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Stepping up - 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 successful year Saunier Duval-Prodir in 2005, and is now riding for Davitamon-Lotto. As one of the team's key men in the Vuelta, Horner will be detailing his progress in this special diary for Cyclingnews during the race.
August 29: Calm before the storm
Hi again! Today's stage could be considered the calm before the storm - the "easy" stage before we hit some serious climbing (read, pain and suffering) tomorrow! At "only" 142 km, today's stage was MUCH shorter - thankfully - than yesterday, but with the temps hanging out well above 40 Celsius - still hot as hell!
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Once again, one of the poor boys from the only Continental team in the race, Relax-Gam, spent a long, lonely day in front on a solo break. Can't help but feeling sorry for those guys - while at the same time being grateful that it's not me out there suffering alone all day - especially the day before we hit the mountains!! But I guess the one up side to it all would be that it'd be a lot easier to get bottles if the car can come right up next to you, instead of having to wander through the caravan to find the team car a million times during the day! I still don't think that would make up for it, though…
Anyway, once again, it was a day for the sprinters. It was a status quo field sprint, which Zabel won. Now I'm at our hotel - a cool little place outside of town - sitting on the deck, watching the sunset and enjoying the evening. A little peace and quiet can be hard to come by in a grand tour, so I'm taking full advantage of it!
Tomorrow, all hell breaks loose, and by the end of the day, those left standing will be the riders who will be fighting it out for GC in the coming weeks. Should be a good race! Stay tuned for the excitement! Thanks for reading!
- September 17: Three from three
- September 16: A little taste of home
- September 15: Getting ready for the TT
- September 14: Team-mates got me through
- September 13: Total chaos
- September 12: The psychological warfare involved in peeing
- September 10: Looking for a rest day
- September 9: TT Time
- September 8: Lucky 13
- September 7: Karma?
- September 6: A delirious idiot
- September 5: Form is coming around
- September 3: A tall order
- September 2: Another big loss
- September 1: Looks can be deceiving
- August 31: It's the little things that count
- August 30: Survival in the mountains
- August 29: Calm before the storm
- August 28: A long, hot day
- August 27: Real racing
- August 26: Groundhog Day
