George Hincapie: Beyond the Bike

 Hey guys, what's up? This is Ryan Offert host of the Radical Company podcast. I hope
 everyone is doing well, whether you're jogging, walking, wherever you might be when you listen to
 this podcast. We haven't been as active. We're getting back in. We've got a great schedule of
 things. So stay tuned. Keep following along on iTunes, Google, wherever you do your podcast
 listening. You can find us under Radical Company. But man, I'm super excited today to be joined by
 George Hancappi, a renowned former pro cyclist. Still cycles a lot, don't you? I'm sure it's like,
 you never probably want to say former or as much as you are in the business. Former professional.
 That's my recreational bike right now. Exactly. Seventeen Tour de France's, we were debating
 before the podcast if that was still the record and I think we're going to go with it that it is
 absolutely. So a beast on the bike and even a beast in business and want to talk more about
 post bike career, but also just being in Greenville. I'm a Greenville native and it's cool getting
 to do the podcast with other world-known people that have chosen Greenville as home. I think
 the secret's out there. That's one of the biggest questions I get out of the time. It's like,
 what got me to Greenville? It was simply the riding here as world class. I mean, you go out into
 the mountains. The road network is massive, no traffic. We're very little traffic. Although,
 like you said, we're getting more and more, which is fine, but this community seems to be still
 very bike-friendly. The main reason why I came here was for good cycling and now I love it for
 a ton of other reasons. So I want to get into that for sure, especially as it relates to your
 businesses with the hotel and the restaurant and in-cappy sports and all that. So we're going to
 get into all that. George, I know you've done a million interviews. I know people can find your
 bios out there, but let's at least start with the basics a little bit. Just to kind of warm people
 up so that we move to that transition. Because I want to delve into more of one of my good friends
 who's, I don't know, he said he knows Andrew Gardner. I mean, he's a biker. One of my best friends,
 we played in a golf tournament every year and he's an Amsterdam living right now. But he's like,
 you guys, you got to talk about how badass athletes that bikers really are. I know because I'm
 watching what he did to train and then just, you know, what really the mindset that has to go
 into your site into just getting in that kind of shape. But let's do at least, you know,
 I know you've talked about this a lot, but you know, let's do a brief synopsis, you know,
 the last, I don't know, 20 years, you know, from biking and your experiences and then kind of
 leading into post-bike career businesses and all those things. Sure. Yeah, well, I guess for
 starters, I grew up in New York, learned how to race a bike in Central Park and in Prospery Park
 in Brooklyn. And a lot of people have a hard time, you know, understanding that just because
 New York isn't the most ideal place to ride a bike. But it actually is ideal in the sense that
 you're always surrounded by a ton of different influences. I was racing against a lot of South
 Americans, Europeans that had that cycling culture and that cycling was ingrained in their sort of
 lifestyle. And they didn't care that I was a young kid. It was like they wanted to win races. So,
 I kind of got through into that, thrown into that club and really learned a lot.
 Just riding those races with those guys and riding around New York City, I think heightened my
 sense of awareness in the group, which ended up in the future being one of my strong, strong points
 in the Peloton was that no matter how stressful the roads were or how small they were or what the
 weather was, I was always kind of on top of my game and that those things didn't really affect
 me like most of the Peloton. And though sometimes I might have not been the strongest guy or
 the fastest guy but I was able to be very efficient inside of the group of 200 guys riding on
 roads the size of bike pass. Is that a team mentality? I don't mean you cut yourself right there,
 but I just think there's something really fascinating about kind of the servers,
 almost like the team mentality there. I mean is that just something in bread and you?
