Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - George Hincapie: Beyond the Bike

Episode Date: July 2, 2019

In this episode of The Radical Company Podcast, Ryan sits down with George Hincapie. George is one of the most well known names within the cycling industry, competing as a professional from 1994-2012. Defining the term, "domestique," and making a name for himself through serving his teammates and putting their needs above his own. In this episode you will learn more about his background, servant-leader mindset, and his newfound love for hospitality & business since completing his professional cycling career in 2012. Learn more about the agency - www.Radical.company Connect with George Hincapie on Instagram: @ghincapie Connect with Ryan Alford on Instagram: @ryanalford . . . #NowThatsRadical #YeahThatGreenville If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey guys, what's up? This is Ryan Offord, 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 to. today to be joined by George Hincappy, 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 as much as you are in the business. Former professional. I'm a recreational bikeer now. Exactly. 17 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. You know, I'm a Greenville native, and it's cool getting to do the podcast with other, you know, world known people that have chosen Greenville's home. Yeah. You know, it's, I think the secret's out, though.

Definitely. That's one of the biggest questions I get at all the time is, like, what got me to Greenville? And it was simply the riding here is world-class. I mean, you go out into the mountains, the road networks is massive. No traffic or very little traffic, although, like you said, we're getting more and more, which is fine. But the community seems to be still very bike-friendly. And the main reason why I came here was for good cycling, and now I love it for a ton of other reasons. Yeah.

So I want to get into that for sure, especially as it relates to your businesses, with the hotel and the restaurant. and Henn-CAPE sports and all that. So we're going to get into all that. George, you know, 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 we move to that transition. Because, you know, I want to delve into more of like, you know,

one of my good friends who's, I don't know if he said he knows Andrew Gardner, a bikeer, one of my best friends. We played in a golf tournament every year, and he's in Amsterdam living right now. Really? But he's like, 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 really the mindset that has to go into just getting in that kind of shape. But let's start, 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 Prospect 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 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. 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 mean, you coached off 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 breading you? Yeah, well, I mean, that came later on, but 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 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. But yeah, continue on. 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 business.

best in something like i don't think most people that from an outside even understand the dynamics and the team of cycling yeah 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 st belitton it really doesn't matter it's like who's the best what they can do, who can stay 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 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. I thought I was kind of a badass. Then I did my first Olympic Games at 18 and got completely crushed. That was like, shit, okay, maybe I'm one of the best in the U.S., 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 races like Tour de France, you have to dedicate your whole life and sacrifice, you know,

the fun things in life as a, you know, an 18-year-old kid who would want to do, go out and party and go to the prom and do all this stuff. It was 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 going to have to come second priority. And, you know, after the Olympics, I really buckled 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 or 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 den of wool, so to speak, and moved into a small apartment in Como, a small apartment in Como, Italy, didn't speak to.

the language was lost for a while, but 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 with it and I wouldn't trade those years of suffering and not knowing if I was going to make it and always questioning myself because 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 and the sport, that I wasn't going to 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 make it to the finish line. That's not a fun way to race a bike. Yeah. Talk about just how grueling it is the training process. I don't think people realize it. I mean, like, it's tough. 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 to mountains and riding and heat like it's out there today.

But you're always focused on your diet. You're eating just to fuel your ride or your next day's workout, not really for, you know, satiating or enjoyment of food. It's just about fueling yourself. So it's a tough lifestyle. I mean, it's a very strict lifestyle. and I'm glad I'm not a professional cyclist anymore. No beers with dinner. No beers are very little.

So now I feel like I've kind of flipped the opposite side of that. I still exercise a lot, but I enjoy the finer things in life. Well, at the pinnacle of riding, you know, with Lance's 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, some of my fonder memories on the bike are coming on to the Shamblese. People would think, like, a big race that I won,

or, you know, of course, winning the national championships here in my hometown was huge just because my friends and family that have never seen me race, got to see me win one of the bigger races right in their backyard. But some of my fond of memories are rolling on to the Chamsalise 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 getting into the Shambles of Day with a million people on the sideline,

your family is there 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 made me realize why I've worked so hard and why I've sacrificed so much 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 with just some of the post you know draw I'll let's say call it post drama and we don't need to get into the drama everyone knows what the drama is but like is it is it getting to a better place has gotten to it I know that it has gotten

I was lucky in that sense I don't know if luck had a lot 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 pass of cycling even though 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 have never taken. So I think overall it was an important process for my growth. Do you, why 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 U.S., 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, Like, sometimes people ask me why certain college football teams sucks. Well, they've always sucked. 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 that about Clemson basketball. But what is it?

