Shorter VeloNews: “Hincapie a traitor”

October 9th, 2007 | Posted by Smithers at 9:15 am in Pro Cycling |

VeloNews:

A few years ago, a switch to rival T-Mobile would have been seen as a major controversy, but times change and Hincapie’s presence in the magenta jersey of T-Mobile reveals how much the sport has changed in the past few years.

Has there been any backlash against you coming to T-Mobile? A few years ago with Armstrong at Discovery this would have been a major scandal. Things have changed, but the teams have been rivals for a long time, have you heard any of that?

Hey Andrew Hood, in case you have not noticed Team Discovery, thanks to Lance, is out of business. What do you expect Hincapie to do? Retire from the sport instead of signing for a new team? Hincapie is not switching anything. He is getting a new job because his previous employer went belly up.

This whole idea (heavily promoted by VeloNews BTW) of Team Discovery, and USPS before that, being America’s team made me ill. As David Millar wrote in the October issue of ProCycling magazine:

The bottom line is that most teams are already operating like national teams, with perhaps only around 15 per cent foreign riders in most teams – look at Cofidis or Liquigas. Perhaps the only team that deviated from that was Discovery Channel.

I know that VeloNews is basically a booster of American cyclists and American cycling teams, but Discovery is gone. Get over it guys.

Don’t fret VeloNews, you’ll have Slipstream to wave the U.S. flag at next year. Go Team America.

  1. 6 Responses to “Shorter VeloNews: “Hincapie a traitor””

  2. By Homme at 9:47 am on Oct 9, 2007 | ReplyReply directly to this specific comment

    don’t read that shit smithers, not good for you.

  3. By superrookie at 10:35 am on Oct 9, 2007 | ReplyReply directly to this specific comment

    team America. fuck yeah.

  4. By Ray at 11:05 am on Oct 9, 2007 | ReplyReply directly to this specific comment

    I like the reasoning that his employer went belly up and he got a new job.

  5. By champs at 11:20 am on Oct 9, 2007 | ReplyReply directly to this specific comment

    You forgot PolandEuskaltel.

    It really depends on what you’re talking about. Disco is a terrible proxy for a national team, but being headquartered, sponsored, and starred by Americans, I’d say Disco is most definitely American, and there’s a semi-compulsion to root for the American team, the same way Kazakhs support Swiss-based Astana, and that handful of Ontarians who care about their American-staffed Blue Jays.

  6. By powertapgeek at 10:52 pm on Oct 9, 2007 | ReplyReply directly to this specific comment

    Either way George still can’t finish it. T-mobile paid a million bucks to get a low podium position.

  7. By Macy at 10:59 am on Oct 10, 2007 | ReplyReply directly to this specific comment

    What about CSC.

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