Posts
This week's big news was hearing that George Hincapie, Lance Armstrong's bestest best buddy, had ratted him out to the feds.
The first reaction from many people was, "George never fell under a cloud of suspicion!"
Really? Have you all been high for the past 12 years?
I get that George is well liked, that he works his ass off, that he's always been selfless in his riding. I get that he's admired by a lot of cycling fans.
But did any of you REALLY believe he was clean or that he wasn't protecting Lance Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel, Hein Verbruggen, UCI and professional cycling's mafioso culture of doping?
You believed in your heart of hearts that the entire U.S. Postal team was dirty . . . except Big George?
Are you daft?
The second reaction to Hincapie's testimony before the Grand Jury was, "He's doing the right thing."
If by, "the right thing" you mean, "He's avoiding going to prison on perjury charges.", then, yes, he did the right thing.
But his betrayal of Lance Armstrong and his confession of his own use of PEDs had no element of altruism to it. He was just saving his own neck.
If it was left to George, he'd have gone to his grave protecting his own reputation and Lance Armstrong.
Hincapie has no problem at all with omerta, nor with continuing to protect cycling's systemic but hidden culture of doping and those like Johan Bruyneel and Lance Armstrong who would gleefully perpetuate its existence.
Hincapie will not lift one finger, waste one breath, excrete one drop of sweat in an effort to rid the sport of its doping vermin.
He just doesnt' give a shit, and I get the sense that he actually feels disdain, even disgust toward those who do give a shit.
Hincapie is not cycling's White Knight. He's no one's savior but his own.
I don't think most of us felt that GH was some white knight. However, what I've always thought is that if someone who had not "failed" a drug test made claims about Lance, then it would be a major turning point because the Lance PR machine would be unable to attack GH's credibility.
ReplyDelete+1. GH is certainly no white knight or virgin or clean riding savior. I like him and I do hope he does more than go along w/ LA & omertà as he has up to this point. I do have a hard time w/ your judgement...too black & white. GH, in an ideal world, should have come clean sooner about his own doping and LA. But friendships and job security now and down the line (his clothing co.) make it hard to do the right thing. You may be right about his disdain though. Hope not but that may be.
ReplyDeleteGeorge sat quietly while Armstrong & his fans heaped all kinds of shit on the people who spoke up, and did nothing about it - and some of those people were also his friends. I agree, he would have gone to the grave keeping quiet, if it hadn't been for the threat of perjury
ReplyDelete