 Yeah well I mean that came later on when I felt like you know I could win races on my own right
 on some of the one day races but in the races like the Tour de France, I was one of the best in the
 world at helping others win. And although a lot of people have a hard time understanding well why
 would you want to do that? But inside of a team it's a massive role and it's a very important role
 and I knew that I was very good at that so I just chose to focus on that for the last 10 years
 of my career and it seemed to work out pretty well. I would say so yeah yeah continue on I think
 but I think that gets lost sometimes I think it's an interesting fact you know we were talking about
 some of the things with personal development other things I think taking and seeing success in
 whatever role you're best in versus wanting to be the perceived best in something like I don't
 think most people that from an outside even understand the dynamics and the team of cycling and so
 they go you know well he doesn't get to be you know Lance Armstrong or like why would he want to
 do that but then but just but you take satisfaction and you know that role. Yeah I know that role and
 I embraced it I mean once you get to that level I mean everybody is incredibly talented everybody
 was one of the best guys in their country but you throw you know 200 of these guys from all over the
 world into the same peloton really doesn't matter it's like who's the best at what they can do who
 can say the most focus you know who's mentally the strongest everybody's got the talent everybody's
 incredibly gifted on the bike but it's just those little things that make the difference at the end
 of the day. So I'll cut you off a little bit on the story so we can start to keep down that path a
 little bit. Yeah so grew up in New York racing went over to Europe as a 16-year-old did pretty
 well thought I was kind of a badass then I signed did my personal Olympic games at 18 and got
 completely crushed and I was like shit okay maybe I'm one of the best in the US but like I said
 that doesn't really matter on the world stage but in a way looking back that was good for me because
 it made me realize that my talent is only going to take me so far that in order to be a professional
 and to race race like Tour de France you have to dedicate your whole life and sacrifice you know
 the fun things in life as a you know in 18-year-old kid we want to do go out and party and go to the
 prom and do all this stuff is like I had to make a decision then and there that if I wanted to make
 it as a professional athlete like those things we're gonna have to come second priority and you know
 after the Olympics I really buckle down and you know up my training and my diet and my lifestyle which
 is what goes into becoming a successful athlete at that level and you know soon after that I did
 one year more as an amateur and then I signed my first pro contract at 19 years old and went full
 time to Europe got thrown into the denim wool so to speak and moved into a small apartment in
 coma Italy didn't speak the language was lost for a while but you know I learned a lot and
 suffered a lot and it took a long time to get to the level where I wanted to be at but
 you know I stuck I stuck with it and I wouldn't trade those years of suffering and not knowing if
 I was gonna make it and always questioning myself because that's where that's where I felt like I
 gained all of my experience and I gained all of my my motivation to work hard and never take my
 position inside of the peloton inside my team for granted I knew that if I didn't put in the
 work and I didn't dedicate myself to the team in the sport that I wasn't gonna be successful and
 I never wanted to go back to where I was those early years as a pro where I was just kind of
 pack fill and just trying to you know make it to the finish line that's not a fun way to
 the race of bike yeah what talk about just how grueling it is the training process I don't think
 people realize it I mean like it's not I mean it's anywhere from four to seven hours a day and
 then it's not only just the riding the timing yourself up the mountains and riding and
 heat like it's out there today and but you're always focused on your diet you're eating just to
 fuel your ride or your next day's work I'm not really for you know associating or enjoyment of food
 it's just about fueling yourself so it's a tough lifestyle I mean it's it's a it's a very strict
 lifestyle and I'm glad I'm not a professional cyclist anymore no no beers with
 dinner no beers are very little so now I feel like I've kind of got flipped the opposite side of
 that I still exercise a lot but I enjoyed the finer things in life well the it's a pinnacle
 of riding you know with with lances victories and being such an integral part what was the
 can you describe that feeling being at the pinnacle of that sport yeah I mean it's incredible
 I mean it's you know some of the my my fond of memories on the bike or coming onto the Shamsley
 the people would think like a big race that I won or you know of course winning the national championship
 here in my hometown with you just because my friends and family that have never seen me race got
 to see me win one of the bigger races right right in their backyard but some of my fond of memories
 are rolling on to the Shamsley day as a part of a team that is winning the Tour de France even though
 I didn't win it or I knew that I had a major part in that and just just getting into the Shamsley
 with a million people on the sideline your families they're waiting for you and you've accomplished
 a major goal so those are the things that stand out a lot and those are the things that really
 solidified and why it made me realize why I've worked so hard and why I've sacrificed some
 months for moments like that so a lot's changed and I know you've been part of that with cycling
 and you know do you feel like is it headed in the right direction now which is some of the post
 you know draw out at least they call it post drama you know we don't need to get into the drama
 it we everyone knows what the drama is but like is it is it getting to a better place
 it's got to you know I know that it has gotten like I was lucky in that sense I don't know luck
 had lots to do with it but I always had it was that was a really tough time for me to you know
 come out and admit admit the dirty past of cycling you know at the time when I had to do that
 cycling was in a much better place and I felt like I was you know a big part of that change
