The Loyal Lieutenant: Leading Out Lance and Pushing Through the Pain on the Rocky Road to Paris

George Hincapie’s book is not just another cycling memoir. It’s not an apology or an accusation. It’s certainly not a ploy for pity. It’s the true story of the life of a great man, on and off the bike.As a cycling fan for the last few decades, I have made no secret of the fact that Big George Hincapie has been my hero. Hincapie’s memoir confirmed everything I thought he was and hoped he would be: a gifted, driven, and passionate athlete; a generous and gracious human being; and a humble and honest man.I’ve read quite a few cycling memoirs. Some come across as tell-all stories, some cocky, some accusatory, some whiny, some looking for pity as victims of circumstance. George Hincapie’s story is none of these. He explains honestly what his life was like as a professional cyclist. The work, the pain, the sacrifice (even something as tiny as foregoing the mints on a hotel pillow because it wouldn’t make him a better cyclist), the love of speed, the drive and single-mindedness it takes not to give up, and the discipline all year, year after year, to pull it all together.Some critics of this book have said that it’s disjointed and doesn’t flow because of the number of quotes from other people inserted into the narrative of George’s life. I was never a big fan of Craig Hummer as a commentator on the Tour de France, and I have to admit surprise when I saw his name as co-author on the book. When I read the first couple comments inserted about George, I was concerned about the flow Hummer was orchestrating. But I got caught up in the honest arc of Hincapie’s story, and I see why Hummer chose this approach. I think it was brilliant. It mirrors George’s cycling career: he rode for everybody else. George Hincapie endured the pain and the training to so his teammates would win most of the glory. Why not let other people speak for George and sing his praises in his story? Why not let other people be the domestiques with words to convey the truth about the rider and the man George Hincapie? George exudes—in life and in his story—a humility in spite of his confident ability—that means he won’t say about himself what others could say about him.For example, Mark Cavendish says “[George Hincapie] should be known as the most famous domestique ever. Here’s no one in his league. He helped all types of riders win—GC, climbers, classics, sprinters, TT…It didn’t matter the situation.” Who else can claim that kind of continued success for the better part of two decades? It’s only fitting that other people’s words could act as domestiques for the George’s story.When we look at the arc of a cycling career, George Hincapie’s may have been one of the most brilliant—while rarely putting himself on the podium. After all, he rode the Tour de France seventeen times. Nine of those times, he piloted the Tour champion—not just for Lance, but Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador, too; and he was lead-out man for Mark Cavendish for numerous stage wins. A great rider? Without question.Mark Cavendish, the Manx Missile, shows his appreciation for George loud and clear:“We don’t win like that without George. He made it impossible to lose…I often referred to him as ‘the Guarantee.’ He could put anyone in the best position at any time.’” (231)…And when told George was leaving HTC Columbia, Mark said, “I love him to bits. He’s very much a big brother. On a personal level, I didn’t want him to leave, and on a professional level, I freaked out a bit. I didn’t know if I could win without him.”Some critics have said that Hincapie glosses over the doping dilemma; others have said that he should have slam-dunked Lance Armstrong. Others have said that he excuses himself. I disagree. By nature of being the “Loyal Lieutenant,” George is part of the whole Lance scandal. He doesn’t gloss it over. He simply doesn’t place blame anywhere except in his own decisions. And, why is it that we want heroes who are supermen (and even on Wheaties Boxes) but we cannot accept that the same men who are capable of unbelievably great accomplishments might also be capable of great mistakes?We have enough tell-all stories to inform us about what happened in the courts and who felt harried by the media and by the USADA. That wasn’t the purpose of this memoir. Hincapie doesn’t trash Lance; he’s honest about their relationship, their team and their mistakes. It’s a story about what it takes to be a pro cyclist, including that choice: to ride with the big boys or go home. Let him among us “without sin” be the one to cast the stones. We haven’t ridden in those slipstreams and we certainly haven’t pulled those pacelines. George made the choice, and then later made the choice to ride clean and still be at the top. I think it’s a story that needs to be read by cycling fans around the world.Lance Armstrong said, “He’s the greatest, bar none, teammate the world of sport has ever seen, the one guy who made my success possible. My wins do not happen without George Hincapie. Anyone who thinks differently is kidding themselves.”If we don’t want to hear what Lance said because he’s a “cheat and a liar,” then we need to rethink such a black-and-white view of the world where rights and wrongs are never as clearcut as we might like.George’s own words say it best, perhaps. In the epilogue, he addresses his children: “While I would never want you […] to make the same decision I made, I would want you to dedicate yourself to something the way I did. Also, know that even though you can make wrong decisions along the way, you always have the chance to right them.”Ultimately, Big George’s story proves that he does indeed deserve our continued love and respect.