That's a great question. And, I mean, cycling as an industry is growing globally. Yes. Tremendously. In the U.S., maybe not as much, but in terms of recreational cycling, 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 Armstrongs that are, you know, winning the short of 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, you know, it's a lot of the Americans don't understand all the interests of the sports, the dynamics of the teams. And, you know, a lot of people don't understand what my role was as a teammate. So it's hard unless you're actually in the sport

or if I can sit down one-in-one and explain it. So I think it's allowed to do with an understanding of the sport and not like the major stars. There's no major U.S. stars yet, although I'm hoping this year the tour can maybe change that. Does sole cycling count? All these pop-ups cycling is definitely... That's massive.

I know. Like, you know, a cycle bar here locally in Greenville, we'll get them a plug, well. Yeah. But I would live in New York when sole cycling was starting to boom, like 2011 or 12, and now cycle bar and different things. So it's definitely like getting out there in different ways.

Absolutely. Yeah. Kick your ass, though, man. I don't know. I get, I can, I feel like I'm in good shape until I go, like, do one of those classes. Well, that's the thing with cycling. I mean, 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 know not worry about injuring

yourself as much as of course you can injure yourself on the road if you've crashed or you know you tweak something on your body but it's less than running out and playing football or soccer with your buddies so post cycling even guess during some cycling business we've got hincappy sports we've got the hotel the restaurant um let's let's go there a little bit you know we're obviously the Hinkapi 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 who started in cabbie sportswear 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 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 of 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 closely tied into our brand, what we're trying to do and what we're trying to build,

which is, you know, health and wellness and cycling culture 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 Provence or Tuscany because all you see is the mountains and just this beautiful terrain. So I think it's really 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 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 work with now, which I know that I know what I don't know, and I know that 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 sat down with our new chef, Hayden Shank, and we discussed the menu, and we just hired him four or five months ago, and he's doing an amazing job. He works very close with the farmer right down the street, the Broken Oaks Farm. We have some cool plans in the future to perhaps do more farm stuff that I think I'm very excited about. So I feel like our team up there, our restaurant GM, our hotel GM, our chef, our head of operations is the best we've ever had.

And I'm super comfortable up there. I love going up there now. It's exciting for me to go up there. It's exciting to see the people that we bring up there, 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 Cappi Sports or the, you know, domestic 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, 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 going to finish or not guess where you're going to finish, but you know that you'll perform well 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 first years as a professional cyclist, that's where I'm at now. I'm learning. I'm trying to become successful. I'm trying to like become, get good teammates around me. Yeah. That's the way I look at it. I just turned 46 on

Saturday and I've retired from a 19 year professional career and I jumped in headfirst with these new things that we're working on and I'm still learning. I'm fortunate that I have 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 those people to lean on and have counsel with. So that's kind of where I'm at. I'm just in those early stages of my business career. How is a family business like working with your brother? That's great. Of course, we have our arguments and we don't agree on everything,

but we ultimately always come to, you know, come to agreements. And, you know, it hasn't been, you know, 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 fighting, and we're very optimistic about all of our companies right now. what um what's the future hold 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 know i know it's not new but you know versus you know the 20 plus years on the bike yeah 17 tour de frances you know like you know we're

not we're not 17 years into no we're not we're not so but what is what is the future is it just improvement of what you have or is there other goals or other visions out there well it's Priority is improvement of what we have. Keep trying to grow in Cabby Sportswear, our clothing company, 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, just being out in nature. We want to be known as one of those destinations where you can get there and not only ride your bike, but get lost, and really have incredible experiences. 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. We have one in Fort Worth, one in Chattanooga, one coming up in two weeks in Boise, Idaho. And ultimately, I'd love to see us end up with five or ten of those across the country, which they all kind of are intertwined with our clothing company and our brand and that's you know just cycling related brand we make clothing we have events we have a hotel that

you know caters to cyclists and they're all kind of go back to the cycling world so you can't get rid of it right yeah I'm fortunate to that you know while I don't have to ride six hours a day anymore I still love to ride my bike I still love to exercise I'm either playing 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 ultimately brought you, got you to Greenville?