 but looking back I mean I had a great support network that helped me get through that
 had a lot of an understanding around me a lot of my close friends and family were really supportive
 and advised me along the way and you know it was just it was a very tough one or two years
 but looking back I felt like it made me a much stronger person made me meet a lot more people
 that I haven't met and made me take a lot more risk that I'm taking now that I probably would
 would have never taken so I think I think overall it was it was an important process for my my growth
 do you um what do you think this is kind of like a little bit of a left turn but
 why hasn't cycling taken off it's bigger in the US most certainly but what do you think it is
 that's made it so huge in Europe and otherwise and like maybe it's just history it's kind of like
 you know sometimes people ask me why it's certain college football team sucks but they've always sucked
 yeah they've never they've never had they were never interested never good and then now they want
 to be good and they don't have any history you know they say they're about Clemson basketball
 but uh but what is it what what that's a great question and I mean cycling as an industry is
 growing globally yes you know tremendously um in the US maybe not as much but in terms of
 recreational cycling it's it's it's very big and it's growing it keeps growing year in and
 year out but the sport itself I think it has something to do with you know perhaps we don't have
 the Lance Armstrong's that are you know winning the Tour de France so the attention might not be
 as big but there's some guys coming up in the pipeline that I think can bring us back there
 and um you know it's it's a lot of the Americans don't understand all the interesting
 intricacies of the sport yeah the dynamics of the teams and um you know a lot of people don't
 understand what what my role was as a teammate so it's yeah it's hard unless you're actually in
 the sport or if I can sit down one and one and explain it um so I think it's a lot to do with an
 understanding of the sport and not like the major stars there's no major US stars yet although
 I'm hoping this year the tour can maybe change that there's soul cycling count all these all
 these pop-ups cycling is definitely that's massive I know it's like so you know cycle bar here
 locally in Greenville we'll give them a plug as well yeah um but I would live in New York when so
 soul cycling was starting to boom uh like in 2011 or 12 and uh and now cycle bar and different
 things so it's definitely like like getting out there in different ways
 kick your ass that man I don't know I get I can I feel like I'm in good shape till I go like do
 one of those classes I don't like cycling I mean uh you know it's very difficult and you can
 push yourself but there isn't that pounding on the body too so you can do it forever and you
 don't worry about injuring yourself as much as of course you can injure yourself on the road if
 you've crashed or you know you you tweak something on your body but it's less than running out
 playing football or soccer with your buddies so post cycling even guess during some cycling
 business we've got hink happy sports we've got the hotel restaurant um let's let's go there a
 little bit you know we're obviously the the hink happy sports tied to biking and all those things
 I get that connection but I am curious like maybe where some of the passions came that have led
 you towards this and you know did the bike did the team at everything that you learned with
 the team aspect of biking and everything that that translated into business after the fact you
 know what were some of just the influences that have gotten you into the business world the
 last 15 so years yeah so I was very lucky lucky to have my brother as a partner um who started
 to think happy sports were when I was still a professional cyclist and at the time my only role
 was to promote the name and the brand my last contract as a professional cyclist I was able to
 bring on my company as the clothing supplier of the team team BMC which kind of put us on that
 global stage which you know a lot of people can't do that with a small company like that it's
 that would be a very difficult door to get into but I was in that sort of position where I was able
 to negotiate and make a couple requests along with my contract so that helped us grow as a company
 and you know diving into the hotel we still feel that's that's closely tied into our brand
 what we're trying to do and what we're trying to build which is you know a health and wellness
 and cycling culture um in the upstate of South Carolina and you know I always say if you take
 an overhead shot of our hotel and don't tell somebody where it's at they would guess
 the province or or Tuscany because all you see is the mountains and just this beautiful terrain
 um so I think it's really a it's an asset to our community and I'm fortunate enough to have a great
 partner to help me kind of foresee that vision and see it through now I'm just excited about what
 we built and I have no hospitality experience but I have a great team up there now that does and
 a great operations team and um I think that was part of my you know strength as a cyclist was
 that I was able to make great relationships and have close relationships with the people that I
 worked with when I was cycling and the people that I worked with now which I know that I know what
 I don't know and I know that um I feel like I have a good eye for people that can always help me
 in their expertise. Does any of your culinary taste influence the restaurant?
 Absolutely yeah we we set down with our our new chef Hayden Shank and we we discussed the menu
 and when we we just hired him four or five months ago and he's doing an amazing job and he works
 very close with the farmer right down the street the broken oak farm um we have some cool plans
 in the future to perhaps do more farm stuff um that uh I think I'm very excited about um so we
 I feel like our team up there our restaurant GM our hotel GM our chef um our head of like
 operations is the best we've ever had and I'm super comfortable up there I love going up there
 now it's it's exciting for me to go out there it's exciting to see the people that we bring up
 there um people that just come to ride their bikes and check out hotel domestic that
 may have never come for any other reason so it's great to have those people up there.
