearold retiree, a father of two with wife and former Tour de France podium girl Melanie Simonneau, spoke from his Greenville office.
His agent, Clay Young, is from Jonesboro, and he’s got several Arkansas pals. “They’ve told me all about it and about how big the ride is.”
The plan is to have the expro ride the first 65 miles or so of the 100-mile course, which should put him atop Wye Mountain, and then whisk him back to the finish, where he can meet and greet riders at the Ace Glass Big Wheel Reception.
Hincapie, who stands 6 feet, 3 inches, was raised in Queens, N.Y., and competed as a professional for 19 years, teaming with Armstrong on the Motorola, US Postal and Discovery Channel squads. He retired in 2012 after the US Pro Challenge stage race in Colorado. Last year was also his final Tour de France.
In October, he admitted on his website that he had used banned substances during his career. He also testified about his doping to the United States Anti Doping Agency in its case against Armstrong. Hincapie was stripped of his results, including two Tour stage wins, from May 31, 2004, to July 31, 2006.
“It was tough,” he says of those doping years. “I was always pretty open with the people I mentored and my family, but I couldn’t speak about it publicly.”
After Armstrong’s retirement and the end of the Discovery Channel team, Hincapiein 2008 joined High Road, one of the first so-called “clean teams” dedicated to transparency and racing without banned substances.
“For me, in the past six, seven years, I believe I played a big part in changing the sport. But to face [his past during the U.S. investigation] was definitely tough. There’s no denying it was a messed-up era in the sport. [Doping] was widespread, 100 percent.”
His years with High Road (which later became Columbia and HTC) and then on Team BMC, where he helped Cadel Evans win the 2011 Tour de France, saw him finish his career on what seemed to be more solid ground.
“When clean teams like Columbia started, I was the first to put my hand up,” he said. “My signature was chased by those teams because they knew I would ride clean in the peloton.”
Mention his old pal Armstrong, and Hincapie says they are still in touch: “He’s got a lot going on, but he’s still riding his bike and focusing on his family and friends.”
BDB 100 organizers say they hope Hincapie’s participation will add some celebrity firepower to the ride. Even with his past transgressions, “he’s one of the most beloved cyclists in this country,” says Hunter East, a Little Rock cyclist who will act as Hincapie’s escort for the weekend.
“It will be good to have a rider like him come and help promote the ride,” Phillips says.
As for his current regimen, Hincapie says he’s on the bike about four days a week, squeezing in rides between work and family, just like any other working, recreational rider. (He’s still an ambassador for BMC, owns Hincapie Sportswear with his brother, Richard, and is renovating a hotel in Greenville.)
“Before [as a pro] I would go ride six hours a day and then rest,” he laughs. “It’s harder now trying to stay fit with everything going on.”Big Dam Bridge 100 Wednesday: 8 p.m., online registration closes Thursday: 5-8 p.m., on-site registration, packet pickup, Statehouse Convention Center, 101 E. Markham St., Little Rock Friday: noon-7 p.m., onsite registration, packet pickup, Statehouse Convention Center Friday: 4:30-6:30 p.m., George Hincapie, Statehouse Convention Center Saturday: LaHarpe Boulevard at Chester Street, Little Rock, 7 a.m., 50- and 62-mile rides begin; 7:30 a.m., 100-, 25- and 15-mile rides begin Cost: 100-, 62-, 50-, 25-mile rides, $45; 15-mile ride, $30; tandems, any distance, $85 Information: thebigdambridge100.com
ActiveStyle, Pages 25 on 09/23/2013