| Chris Horner | |
| Fullname: | Christopher Brandon Horner |
| Nickname: | The Hornet, The Second Best Climber in the World[1] |
| Birth Date: | 1971 10, mf=yes |
| Birth Place: | Okinawa, Japan |
| Height: | 1.8m (05.9feet)[2] |
| Weight: | 700NaN0 |
| Currentteam: | Retired |
| Discipline: | Road |
| Role: | Rider |
| Ridertype: | All-rounder |
| Amateuryears1: | 1993 |
| Amateurteam1: | Lite Beer |
| Amateuryears2: | 1994–1996 |
| Amateurteam2: | Nutra Fig |
| Proyears1: | 1997–1999 |
| Proyears2: | 2000–2001 |
| Proteam2: | Mercury |
| Proyears3: | 2002 |
| Proteam3: | Prime Alliance |
| Proyears4: | 2003 |
| Proteam4: | Saturn |
| Proyears5: | 2004 |
| Proteam5: | Webcor Builders |
| Proyears6: | 2005 |
| Proyears7: | 2006–2007 |
| Proyears8: | 2008–2009 |
| Proyears9: | 2010–2011 |
| Proyears10: | 2012–2013 |
| Proyears11: | 2014 |
| Proyears12: | 2015 |
| Proyears13: | 2016 |
| Proyears14: | 2018–2019 |
| Majorwins: | Grand Tours
Combination classification (2013) 2 individual stages (2013)Stage races |
Christopher Brandon Horner (born October 23, 1971) is an American retired professional road racing cyclist,[3] who rode professionally between 1996 and 2019.
A current resident of Bend, Oregon,[4] Horner dominated the American road racing scene by winning the points standings in the 2002, 2003 and 2004 USA Cycling National Racing Calendar.[5] He won the Vuelta a España in 2013, becoming the oldest winner of any of cycling's grand tours in the process.[6]
Horner turned professional in 1995 with the PAA–NutraFig team.[7] He captured his first major victory in a stage win of the Tour DuPont in 1996.
He was then asked to ride in Europe with French team . From 1997 to 1999 he had three frustrating seasons with this team.
In 2000, Horner returned to America to resume a record-setting domestic career, riding with Mercury in 2000, Prime Alliance in 2002, Saturn in 2003 and Webcor Builders in 2004. Horner has won almost every important race in the US racing calendar, with the notable exception of the USPRO National Championships.
Horner decided to move to after his top-ten finish in the 2004 UCI Road World Championships because he wanted to give the Tour de France a try. After being injured in the beginning of 2005, Horner showed strong performance in the USPRO Championships and won his first major European victory by taking the sixth stage of the 2005 Tour de Suisse. He then earned his place on the 2005 Tour de France team and nearly won the Miramas to Montpellier stage when he and Sylvain Chavanel refused to cooperate in the final kilometers and were caught by the peloton.
He made a move to the Belgian UCI ProTour squad for the 2006 season. He took a stage victory at the Tour de Romandie,[8] and finished the race in seventh overall. During both the 2006 Tour de France and the 2007 Tour de France, Horner was one of the most important domestiques for general classification contender Cadel Evans,[9] [10] who placed inside the top-five overall in both years.
For 2007, Horner signed with Ed Krall Racing for the cyclo-cross season.
In 2008, Horner moved to .[11] Horner earned the nickname "The Smiler" for his unflappable expression of happiness, even during the most excruciating physical challenges, and "The Yahoo Kid" for his wild exclamations after winning a race. Teammates Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong call him "The Redneck".
In the 2008 Cascade Cycling Classic Horner carried amateur cyclist and Nordic combined skier Bill Demong (who was from another team) with his broken bicycle to the finish line.[12] [13]
On October 4, 2009, it was confirmed that Horner would compete for in the next two seasons.[14] In one of his strongest European campaigns, Horner garnered first overall at the Tour of the Basque Country, including a stage win in the critical 6th stage individual time trial, defeating overall threat Alejandro Valverde. Horner also achieved several top 10 placings in the Spring classics of La Flèche Wallonne, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Amstel Gold Race. He and his RadioShack teammates did well at the Tour of California, with Horner putting on a particularly strong performance in the last stage of the race as a member of a final breakaway at Thousand Oaks. Horner finished fourth overall, 64 seconds behind winner Michael Rogers, and just 39 seconds behind teammate Levi Leipheimer in overall time. His good form also resulted in a 9th place overall at the Tour de France, as the first-placed American rider, in spite of dedicating himself in the first stages to supporting his captain Lance Armstrong.
In 2011, Horner continued his success at the Tour of the Basque Country with a second-place finish,[15] as well as 4th at the Volta a Catalunya. Horner then accomplished another high-profile result by winning May's Tour of California stage race. He scored a major solo victory on the 4th stage, after making significant time gains on the day's final mountain finish in San Jose.[16] He maintained his hold on the yellow jersey until the tour's queen stage, where he completed a two-man breakaway finish with teammate Levi Leipheimer to finalize the overall lead, and at age 39 became the oldest rider in history to win that tour.[17] [18] His participation at the Tour de France was short lived after a crash left him out of the competition.