 What's been the most challenging part of the business side you know whether it's in capi sports or
 the you know domestic or the or the restaurant you know or other ventures what's been the most
 challenging so the most challenging as a cyclist although you suffer like a dog all day long um
 it's a lot more predictable like if you work hard and you stay healthy you don't get sick you can
 kind of you know get unless you crash you can kind of guess where you're gonna finish or or
 not guess where you're gonna finish but you you know that you'll perform well um based on your
 numbers and how are you feeling in the business world and I'm still learning I'm kind of like
 in my you know my first years as a professional cyclist that's where I'm at now I'm like
 learning I'm trying to become successful I'm trying to like become uh get good teammates
 around me yeah that's the way I look at it um because I'm 40 I just turned 46 on Saturday and um
 you know I've retired from 19 year professional career and um I'm jumped in headfirst with this new
 new these new things that we're working on and I'm still learning uh I'm fortunate that I have
 great great relationships with a lot of successful people people that have been in my place where I
 was a cyclist in the business world so I have that those people to lean on and have counsel with
 um so that's kind of where I'm at I'm just in in those early stages of my business career
 how is a family business like so working with your brother yeah yeah we're of course we have
 our arguments and we don't agree on everything but we ultimately always come to you know come to
 to to agree to agreements um and you know it's not hasn't been uh you know
 uh always this uphill sort of trajectory I mean we've had our downs we've had our serious
 downs but we're still here we're still we're still fighting and we're very optimistic about um
 all of our companies right now what um what's the future hole you know I mean I know you're kind of
 living like you said you feel like you're kind of in this first phase of the business still you
 know I I know it's not new but you know versus you know the 20 plus years on the bike you know
 17 Tour de France's you know like you know we're not we're not 17 years into we're not
 more steep you know so but what is what is the future is it just an improvement of what you have
 or is there other goals or other visions out there well it's it's the priority is improvement of
 what we have keep trying to grow hank happy sportswear like clothing company um trying to make our
 hotel domestic although it's a very small property but a world-class destination and not only
 a cycling destination we want to do farm tours we want to do everything that the upstate has to
 provide which is hiking and fly fishing um just being out in nature as we want to be known as
 one of those destinations where you can get there and not only ride your bike we get lost and uh
 really have incredible um experiences yeah um so we want to keep growing now we have an events
 company now which we do our grand fundo here in Greenville every October and that's becoming one
 of the best we've been voted one of the best grand fundos in the country at one point and we
 want to expand that we have four grand fundos now across the country have one in Fort Worth
 one in Chattanooga one coming up in two weeks and Boise Idaho um and ultimately I'd love to see
 us end up with five or ten of those across the country uh which they all kind of are intertwined
 with our clothing company and now brand and that's um you know just cycling related brand we've
 been clothing we have events we have a hotel that you know cater to cyclists and they're all kind
 of go back to the cycling world so you can't get rid of it yeah unfortunately to that you know
 why don't have to ride six hours a day anymore I still love to ride my bike um I still love to
 exercise I mean the plain tennis or or biking you know five six days a week and that's an important
 part of my life and I hope that I can continue to do that we talked a little bit about this in the
 opener but Greenville I mean what what ultimately what brought you got you to Greenville and then
 what do you think about all the earth what's been good incredible to see I mean my brother moved
 here way before me I'd come visit him uh and quickly realized that I moved from New York to
 Charlotte um to just get better weather but I realized that quickly that Greenville was a hundred
 times better cycling town than Charlotte um and that so like I said earlier like that just that
 was the main reason why it brought me here but now just to see how much the community has thrived
 and you know how many restaurants and bars and cool hip spots we have to go now is incredible for
 the small town that we are and the people that it's attracting um yeah just I've been I've been
 amazed by its growth and really proud of it yeah the the downtown area I mean it's you know we live
 downtown and just watching the the growth and I did you know there was like one apartment like
 20 years ago now that seems like there's high rise luxury condos coming of everywhere um I think
 they're managing it as best they can I mean you know growth is always hard yeah people that wanted
 to stay like it was and then you know managing expectations and growth and all that but I feel like
 to have as good a handle as you can around it and and uh it's been fascinating to see the um
 T.R.s coming around too old travelers rest I mean uh it's incredible to see what how how that
 trend town has transformed um the bike path has done so much for that yeah read an article today where
 they want to they'd ultimately like to expand it on to um Slater and Marietta which I think
 would be amazing it's not only not only would that you know be a big boost for that community but
 it's a lot closer to the hotel perfect perfect so that would be I just think getting more people
