Yesterday BMC’s George Hincapie and Brent Bookwalter escaped the chaos in the final three kilometers of stage 1. Today in stage 2 of the Tour de France (Brussels to Spa) the descent of the Stockeu, according to the riders, was as slick as ice and the Greenville resident wasn’t so lucky.

According to a team press release Hincapie crashed twice in 300 meters on the slick descent. As a result Hincapie came across the line almost 10 minutes back.

Athens, Georgia rider Brent Bookwalter crossed the line with the soft-pedaling peloton 3:56 behind solo stage winner Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step). Cadel Evans described the crash that involved him and teammates George Hincapie – all of whom have road rash but nothing broken. “It was a straight road – downhill – with oil or whatever on it and the whole peloton went down.”

Thankfully there were no broken bones for our Southeastern riders and they will contest stage 3 – Wanze to Arenburg Porte du Hainaut. This stage is sure to provide fireworks as it includes seven sections of pave for a total of 13 bone shaking kilometers. Maybe a day for George to show his cobblestone racing technique?