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**George Hincapie**
	Hincapie in 2007
Personal information
Full name	George Hincapié Garcés
Nickname	Big George
Date of birth	June 29, 1973 (age 36)
Country	United States
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight	79 kg (170 lb; 12.4 st)
Team information
Current team	Team Columbia-HTC
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Rider type	Classics specialist, climbing domestique
Professional team(s)1
1994–1996; 1997–2007; 2008–2009; 2010–	Motorola; US Postal; Team High Road; BMC Racing Team
Major wins
	Gent-Wevelgem (2001); GP Ouest-France (2005); Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne (2005); USA National Champion (1998, 2006, 2009); Tour de France, 4 Stages
	Infobox last updated on:
	December 8, 2007 1 Team names given are those prevailing; at time of rider beginning association with that team.

George Hincapié Garcés (born June 29, 1973 in Queens, New York City) is an American professional road bicycle racer currently riding for UCI ProTour Team Columbia-HTC. Hincapie resides in Greenville, South Carolina.

Hincapié is most widely known as a key domestique of Lance Armstrong, having been the only rider to assist Armstrong in all seven of his Tour de France victories. Hincapie was also a domestique for Alberto Contador during his 2007 Tour de France victory. He is one of only two riders in Tour de France history to have raced on eight Tour-winning teams.^[1] As of the end of the 2009 Tour, Hincapie has raced the Tour 14 times, finishing all but the first year.^[2]

George Hincapie in the Prologue of the 2008 Tour of California

However, Hincapie does have several important wins of his own, starting with Gent-Wevelgem in 2001 and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne in 2005. Also in 2005, Hincapie took two stage wins at the Dauphiné Libéré and 2nd place at Paris-Roubaix. In 2005 he also had his first stage win in the Tour de France where, on July 17, he finished seven seconds ahead of Óscar Pereiro to win stage 15 from Lézat-sur-Lèze to Pla d'Adet. More recent victories include two stages at the Tour of California (2006), the overall and a stage at the Tour of Missouri (2007), and another stage win at the Dauphiné Libéré in 2008. He is a three-time US Professional Road Race champion (1998, 2006, 2009).

Throughout his career Hincapie has targeted the cobbled classics of April, specifically the week that begins with the Ronde van Vlaanderen, continues mid-week with Gent-Wevelgem, and ends with Paris-Roubaix. Since 2001 he has always been a threat to win, although only achieving the highest position on the podium with his 2001 victory in Gent-Wevelgem.

His many other top 10 placings include 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 10th in various Ronde van Vlaanderen; 3rd, 4th (twice), and 5th in Gent-Wevelgem in addition to his victory; and 2nd, 4th (twice), 6th (twice), 8th, and 9th in Paris-Roubaix. While using Three Days of De Panne as a warmup ride during the prior week, he has placed well in that race also, winning the overall in 2004 and placing third overall in 2002.

Hincapie signing in at Tarbes during the 2006 Tour de France

In recent years Hincapie has shown a talent for short individual time trials (ITTs), winning the prologue at the 2005 Dauphiné Libéré, placing second three times and third once in prologues in 2006 (including at the Tour de France), and placing second in the short ITT at Three Days of De Panne. He also won the ITT at the Eneco Tour of Benelux in 2006 and placed fourth in two longer ITTs that year. He finished third in the prologue at the 2007 Tour de France and second in the prologue at the Volta a Catalunya in 2008.

His father Ricardo, a Colombian, introduced him to cycling, and his first race training was in New York City's Central Park. Hincapie is married to former runway model and Tour de France podium girl Melanie Simonneau, and they have two children, daughter Julia Paris (born on November 3, 2004) and son Enzo (born on June 20, 2008). In 2004, Hincapie launched his own line of sportswear (see [1] Hincapie Sports) with his brother Richard.

Hincapie has been riding for Team Columbia since the 2008 season, departing Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team shortly before it disbanded.^[3] He is easily distinguished from the pack by his large size (6' 3", 191 cm). His contract with the team expired after the 2009 season, and though there was talk of him joining Armstrong's new Team RadioShack, Hincapie signed with BMC Racing Team for the 2010 season.^[4]