George's new team

Later this month George Hincapie will be leaving behind the bitterly cold temps of his Greenville, South Carolina, home and drop down smack into the midst of the Aussie summer for the 2010 Tour Down Under. Ever since he closed the book on his 2009 season, where he once again became the U.S. pro road champ, the quiet veteran and new member of the BMC squad has been logging many base miles when not playing tennis or relaxing with his family. But all that will soon be over, and Hincapie will be racing the terrain in and around Adelaide at this year’s during the Pro Tour kickoff event.

Having left the über-successful ranks of the Columbia-HTC squad, where he accrued many close personal and professional relationships, Hincapie will be starting over with a new outfit where he will more than likely finish off his professional career. After a long ride where the mercury never touched the 30 degree range, George sat down with VeloNews in his (much warmer) sun-drenched living room and gave us a run down of some of the new faces he’ll be working with this season.

We also took a good long look at George’s new team winter training bike. Check out the gallery, with captions by tech editor Zack Vestal.

Cadel Evans: “(BMC) had been talking to me about it before Worlds that there was a possibility that he may come (onboard). That was an awesome race to watch. The situation he was in … he really took advantage of that. That’s where he lives basically, and he told me goes over that climb every day to go home. He had a great Vuelta. The year he had was amazing. Unfortunately a lot of people will focus on his Tour de France. But if you look at what he did before at the Dauphine, races in Italy and the classics, he was always good. I don’t know Cadel all that well, but I was excited about having a rider of his caliber on the team and hoping that it would happen. I’ve spent a little time with him since he’s signed, and he seems like a great guy. But I’m so used to riding with so many different kind of personalities, I’m not really concerned with what people have said about him. A lot of people get bad raps because of certain things they’ve said in the media or how they handle certain situations, but I don’t judge anybody personally until I get to spend a lot of time with them.”

John Murphy: “He’s going to do all the classics with me. He’s the type of rider who can do really well at them, so it’s going to be a big step up for him to do those. But he doesn’t seem to be very intimidated by them. I like his attitude, and he’s very confident in his abilities, and I’m looking forward to seeing him at the big races.”

Karsten Kroon: “With Karsten, Marcus Bughardt and Ballan, we have one of the best classics teams out there. So on a day like Flanders there could quite possibly be several of us in the final group. And if that happens, we have to play our cards right.”

Alexander Kristoff: “He seems like a very fast guy. I hung out with some of these guys in Zurich at the end of October and I got along really well with them.”

Mauro Santambrogio: “He’s been progressing quite well. He won some big races in Italy before Worlds this year and he’s from Como. I used to live there, so I know the area really well and he seems like a really nice guy.”

Jeff Louder: – Another American who’s done all these races in the U.S. and who’s really aggressive in the breakaways. Even in Europe, he’s gone through Roubaix and still makes the breakaways, so I think he’s a really aggressive rider and I think he’ll adapt quite well to the team being a lot bigger this year. I know one his goals is to do a Grand Tour like the Tour de France, so hopefully he’ll be able to do that.”

Steve Morabito: “He’s had a great couple of years with Astana and has been around for a while. Good climber. Good stage racer and he’s a super nice guy.”

Scott Nydam: “I don’t know Scott that well, but I know he’s been riding a lot in the U.S. and I’m hoping he’s recovering well from his injuries. I don’t know if he’s cleared to race, but I know that he’s been riding a lot with Levi (Leipheimer).”