 out on bikes and running and you know out in natures is a good thing for any community what's
 so biking and you know the pinnacle adrenaline rush like what where do you how do you replace that
 you know what is you know like what what's where do you get or do you not and I don't want to call
 your adrenaline junkie but I mean but a lot of these but what you did I mean with the just the
 grind and then the achievement I mean I just you know you taught and you read about professional
 athletes you know like kind of that come down and like that reality or you know what people do to
 like replace that I mean is that been a chance so it's funny I don't miss that hard core training
 and my lifestyle being centered around being as fast as possible on the bike but I didn't really
 have that let down words I just needed that competition sure I missed my teammates that yeah
 mom Beans that sort of stuff but now it's like I call myself a weekend warrior it's like I don't
 train full-time anymore but I can never let my buddies be better than me on a bike couldn't handle
 that so that's like I get those little you know little wins little wins little spikes that
 of adrenaline by just riding with my buddies and I just have a great great brotherhood of friends
 that you know I see my my friend mentioned that the other day where it's like not everybody has
 that you know be able to I was speaking to one of my old teammates today where you know I travel a
 lot I go to a lot of cool places but for me it's hard to you know put that up to a weekend at home
 where I go riding in the morning with my buddies two or three hours and then we sit by the pool
 and drink and just have that camaraderie where you know that's about as fun as anything I do anywhere
 I go I really enjoy that drink of choice I like love wine yeah wine guy yeah red or white
 depends on the day usually red yeah but you know somewhere I lean a little bit towards the
 rosé in the white as well you guys getting in to any like doing your own thing with the wine we
 have our own wine yeah I just thought y'all had something yeah we do just a barrel a year which
 is about 50 cases so we sell it at the hotel and to to myself my brother we get a bunch of it as
 well it's made by pride vineyards and napa and super it was kind of that's kind of fun and
 story I went to pride as well it's been a fan of pride vineyards yeah I went there for a
 tasting with a friend of mine and the the head wine maker showed over the hink happy sweater on
 I was like this oh my god so I was able to I asked them if they'd consider doing a blend for our
 hotel and they the the owner Steve pride approved it and we're coming up on we just ordered our
 seventh-year vintage and we're gonna double up we can get two barrels of it and it's awesome well
 you know we do a little feature called secret wine tasting all right I'll bring it I'll bring it in
 absolutely I love to I'm a huge red guy so love that sweet I did not know that back I knew
 you guys I think I knew you had maybe a label or something but I did not know it was made by pride
 yes made by pride you had me a pride yeah a beauty yeah big napa cab yeah Sally's a great
 wine maker and you know like I said we're on our seventh-year of making so it's super exciting
 that's great that's really cool well George man it's been a pleasure having you on and looking
 forward to kind of get to know you better through some of these other outlets and tasting some wine
 and I'm not going to get on the bike with you but yeah you can come do boot camp with me or
 I'll do it I'll suffer through it by the way I would be ugly no man but where can everyone we've
 had you know we'll have in some of the videos but let's let's plug the hotel how everyone can
 find all of the businesses yeah your personal stuff I know we've got G-Han Kappy for Instagram
 so they can find stuff directly through there but let's tell everybody where they can find
 everything yeah so I mean hotel domestic a lot of people it's funny they think of it as kind of
 like an anniversary place or you know birthdays a very but we like to think of it as like an
 everyday place I mean we got we got a great burger up there and we have of course the the fans
 of your food items but I think it's a very approachable restaurant that can be should be visited
 anytime of the week not just on weekends or lunch and dinner lunch is only open on the weekends
 okay but dinner is open Tuesday through Saturday and that's got its own Instagram page to hotel
 mystique and restaurant 17 and then we have our our big event coming up in October out there
 that you know I'll actually challenge you right now to participate in the 15 or the 50 mile bike
 ride okay guarantee that you would love it all right you might become a cyclist afterwards I've
 had that's one of my favorite things I've seen a lot of my friends that have never even considered
 riding a bike my came and just come do my event and they they do it and they fall in love with this
 board and they become you know regular cyclists so October 19th because tonight before that we do
 a big celebrity chef dinner as well yeah we were bringing celebrity chef from across the country it's
 a very cool food and wine experience so we like it to look at it as the whole weekend experience
 and anybody can participate and it's easy to get tickets and all that so and in capy sports in
 capy's in that in capy.com or in capy.com it's actually if you go to in capy.com you'll see
 everything that we do the sports the clothing the events our our training camps out at the hotel
 so we you can go there and find pretty much everything we do. Well you guys stay up to date on
 everything with George we really appreciate him coming on and we look forward to the next episode
 hope everyone has a great day night morning depending on when you listen but this is Ryan
 offered host of the radical company podcast thank you