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Back with the big boys - The Chris Horner diary
From being the USA's top domestic rider for several years to riding for a ProTour team in the Tour de France, Chris Horner is always on the up.
A talented all-rounder, Chris had a bad start to 2005 after breaking his leg in Tirreno-Adriatico, but has since then found form again, with an excellent stage win in one of the toughest stages of the Tour de Suisse. That sealed the deal for him to gain a spot on the Saunier Duval-Prodir team for the Tour de France, and Horner is determined to make the most of it.
Always ambitious and unafraid to speak his mind, Horner wants to finish top 10 on GC in this year's Tour, and failing that, at least have a decent crack at a stage win. He'll detail his progress in this special diary for Cyclingnews during the Tour.
July 12-14, 2005: Le Mountains
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When the first stage in the Alps began after rest day, it was hard to get used to the racing rhythm. On the final mountaintop finish to Courchevel, we went up the mountain and Discovery just drove it and drove it and they just rode everybody out of the break. I came out with about twenty guys left and I just set my own tempo and rode into the finish. That was the first real mountain stage and by the time Lance finally went, there were just four or five guys left on his wheel and shortly after that, Levi and Basso dropped off and then Valverde ended up winning the sprint. It was an unbelievably hard day on the final climb of Courchevel; I was riding a 39x25 up some of that climb and I ended up finishing 20th (3'59 behind Valverde). It's not like I had bad form that day.
The next day, I got in a break on the Madeleine with a lot of climbers. I was probably over my head there with guys like Heras, who went 100% and then blew, Sevilla, who went 100% to set up Vino's move and Pereiro, who was working really hard for Botero.
So I decided to sit up near the top of the Madeleine and went back to Armstrong's group. Discovery was riding really hard along the valley before the Telegraphe/Galibier climb and lots of guys were hurting, including me. I got over the Telegraphe OK, then on the Galibier, I came off about 5km from the top. Those last 9km up to the summit are really hard.
The mistake I made there is I kept going hard on the climb after I was dropped because I hoped I could get back on the descent. I don't know the climbs or the descents in the Tour, if it was really technical and I was only a minute and a half down, I could probably get back on. But the descent down the Col du Lautaret after the Galibier is really not that technical. There are eight or ten tight turns and after that, it's 80km /h all the way to the finish. So once the front group got on the road to Briançon, there was no way I was going to catch them. I finished in the second group of five riders (Joly, Goubert, Garzelli, Pereiro, Horner) that stage. (33rd at 7'32).
On Bastille Day, it was cool because so many French people were out along the road, but it was a hot day with terrain that reminded me a lot of southern California where Trent Klasna and I used to do epic training rides. The peloton pretty much cruised along and we went up the Category 2 climb. I decided to drop off the back to save my legs, because I was switching more to a stage win mode. Discovery went up the climb pretty easy after all, but I didn't know that then and caught back on with the gruppetto, who ended up catching up with the main peloton. Originally I was planning just to ride that stage in super-easy to save my legs for Saturday and Sunday.
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2005 entries - the Tour de France
- July 30: Tour de Chris
- July 20: Looking for more opportunities
- July 17: Was that a strategy?!
- July 15 - McDonalds & more mountains
- July 12-14 - Le Mountains
- July 9-10 - Not what it could have been & Fast times at Tour de France High
- July 4-8 - Grand Tour Time & Wet and Wild
Previous Cyclingnews interviews with Chris Horner
- June 29, 2005: I am going to the Tour
- June 4, 2005: "I need to do the Tour"
- January 8, 2005: Tooting his own Horner - Part I & Part II
- July, 2003 - Success, Saturn and San Francisco
