Big George Who?

A new week has come again and I was excited about our long ride on Saturday morning, since my b-day 60 miler was so "easy". Well it did not work out that way this time unfortunately. We had planned for a 65 miler, but Ipster had a headache and we weren't going to push the envelope. This led us only to go down to 7-11 and back, which calculates to a puny 43 miles. I was cool with this unexpected change because, I'm always looking for some extra rest, and we had a busy saturday ahead of us anyway.

By the way, if your wondering who this "ipster" is, it's because I call my dad either Ipster, Ips or some other made up variation of Isa or Isi which are the official names for dad in Finnish. On Sunday Ips was busy and out of town for the first few days of the week, so we didn't ride until Thursday again; so we've kinda been slacking lately, but to make up for loss training, my dad planned a 70 mile ride on Saturday morning. This will definitely make up for my lack of miles, and lack of sore legs.

I've been writing this blog a week behind our current events, and rides, so I guess you can say your a bit behind on my life,  but I'm going to make an effort to catch up on next weeks entry (it will cover 2 weeks of events) so you guys are up to date....

You definitely want to read about the 70 miler, but I'm not going to spoil that story yet, so I'll just proceed and wrap up this week in the old format.

Ippu had ordered a new bib and jersey for him self, you know all the pro's wear bibs so of course we sport them too, and I have to admit they are comfier than shorts. Wearing a bib instantly turns anything you sit on into a sofa, so I recommend you pick up a pair one day. So of course, the minute the UPS man throws the package in front of the door, he's trying them on and checking them out. Then he starts rambling on about how they are a George Hincapie Signature kit (kit as an outfit consisting of a bib and a matching jersey), and I'm like Hinkie who? The minute those words spat out of my mouth, he's looking around to make sure nobody who knows anything about cycling is around to hear and ask confused, "you don't know who Big George is?" No I don't know George, so I received a nice lecture about Hincapie; so word to the wise, in case you ever in a similar situation at least now you know a little about George....

So he told me all about how George Hincapie is a super domestique. I learned that domestiques are the helpers of main contenders in races like the Tour De France, where they do the work for the teams main rider, such as keeping their nose in the wind to keep the leader fresh, bringing water bottles from a team car to him etc. The super domestique like George is a lieutenant if you will, and kind of the right hand man that runs the show and keeps other workers in order.

George has the most Tour De France starts and finishes in history, 17 starts and 16 finishes. So everybody knows Big George......

He also makes cycling clothing and even cool jeans, he just retired from pro racing a few months ago, so there you go!