Bulletin E-Edition:
Riding with Lance
Chris Horner of Bend hopes to race the Tour de France with the seven-time winner
By Mark Morical / The Bulletin
Published: October 01. 2008 4:00AM PST
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Lance Armstrong is back.
And that means different things to different members of the Astana cycling team.
For top riders Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer, it means likely taking more of a back seat to the seven-time Tour de France winner.
Already there has been tension with Contador.
For Chris Horner of Bend, it means having to sweat earning a spot on Astana’s roster for the 2009 Tour de France.
A decade ago, Armstrong and Horner were teammates on the U.S. squad at the International Cycling Union Road World Championships. The two figure to be reunited now that Armstrong has announced that he is coming out of retirement at age 37 and is set to race for Astana next year.
Horner recalls riding in the front of the pack for 40 miles to help Armstrong finish fourth at the 1998 World Championship in the Netherlands.
Horner, 36, could be doing more of the same next season. But first he has to make Astana’s nine-man team for the Tour de France — a prospect made more challenging with the addition of Armstrong.
“It changes a whole lot for me,” said Horner, reached Monday by phone in San Diego, where he is currently training and visiting his girlfriend. “It’s adding one more strong guy to the team. My ‘A’ game has to be on all year to be sure I’m selected for the Tour.
“If I’m riding well I’ll be selected, but this team has a lot of good riders. That’s just one more spot.”
Horner, who has lived in Central Oregon for the past eight years, raced in the Tour de France from 2005 through 2007. His best Tour finish was a 15th place in 2007, when Contador won and Leipheimer placed third.
Astana was banned from the Tour this year due to past doping scandals, so Horner and Leipheimer raced in Central Oregon at the Cascade Cycling Classic in July. Leipheimer claimed an easy victory, and Horner finished 75th but rode hard to chase down breakaways of challenging riders and help his teammate win.
Armstrong, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996 but survived the disease, won the Cascade Classic in 1998. The next year, he claimed his first Tour de France victory to begin his unprecedented string of seven straight Tour titles.
Horner has raced against Armstrong many times, in both Europe and the United States. When Armstrong in 2004 won the Tour de Georgia, the highest-rated professional cycling stage race in North America, Horner finished third.
“We’ve got many, many years between him and I,” Horner said. “We know each other, but that’s about as far as it goes. I’ve never called him on his birthday or anything.”
According to velonews.com, Armstrong will have his first face-to-face meeting with Astana riders and staff at a December training camp, probably in Spain.
Armstrong’s first race with Astana next year will likely be Australia’s Tour Down Under in late January. Horner said his first race of 2009 will be in February in the Tour de California, in which Armstrong is also planning to race, according to velonews.com
How Horner performs in races leading up to July will determine whether he earns a spot in the Tour de France.
Horner said he will be vying for three or four remaining spots on Astana’s Tour de France team. Astana has 29 cyclists under contract, according to the team’s Web site, but only nine are selected for the Tour.
Armstrong, Contador, Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden of Germany are probable shoo-ins for the Tour, and because Astana is based in Kazakhstan, one or two Kazakhstan riders might be on the team, Horner said.
“It’d be fantastic to ride for (Armstrong),” Horner said. “It’s a bit easier to be on a team when you know you’ll be selected. It’d be nice to focus just on July, instead of February, March and June.
“It would be a learning experience to ride with Lance,” Horner continued. “There’s always stuff to learn on a team with this much depth and this much talent.”
Horner said he has fully recovered from a broken left collarbone he suffered at the Tour of Elk Grove in Illinois in early August. The injury left him out of the recently concluded Spanish Vuelta, in which Contador placed first and Leipheimer second.
Horner plans to leave San Diego on Monday for Europe, where he will compete in several races in Italy, including the Tour of Lombardy. He said he expects to return to Bend late this month, keeping the Tour de France in his sights.
“For me, personally, it’ll be interesting,” Horner said. “Hopefully I get to do a few races with (Armstrong), and do the Tour. It’ll be interesting to see how all the characters on the team get along.”
Mark Morical can be reached at 541-383-0318 or at mmorical@bendbulletin.com.
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