In 2012, Horner signed with . He started the Tirreno–Adriatico as his first race since July where he finished second after losing his lead in the final time trial to Vincenzo Nibali.[19] He then finished 8th in the Tour of California, failing to defend his title. He then rode the Tour de France where he ended up finishing 13th overall after putting a good performance in the mountains.
After suffering an injury in the beginning of 2013, Horner returned to action after winning stage 5 in the Tour of Utah and finishing 2nd overall. Less than three weeks later, in stage 3 of the Vuelta a España, Horner attacked over the last kilometer to win the stage and take the overall lead in the race. By doing this, he became the oldest rider in history (41 years and 307 days) to win a stage and wear the leader's jersey in a Grand Tour.[20] He won again on stage 10, another uphill finish, reclaiming the lead.[21] and setting a new record of the oldest rider (41 years and 314 days) to win a stage in a Grand Tour. He lost the race lead on the following stage to Vincenzo Nibali,[22] and fell to fourth overall; however, he moved up to second place overall – 50 seconds behind Nibali – before the race's final week.[23] He reduced Nibali's lead by 22 seconds on stage 16,[24] and 25 seconds on stage 18, to trail by 3 seconds.[25] A six-second swing on stage 19 [26] resulted in Horner taking a three-second lead into the penultimate stage, which ends with the climb up the Alto de l'Angliru, one of the hardest climbs in all of cycling that has been both vilified as an act of "barbarism". and praised as a great challenge.
Nibali – who had been looking to complete a Giro–Vuelta double[27] – tried to distance Horner on several occasions as they climbed into the clouds on the mountains on the Angliru with fans parting as they rode up sections so steep that the camera bikes stalled and fell leaving no TV coverage for several minutes as they struggled to catch up. But Horner answered every attack by slowly reeling Nibali in before Nibali finally cracked on a hairpin turn on a 20% + section with just 1k remaining. However Horner continued opening the gap out to 28 seconds on the road by the finish line. But the second place time bonus gave him his race-winning margin of 37 seconds and Chris Horner won the Vuelta a España.[28] It was Horner's only grand tour win in his 20+ year professional career, and in winning this race he became the oldest ever Grand Tour winner.[29] [30]
He left at the end of the season, as his contract expired. He felt he was worth more than the team were willing to offer for a rider of his resume and ability.
Horner joined for the 2014 season.[31] In April, while training in Italy for the Giro d'Italia, he was hit by a car driver who subsequently fled the scene. Horner suffered a punctured lung and broken ribs in the accident, jeopardizing his participation[32] at the Giro d'Italia. He elected not to compete in the Giro d'Italia; on June 30, 2014, Horner was named in Lampre's Tour de France squad, with Rui Costa as team leader.[33]
He placed second in the mountainous Tour of Utah[34] which he raced in preparation for the Vuelta a España. However, Horner withdrew from the Vuelta ahead of the first stage due to his cortisol levels dropping below the threshold considered healthy by the Mouvement pour un cyclisme crédible, of which Lampre–Mérida is a member. The announcement followed Horner's usage of cortisone on prescription under a therapeutic use exemption to treat a case of bronchitis.[35]
Lampre–Mérida opted not to extend Horner's contract, and in December 2014 he announced he had signed a deal with UCI Continental team for 2015.[36]
In June 2018, Horner returned to racing for the United States National Road Race Championships, riding for . He said that overcoming a bronchial infection that had plagued the tailend of his career had convinced him to come out of retirement.[37] However, he eventually did not finish the road race.[38]
In 2019, Horner joined the team of broadcaster NBC for their coverage of the Tour de France, acting as a commentator,[39] and in August 2020 started his own YouTube show called 'The Butterfly Effect'.[40]
| Grand Tour general classification results timeline | ||||||||||||||||||
| Grand Tour | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giro d'Italia | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Tour de France | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 33 | 61 | 14 | — | — | 8 | DNF | 13 | — | 17 | |
| / Vuelta a España | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 20 | 36 | — | DNF | — | — | — | — | ||
| Major stage race general classification results timeline | ||||||||||||||||||
| Race | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |
| / Paris–Nice | — | 65 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 10 | 24 | — | — | 49 | — | — | — | — | |
| / Tirreno–Adriatico | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | — | — | — | 2 | 6 | DNF | |
| Volta a Catalunya | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 58 | — | — | 3 | — | DNF | DNF | |
| Tour of the Basque Country | — | — | — | DNF | — | — | — | — | 31 | DNF | 41 | DNF | 1 | 2 | 9 | — | — | |
| / Tour de Romandie | 43 | — | — | 93 | — | — | — | — | 7 | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Critérium du Dauphiné | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 34 | — | DNF | — | 9 | — | — | — | — | |
| Tour de Suisse | — | DNF | DNF | — | — | — | — | 5 | — | 42 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| — | Did not compete | |
|---|---|---|
| DNF | Did not finish |