And then what do you think about all the growth? What's been incredible to see. I mean, my brother moved here way before me. I'd come visit him and quickly realized that, you know, I moved from New York to Charlotte to just get better weather. but I realized that quickly that Greenville was 100 times better cycling town than Charlotte. And that, so like I said earlier, that was the main reason where it brought me here. But now just to see how much the community has thrived and 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. I've been amazed by its growth and really proud of it. Yeah, the downtown area. I mean, we live downtown and just watching the growth. You know, there was like one apartment like 20 years ago now that seems like there's high-rise luxury condos coming up everywhere. 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 we have as good to handle as you can around. it and it's been fascinating to see the TR's coming around too old travelers rest i mean it's incredible to see what how how that town has transformed uh 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 out to 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 as well perfect so that would be i just think getting more people out on bikes and running and, you know, out in nature is a good thing for any community. What's, so biking and, you know, the pinnacle, the adrenaline rush, like, what, where do you, how do you replace that? You know, what is, you know, like, what, what's, where did you get or do you, not, and I don't want to call you 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 talk.

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, has that been a challenge? So it's funny. I don't miss that hardcore training and that, you know, my lifestyle being centered around being as fast as possible on the bike. But I didn't really have that letdown where I just needed that competition. Sure, I missed my teammates, that ambiance, 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. ever let my buddies be better than me on the bike. It's getting handled that.

So I get those little, you know, little wins. Little whizper, little spikes that of adrenaline by just riding with my buddies. And I just have a great, great brotherhood of friends that, you know, see, my friend mentioned that the other day was that 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, you know, 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 so I really enjoy that drink of choice I like love wine yeah wine guy yeah red or white uh depends on the day usually red yeah but you know somewhere I lean a little bit towards the rosane the white as well you guys getting into any like doing your own thing with wine we have our own wine. Yeah, I thought you 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 myself and my brother, we get a bunch of it as well. It's made by Pride vineyards in Napa. And super, that's kind of funny story. I went to pride. I've always been a fan of Pride vineyards. Yeah. I went there for a tasting with a friend of mine and the head winemaker showed up with a hinkabby sweater on. I was like, this is going to be. Oh, my God. So I was able to, I asked him if they'd consider doing a blend for our hotel. And, um they the the owner steve pride approved it and uh we're coming up on our we just ordered our seventh year uh vintage and we're going to 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 i might i'll bring it i'll bring it in

absolutely i love to i'm a huge red guy so uh love that that's 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 yeah it's made by pride yeah had me a pride yeah Yeah, a beauty. Yeah. Big Napa cab. Sally's a great winemaker and, you know, like I said, we're on our seventh year of making it, 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. I'll do it. I'll suffer through it, but, yeah, it would be ugly. No, man.

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 your personal stuff I know we've got g-hen kappy yeah for uh 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 if they think of it as kind of like a anniversary place or you know birthday is a very but we like to think of it as like an everyday place I mean, we got a great burger up there, and we have, of course, the fancier, a few food items, but I think it's a very approachable restaurant that can be, should be visited any time of the week, not just on weekends.

Is it 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 Domestique and Restaurant 17. And then we have 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. I guarantee that you would love it. All right. For sure. And you might become a cyclist afterwards. I've had, that's one of my favorite things that's seen a lot of my friends that have never even considered riding a bike. I'm like, hey, man, just come do my event.

And they do it and they fall in love with the sport and they become, you know, regular cyclist. So October 19th. But the night before that, we do a big celebrity chef dinner as well. Yeah. We were bringing a celebrity chef from across the country. a very cool food and wine experience. So we'd like to look at it as the whole weekend experience,

and anybody can participate, and it's easy to get tickets and all that. And Hinkapi Sports. Is that Hinkapi.com? Yeah, Hinkapi.com. Actually, if you go to Hinkabby.com, you'll see everything that we do, the sports, the clothing, the events, our training camps out at the hotel, so 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. I hope everyone has a great day, night, morning, depending on when you listen. But this is Ryan Offord, host of the Radical Company podcast. Thank you.