Mr. Hincapie's memoir makes no attempt at great technical or philosophical insights about his sport. It is a personal story about his personal experience, especially with his friends and family, and if you've followed his career as it happened and have read other books and articles about the sport, as I have, it is a welcome addition and gives a good look at what it's like to be a star in this punishing sport.I see some Lance Armstrong haters have put their 2 cents in here, but if you read carefully, you see he is quite realistic and even dispassionate about his longtime friend. The Lance we see here, though a good and faithful friend, had an insatiable need, not only to win, but to dominate, and couldn't accept the idea that a rival might have an unfair advantage over him. OTOH, he makes clear, without being overly vindictive, that some of those who have attacked Armstong most harshly, especially Frankie Andreu and Tyler Hamilton, stood on no higher moral ground. And he makes the telling (imo) point that the USADA never offered any justification for painting a picture of their US Postal / Discovery Channel team targets Armstong, team director Bruyneel, team doctor Celaya and trainer Marti as the leaders of the "doping era" of the sport. What we see confirmed here, at least implicitly, as in other serious discussions, is that it was the leading European teams in the early 90s that first went all in for systematic doping programs. Motorola's riders (later US Postal took over as main sponsor) found they were no longer competitive and so eventually decided to follow suit. This doesn't excuse Armstrong (or Hincapie), but yet again confirms that Armstrong was not the villain-in-chief, just the most visible symbol of that era.

This book reads like Craig Hummer was interviewing George and transcribing. So trite metaphors and sayings are left in. After just finishing a couple brilliantly written and edited Truman Capote classics (edited by the talented Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird), the brilliance for George is on the road, not on the page. Once I got past that style choice (Really, Craig, you didn't want to polish it a bit?), I enjoyed the book more than expected. For many years, we have seen, on TV, George doing incredible service to Lance, Contador and Cadel in the Tour de France. This book details some of those memories and we still end up liking George as much as we already did. In particular, Cadel and Och (BMC) forsee that picking George will anchor the new BMC team, just as Och did in the 1980s with Eric Heiden (5 Olympic Gold Medals Speedskating)on the groundbreaking 7/11 Team.  Team 7-Eleven: How an Unsung Band of American Cyclists Took on the World-and Won There is some detail of doping, but less than we read in Tyler's book By Tyler Hamilton, Daniel Coyle's - The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs (Secret Race)  or the USADA report. The USADA report is free on line and has far more detail on doping than any book I have read. What is missing is the details of how the doping took place. UCI really screwed up when Rasmussen offered to tell all and UCI whacked him with a huge penalty and didn't want details. For example, Rasmussen had a laboratory quality centrifuge (for better blood doping) that he bought in concert with many riders and UCI did not investigate.George starts his clean riding by only cheating in the TdF instead of all races that year. Sorry, but cheating in the biggest race in the world, the equivalent of 23 Superbowls back to back, is still a big deal in my humble opinion.Lance is not skewered, but his strengths and weaknesses are discussed in comparison to the other Tour winners George supported. It is clear that he means a lot to George for many reasons, some of them positive, over a long history.

I bought this book as I have a general interest in the 'other' cyclists of the Armstrong era. George was finally backed into a corner and forced to admit his doping past despite not failing a test. As the rider who seemed closest to Lance I was almost determined not to like him and take a cynical view of his story. But I have to say this is a very well written book, even without the 'doping' bits it is an interesting auto-biography, well illustrated with contributions from other riders. For this reason I have to give it 5 stars.. reluctantly.As far as the doping is concerned I have to take a cynical view of his claim to have a naturally high red blood-cell count. A quick Google of the condition suggests that far from being an athletes dream, it is a serious and debilitating condition with poor life expectancy; he does not appear to be on his last legs, he claims to have inherited the condition from his mum...I also had a feeling I had read the book before, some passages had a familiar ring, I am not sure where from. His confession reads a bit like David Miller's in that he claims to have stopped doping before he was forced to. He seems to have sacrificed some of his results, saying he doped, whilst claiming that the results he is most proud of were achieved 'clean', I suppose we will never know the full story.But I have to say that I finished the book thinking good 'ol George, a man who worked hard played hard and has the scars to prove it. I am pleased I read the book and am happy to recommend it to others even if George is a

I liked George as a rider, without question he had talent, it appears I would probably not like him as a person if the book is anything to go by.An ingratiation of all things wrong with the sport with little or no apology. Perhaps like most fans it was a case of Armstrong book burning for me, so I suppose this could have always gone both ways, but for a seemingly principled man he came away with none.The lengths Armstrong went to deceive, cajole and ultimate intimidate and destroy peoples lives seems to have fallen softly on Hincapies shoulders; he seemed all too forgiving. I can only imagine the stress the whole sport was under as Armstrong controlled and deceived it and the whole world; but if George feels he can still go out on pleasure rides with him, let that be the make of him. Also as is often the case there doesn't appear to any attempt to expose the central origins that blight the sport, it always appears to stem from somewhere elseStructurally the various quoted interventions halted the flow of the book really adding nothing other than some back patting for the protagonist, but halt proceedings for the reader and at times wholly cringeworthy.

This wouldn't have been too bad if the author had not been trying to write the script for one of those interminable US documentaries and kept interrupting the prose with the nonsensical "talking heads". It's just about bearable in TV/film but absolutely worthless and annoying in text. Couldn't even be bothered finishing it so George's, for me at least, will remain untold.

Interest perspective of life in the peleton, before, during and after drugs. Well written without sensationalism, but with insider knowledge of why. The writer seems to have caught the essence of 'Big George', without making him to good to be true. I like the fact that he once again mentions that no other sport is vilified the way cycling was and to a great extent still is.A very enjoyable bookB

Potentially a great story, but a strange book written by bunch of cheats trying to justify their drugs usage to win. No wonder Lance contributed many entries in this book each complementing how great each other were! Shut up and bury your head in shame!